I got married in the Outer Banks so I’m in a lot of groups related to it since it’s one of my favorite places on Earth. I also still have a great relationship with my wedding photographers so I feel protective of the photographers in the area.
This morning I saw a post come across my feed that was alerting people that Bluegrass Photography, who for was advertising *really* cheap mini sessions ($45) for the Outer Banks (I’m assuming while she is there on vacation, she does not live there), uses images in her ads that aren’t her own.
Cue the research don’t undercut my beloved photographers AND have stolen images! Also, this isn’t everything from the FB group but I have places to be today so I had to cut it off.
This photographer claims it’s fine to use other work so long as she doesn’t use her watermark on the image. *raises eyebrows*
I’m sick so I didn’t dig as deep as I normally do. I think there’s a lot more than what I’ve posted as there’s a lot of ads for sessions with images that don’t match her actual watermarked images that aren’t popping in searches.
Update 9/5/19 @ 5PM: She’s taken down one of the images (not all) and basically claims she stated the images weren’t hers. She didn’t (as you can see in the screencaps).
They have dozens of images on their Facebook and only a fraction of the images are their original work. A sampling of the sources are below, not all are sourced due to a migraine.
This one was sent into me via the message feature. From how his site and Faceboook read, I am guessing that he is a hobbyist that is trying to break into different fields of photography by using other photographers works to represent his own and create ads. I know I’ve said this but I’ll say it again, DO NOT DO THIS.
*****UPDATE 3/26 Below*****
We will start with his webage.
The first image in the slideshow is an ad for his wedding photography.
The second image in the slideshow is an ad for boudoir.
The image on the far left belongs to SF Connected Photography. I cannot find the sources to the other two but I wouldn’t be surprised to find out they are stolen as well.
The third image in the slideshow is an ad for senior photography.
The third image appears to be from a stock site, it is seen on many foreign language websites, this one is just one of the many where this image appears.
The fourth image just made me laugh. I somehow highly doubt that Blake Lively went to some random photographer for her senior portraits in Illinois. This image is everywhere and impossible to find the original source to (well it could be possible but I don’t have that kind of time). This site is one of the many, many sites this image appears on.
The second page of galleries (I couldn’t find sources for the first page).
The entrance image to the boudoir section is an image from honeybourne intimates that seems to be everywhere without credit.
Now onto Facebook.
I’m quickly finding that the images that he has stolen are awfully pixelated.
This image is from Model Mayhem but I cannot find the original source.
This is the next image from Facebook.
This image is from Hollye Schumacher and appears to be from the Junebug Weddings site. This is a prime example of why photographers are hesitant anymore to allow bridal blogs to use their works without any kind of watermark, thieves like this one can just lift it easily. He’s also using this image on his Model Mayhem portfolio.
We get to skip down a few to this next image in his gallery that seems just a bit too good to be true.
I’m sure that more on his Facebook and website is stolen but I’m not finding sources, partially I am sure due to his watermarking he has added onto the images.
UPDATE 3/26:
This guy is still heavily using images that are either stock (legally purchased or not, it is still against TOS to display as your own work) or taken from another photographer.
This submission came to me via one of the owners of the original works. They have tried to get them to remove the images to no avail so has reached out to me.
This wall of shame is dedicated to photographers that feel that it's okay to steal others' work and post it as their own. Oh I'm sorry, it's okay to let their "web designer" do it.
The original image is from 
Another…
