This week has been an interesting one, but the biggest thing that sticks out is that one of my images was stolen!
Too fast?
Ok, sorry. Hi, my name is Mark. I’m a Gemini. I’m a Denver Portrait Photographer. I’m also a Denver Family Photographer. My favorite color is yellow. I’m a vegetarian. Somebody stole my work.
What my clients hire me for
I think there’s a lot of confusion around copyright and photography. Many people do not understand that when a photographer presses the shutter button of his or her camera, in that moment they are the legal owner of the image that was just created. The only way this changes is when the photographer does what is called a Transfer of Copyright, and few non-commercial portrait photographers will ever do that.
So if I own every image I take, what does that mean for my clients?
My clients all start by paying a session fee. This covers lots of things, but the most significant things it covers are my time with the client planning their session, hair and makeup on the big day, the actual portrait session, the editing and retouching of images, and the time I take with them during their sales session. What it does not include are actual images.
Once everything is edited and retouched, my clients come into their viewing/ordering session where they see a presentation of their finished images. They often cry and say that they cannot believe it’s really them! This part of the process…and seeing the confidence the clients have, afterwards…will never get old to me.
Guiding a portrait client during her viewing/ordering session. Image courtesy of Molly McCormick
Whenever my clients cry, I start crying!!!
From there, they review my packages and begin the process of choosing which images they want to take home with them. In my portrait business, that means a luxury folio box of matted prints. This folio box includes a digital backup of every purchased image. And with those purchased images, they receive and sign a Print Release.
Please click on the above video to see the gorgeous heirloom product my portrait clients take home!
The Print Release allows them personal use of the images. By personal, I mean non-commercial. They can post the digital files to their Facebook and Instagram…even their website. IF they purchased a print resolution file, they can make a reprint. They just are not allowed to make a profit from the image(s). And while they obviously own the physical products that they purchase, they still do not own or have unlimited rights over the actual image that I created their artwork from. My clients are always fine with this…as long as they have their beautiful prints and a digital backup for social media display, they are happy! They have also signed a Model Release prior to hiring me, which protects my business and legally acknowledges that I may use the images freely in my marketing.
(I only take on clients who sign this. If I didn’t require it, Murphy’s Law I would take the best image of my career and not have a Model Release!)
Photography Marketing
One form of marketing for photographers is to provide…or really, gift images to vendors whose product/business may be featured in one or more of their images. Businesses normally have to pay a photographer to showcase whatever it is that they are selling, so they often jump the moment they hear free. I’m happy to do it for certain businesses (if the images already exist and my client has already compensated me), but at the end of the day I own the images and if I gift them to another business, I want it on my terms.
Earlier this week I posted an image from Paris on my Instagram. A vendor saw it, completely bypassed the very clear copyright disclaimer in the image’s caption and posted it on their own page without permission. The image on their page cropped out my watermark and half of Maggie’s forehead. I think you can guess that i was not amused. Especially since I had spent nearly $400 on their business.
With photography and social media, there is only so much control you can have. The bottom line is, anybody can screenshot and repost my work. And often people don’t think of this as stealing. But remember: selling photographs is my actual living…not my hobby. The example I always give is how you would (hopefully) never walk into a Barnes and Noble, walk out with a book you didn’t pay for, and then proudly show your crime on social media. But that is essentially what people do when they take my images.
Picking my battles
Like everything in life, you need to pick your battles. I am not going to refrain from posting my work on the internet out of fear that people will take it. Hiding my work from the world will solve nothing, so having it taken is just a risk I take. So will I end up going after the vendor in question? Probably not. But by taking my work without permission, I now am far less likely to want to promote or support their business. It does suck, but I think a year ago this incident would have bothered me much more.
How you can share my work
Absolutely every photographer is different when it comes to their work being shared. This is my preference:
Facebook-if I’ve made a post, whether a blog post or an actual set of images, the “Share” button at the bottom of the post totally works for me :) That’s how most of us share on Facebook, anyway! It directs people right back to my business page and is always appreciated!
Instagram-IG is trickier because you pretty much either have to screenshot my images or use a repost app to replicate the same thing on your own page. The repost app often doesn’t work because it will save my work in a square crop, when often the image I posted, when clicked on, is not square. That is why the vendor who stole my work is displaying an image of Maggie without hair! The best thing on Instagram is to tag the person or people that you want to share the image with in the comment section.
If you find any of this confusing, you are always more than welcome to reach out to me privately and ask a question! I only get upset when people take my work behind my back. I promise that if you ask me, I’ll be very approachable :)
Vintage Blue
My Denver clients don’t need vintage wigs. Instead, we have Lauren Rennells!!!
Being a huge Lucille Ball fan, I’m a sucker for red hair…especially when it comes to vintage-inspired looks! When we were still in the planning phase prior to Paris, I had Maggie come to my office and try out a 1940’s look with a red wig. I didn’t know if we would find an artist in Paris who was skilled at authentic vintage hairstyling. Here in Denver, we are spoiled with Lauren Rennells…vintage hair royalty! But I was not sure I could find somebody in Paris who could parallel Lauren’s amazing standard…so I did the next best thing and bought a gorgeous wig styled by Carl Brown!
Maggie during a fitting in Denver. This was obviously before the wig lace was cut!
Maggie said that she loved the idea of being a redhead for the day, so I happily added the wig to the list of endless things I was to take to Paris. At the end of it all, I took three Carl Brown wigs…on their styrofoam heads…to Paris. Don’t ask how it all fit in one suitcase. It’s a sore subject.
Once we were in Paris, we decided to do two looks back to back. Maggie would wear the red wig for both, and only needed to change the wardrobe. The following was the second look of that lovely morning in Paris. It wasn’t too insanely early, but it was a weekend and everyone was sleeping in. As we wandered the streets it was almost as if we had the city to ourselves.
The above image is a result of five hours of editing and retouching.
As you may recall, Martin became more than my assistant that morning; he graduated to ladder. Here is the image that I got sitting on top of his shoulders:
About two seconds before and after this, Maggie was lost in a fit of giggles.
All in all, it was loads of fun seeing Maggie step back into time. And the only thing more gorgeous than seeing that red hair against a lovely shade of blue (courtesy of The Seamstress of Bloomsbury) was seeing it against the Bar Suit. Stay tuned ;)
Link of the day
