Tag Archives: videography

Photo Shyster: Luminus Photography in Dayton, OH, Lumitouch in Central Florida aka Tanya & Josue

Website: https://luminusphoto.com/
Luminus Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/luminus_photography
Lumitouch Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lumitouchcolor/
Light it Up Workshops: https://luminusphoto.com/workshops/
Wedding Wire: https://www.weddingwire.com/biz/luminus-photography-dayton/9ca2f3a400dfb177.html

THIS PHOTOGRAPHER HAS NOT STOLEN PHOTOS

This is yet another submission for the Photo Shyster division.  Buckle up because it’s a freaking ride.

Luminus Photography used to go by Carter Creativ and was a photography and cinematography team of Tanya Carter and Orlando Maldonado.  While they advertised themselves as a “husband and wife” team, they were never married, only engaged.

Tanya is a MagMod Ambassador and Luminus as a team has a series of workshops they are booking for 2020.  Tanya was also featured as a “How I Shot It” photographer on the MagMod You Tube.

Currently there are about a dozen photography and videography clients waiting for products that I am aware of, potentially more.

There are also photographers and videographers who were hired as additional staff who were not paid.  Often these photographers were sent in without letting the clients know in advance and their work was not equal to the work Luminus advertised.

They are also booking workshops and advertising themselves as a team but according to both Tanya and Orlando, they have split up and are no longer in business together.

The more and more I’ve dug into this mess, the more apparent it has become that it’s a dumpster fire.

What spurred my decision to make a post is that one of the clients affected by this debacle originally hired another photographer I featured here – Choose 21 – and hired Luminus after reading that Choose 21 was no showing/not delivering files/had stolen content making up their portfolio.

If you want to kick me a dollar to help keep this site running (really it just goes to my lawyer lol) click here.  If you want to support this site through Patreon and get early access to blog posts and more click here.

Update 3/5/2020 – I feel like this guy right now trying to explain everything that has happened with this company.  Updates are at the bottom of the post.

Update 3/26/2020 – No videos have been delivered, communication is minimal at best and often coming via group chats with Tanya, Orlando and Trevor from MagMod.  Click the update to go to the details.

Update 1/20/2022 – No clients that I am aware of ever received their products and the ones waiting for refunds that hadn’t received them yet from Tanya never got them.

Apparently now Tanya is ‘tiktok’ famous for being in love with her son’s friend.  They go by Tanya & Josue and have been featured on Snapchat’s “Love Don’t Judge” series.

Also, sadly, some clients chose to believe Tanya when she informed them that I was lying and booked her for weddings after this post went live.  They are also now joining the other clients from this post waiting for their products.  For one wedding she ended up taking photos on her phone because her only memory card ‘failed’ and she missed a lot of photos when she went to the store to buy a new one.  No professional photographer should EVER shoot a wedding with one card on hand.  Ever.

At this point in time, as far as I am aware, there are still clients from all the way back to 2019 waiting for images and/or video.

If there is interest I can add to the bottom a bigger update detailing more of what has gone down since the last update here in March 2020.  Just know if you’re reading this, per Tanya, you are a demonic follower of mine.  Welcome!


Continue reading Photo Shyster: Luminus Photography in Dayton, OH, Lumitouch in Central Florida aka Tanya & Josue

Bou-Jai Studios in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

Website: http://www.boujai.com/
Wedding.com: https://www.wedding.com/pro/videographer/bou-jai-studios/532538

I was perusing a local Facebook group this morning looking to see if any ISOs matched my pricing for photography.  A studio caught my eye for offering a photo/video package for under $1K so I decided to check out their website to see what kind of quality they were offering for that price point.

Since we’re here, you guessed how this story ends.

Sigh.

Continue reading Bou-Jai Studios in Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio

CJ Photography aka Ryan Christoph Images AKA Chris Jones AKA White Anchor Films in Georgia

Web:  http://crjphotography.com/
Web2:  http://ryanchristoph.com/
FB:  https://www.facebook.com/christopherJphotography
FB2:  https://www.facebook.com/cjphotographyco
FB3:  https://www.facebook.com/crjphotographywa
FB4:  https://www.facebook.com/pages/CJ-Photography-TX/770261529667261
FB5:  https://www.facebook.com/cjphotoTN
FB6:  https://www.facebook.com/CJPhotographyWV
FB7:  https://www.facebook.com/rcimages
FB8:  https://www.facebook.com/rcphotoandvideo
FB9: https://www.facebook.com/avaryanphoto/?fref=ts
Web3: http://www.avaryanphoto.com/
White Anchor Films @ The Knot: https://www.theknot.com/marketplace/white-anchor-films-cleveland-ga-1084695
CBS46 article about Chris Jones: https://www.cbs46.com/news/betrothed-beware-prayer-leader-preys-on-brides/article_200da964-4863-11ea-b116-07d5a5f1a7f2.html

Click here to go to the latest update (2/6/2020)

This one is probably going to ruffle some feathers as people are going to have opposing views on whether this is full-on theft or just a bit shady.  Since more than 80% of the image (often near 100% of the image) is not CJ Photography’s original work AND since he’s presenting the image as entirely his own (without permission, I’ve checked in with the original photographers and outside of the stock agencies he’s not been granted permission to use the original works in this manner) I’m going ahead with this.

CJ has got some attention recently from running a camera giveaway that involved a like-a-thon on Facebook and his images caught a few people’s interest because they didn’t look natural although CJ claims them to be.  Note that most of the images you are to share to win the camera aren’t his but that fact is buried but is there, kinda, so I’m not listing them.  Combined with the fact that he’s less than a year into the business things started popping in people’s heads and at least two people have investigated and brought some info to me.

CJ aka Christopher Jones posts quite a lot of amazing images yet dodges every singe question about where his location was and how he found such amazing light.  Instead he talks about his one-on-one classes he offers to learn how he works.  This is what finally sent me to post here as I hear he runs a newbie photographer group and sells his workshops to them.  Folks, you aren’t going to learn how to shoot like this because the shot is a composite that is heavily photoshopped.  This isn’t out of camera work.

Yes some work here IS stock but some images he used are NOT stock and he did NOT get rights to use the images.  Nor does it sound like he licensed them correctly but I am awaiting on replies in regards to that.  I have been in contact with all of the photographers and most have got back to me already stating that Christopher Jones did NOT have permission to use their images in this manner.

Update 4/2016: Scroll to the bottom for the 4/2016 addition of the Ava Ryan Photography chapter to this book.  TL;DR: Chris and his wife Erin are now running a company called Ava Ryan Photography.  They started offering editing classes to photographers and opened up a mentoring group.  People connected the dots as to who Chris is and have posted about it online.  Somehow this was my fault.  Now Erin is claiming that Chris has nothing to do with Ava Ryan and it is her business alone despite him using the Ava Ryan account to post as himself, he being included in the “About Us” page and multiple of Chris’s images being on the Ava Ryan galleries.

Continue reading CJ Photography aka Ryan Christoph Images AKA Chris Jones AKA White Anchor Films in Georgia