Such-and-such a competition or service is just a rights-grab! You have to give up your rights to your images! Total party foul!
Everyone steals everyone else's pictures which is totally illegal! Lame!
Losers with weak cameras are undercutting professionals left and right! I have a sad!
Phone cameras are terrible but everyone keeps using them! #dslrs4lyfe, yo!
Everyone steals everyone else's pictures which is totally illegal! Lame!
Losers with weak cameras are undercutting professionals left and right! I have a sad!
Phone cameras are terrible but everyone keeps using them! #dslrs4lyfe, yo!
How are you, as a photographer, going to accomplish whatever it is you have a yen to in this world?
Do you want to make money taking pictures? Well, too bad. Photos are too easy to take, too commodified. Sell your clients something they can't get from their phone, or some rando from craigslist. Sell them an experience, with photos. Sell them a book, with photos. Sell them a "personal branding campaign," with photos. If you have to, sell them a coupon to a local restaurant, with photos. Figure it out.
Do you want to play the photo competition game? Well, competitions are going to take your rights. Put your grownup pants on, and make some photos for competition that you're willing to kiss goodbye. Make other photos for your portfolio. They can be real similar, it turns out.
You don't want people stealing your pictures? Don't put the ones you want to keep online. If you need an online presence, put some other ones up. Photos you're willing to kiss goodbye.
And so on, on and on. This is the world, people. Pull your socks up, quit bellyaching, and start figuring out how to live in this world.
Stop complaining about the levees and start building a raft.
Or, you can put your camera down and take up needlepoint. I hear that's a thing too.
Occasionally, there can be an unexpected but welcome outcome from internet 'misuse' of one's work. Recently, for a painting, a professional artist made use of one of my photos he had found on the internet. The photo was unattributed. Eventually conscience got the better of him, and he conducted an image search and found me. Turns out that was the second photo of mine he had used without knowing who had taken it. The situation is now rectified and he and I are enjoying a regular and very pleasant correspondence.
ReplyDeleteI had a street photo of 2 90+ old women arguing nicked and circulated around the globe as a meme a few years back. I was pretty pleased about muh rights being violated to be honest. I even saw it on T-shirs being sold in Russia.
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