Photo Stealers Weekly No. 64

Guess what, I'm a Democrat!

Stealing Photos isn’t political and I’ve seen everyone from all the parties come across my platform so maybe it was somehow missed because politics aren’t at the forefront here (unless you’re blaming Obama for the stolen photos on your platform).

I’m a Democrat. Born Democrat you could say as my late father was an electrician and part of the IBEW Union (local 306!). I went along with him to vote when he’d get off work and I have proudly voted for almost every single election since I turned 18 (I have missed a few small spring elections I think).

I vote blue for myself and for those like me with endometriosis who need care that doesn’t involve religion. I had an endometrial cyst burst and couldn’t go to the nearest hospital because it is a Catholic hospital that doesn’t allow the procedures I needed done to save my life even though I was not pregnant.

I vote blue for whom living is a political act.

I vote blue for my loved ones who dare to be brave enough to live authentically and love who they want to love.

I am proudly liberal.

Sherrod Brown giving the blessing at a wedding I photographed.

This past weekend I got messages regarding Alex Loveland removing those from her Boudoir Facebook Group that voted Republican for president and people wanting me to cover it.

That’ll be a NOPE. Although I guess technically I am now covering it but not in the way I believe that was intended.

I’m not the photography police. So long as a photographer isn’t stealing photos or stealing money I really don’t care. I may talk about it here if there’s something to talk about (like using raccoons as props for baby sessions) but I’m not going to cover something like this. Alex runs the group and can do as she wishes. I know I’ve seen the same from photographers on the other side of the coin removing those that aren’t praising Sky Daddy or Lord Cheeto from retreats and workshops and communities and Facebook Groups. You run your group however you choose, so long as you aren’t grifting I don’t care.

Now that I’ve lost about 50% of you onto the rest of the newsletter.

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The Blog

I haven’t had many submissions lately. I’ve had a few with a couple mini session ads but my rule of thumb is generally they have to have a lot of ads with stolen images to write a post.

I did get some time to finally do an update on Larry’s blog post though. He’s got a new website through Pixieset with more stolen photos so I added those to make him happy when he’s released from jail next week. I may add more stuff I had in messages from his time as Seaside Boudoir. We’ll see how much time I have to spare. I’ve also updated his link list and have what (I believe) is current and also added the list of business names that he’s used.

There’s a few other thieves that aren’t knocking their shit off that I may update this week.

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The Buzz

A wedding photographer went viral on TikTok for being ‘the bad guy’ at a wedding and asking the guests to move their phones during a wedding ceremony processional where they were blocking the photographer’s view of the bride.

@jennylilyphotographyAm I the bad guy?

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I actually went viral for making a post about this in 2013. I still laugh that my most popular/widespread photos are my worst. I was featured all over the world - Huffington Post picked it up first and then it went like wildfire from there (New York Times, CNN, Rangefinder, the list goes on and on). When you google my business most of those images are what pops up. There’s a lesson there in being careful about what you go viral for I guess.

Every time another photographer goes viral for this kind of incident my blog usually gets found, I noticed a recent uptick in people hitting that post but didn’t understand why and now I do.

While it’s amusing/annoying that so many of my ‘bad’ images are what went viral every time I have someone tell me they put their phones away at a wedding after seeing my post I’m glad for it. It wouldn’t have hit the same way if I didn’t have photos showing the end result of people thrusting their cameras out and not thinking of the photographer paid to be there.

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Copyright Corner

All seems pretty quiet on that front. For now…

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If you made it this far thanks for hanging in there and I promise that unless there’s a need for it politics will not be discussed here.