So your one of those……..a photographer who is starting out, full of doubt, and like so many, many, I have heard say it before, your thought is this, “I need to make money now, I need to book now.”

I hear this every single time some one wants to become a photographer and ask me how long it took me……………then I tell them my story and their answer is always the same…………”but that’s too much work and I need to be a success now.”

It starts with people thinking that they can “borrow” another photographers images and “fluff” up their own portfolio with images that are not actually theirs. It ends with some one finding out, mad clients whose images don’t look like the ones on the “fluffed website”, the photography world rakes the thief over the coals and down comes the website, blog,  Facebook, Twitter, and all other sites of the photographer who thought “fluffing” aka STEALING was ok.

There is always the group in the middle of this argument………..the ones who say that publicly outing the photographer who stole is wrong and it should all be handled quietly…………….quietly.

Quietly…………………like the times when my youngest son was 2 months old and I would sit at 2AM in front of my computer nursing him and google “understanding aperture” so in the quiet I could learn how to use my camera to take cute photos of my kids. Quietly. Like when 2 years later I decided to get serious after my film camera broke and my hubby purchased me a canon rebel xt and I would take photo after photo of the tree in my front yard to learn this whole new digital camera thing. Quietly. Like when I shot everyone that would let me for 2 solid years before I accepted a single dollar or thought I was worth a dime, even if it was a small one. Quietly. Like when I lost sleep to learn how to use photo-shop by messing up over and over until I got it, then repeated the process with Light Room. Quietly. Like when I designed my own website, blog, created my name, got a business license, and started on this road to what my business is today. Quietly working as hard as I could, quietly teaching myself ever step of the way, and struggling to be better everyday…………………..I quietly worked for 5 years to build my business to what it is today. I cried, I got mad, I fought every step of the way with myself to get here…………….and I never once thought that stealing some one else’s images where the way to go.

Quietly I am proud of my journey. Quietly I still fight ever day to be better. Quietly my story is the same as many other photographers today, who struggled, and have the pride of working hard to make their business what it is today……………………

And LOUDLY I say, “if you choose to steal the creative intellectual property(photographs) of another photographer, I think you deserve to be outed publicly. I think any legal process that can be taken against you should be done, and I do believe you deserve anything you receive.”

Do I believe you should be forgiven……….yes. Do I believe you should shut down for a month and then pop up with another company under a different name. No. Due to your disrespect of other photographers and your lack of respect for yourself, hard work and pride…………..I no longer think you deserve to get to do this job so many of us have worked so hard at for so many years.

If that seems harsh………………….imagine the way a mother feels when she finds out some stranger has stolen an image of her baby and used it as if it was their own…………………I’m a mother…………….I can imagine the anger, pain, and fear that would create inside of me.

Yes, by stealing you have hurt the true photographer and yourself when you are caught, but the person seldom mentioned by the thief is the actual client in the image and how they must feel………….violated………………

So when you choose to steal………and then you get caught……………………don’t cry out about being publicly addressed and how other photographers should have spoke to you privately, that you feel “violated” because you have been humiliated with out need. Because it was needed and if you had any kind of heart, you would take what was dished out and do what was right. Every one is sorry after they get caught…………………..but if your reading this and your guilty of this kind of thing…………………..be sorry now. Have a heart and go remove the stuff that is not yours……………….then start quietly walking down the long road of hard work and in a few years hopefully you will arrive at the place where you can loudly say……………..

“I earned it, every little piece of it, and for this, I am shouting it out, I am proud.”

 

 

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I am a Wedding & Lifestyle photographer, Spider hater, hot tea drinker, sarcasm loving, mom of two boys, and center of my sexy hubby’s world. I truly believe there is no better job than to capture the memories of the most special times in a client’s life. I believe in passion, in love, in forever lasting romance, in hope, in joy, and in laughing until you almost pee yourself, because laughter heals the heart. I believe the glass is half full…and even if it really is half empty, I’d rather not know. I choose a smile over a frown, tears of joy over tears of sorrow, and I believe that brokenness makes your stronger, not weaker, so take the negative life may throw your way, and turn it into the stepping block you need to climb higher in life, always keep yourself at the higher level instead of lowering yourself down to the level of others.

I service all of Louisiana including, Lake Charles, Sulphur, Westlake, Carlyss, Eunice, Alexandria, Shreveport, Lafayette, New Orleans, Monroe, and  Natchitoches. Serving all of Texas including, Beaumont, Dallas, Huston, and Orange Texas. Serving Mississippi and Alabama. Destinations anywhere including, Florida, California, New York, Cancun, and other destinations abroad.  Check out my website here: http://suzygphotography.com

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