Photo Shyster

Julie Paisley Photography / Julie Paisley Education

THIS PHOTOGRAPHER HAS NOT STOLEN PHOTOS!

Yes, this is who I was talking about yesterday on the Substack.

Julie Paisley is a film photographer who has been around for quite a while and is well known within the film community. She’s part owner of Hybrid Co., has lead a shootout at WPPI, she leads workshops (she calls them retreats), she sells a ton of shit (online courses, notebooks, cards, vintage books, layflat mats…), and is an author (memoir and a never-actually printed Paris guide). I’m sure there’s things I’ve missed.

Over the weekend someone that booked a photography + mentoring session with her posted in a Facebook Group asking for advice. They’d booked with a prominent photographer and after asking other photographers for advice it was discovered there were a lot of people experiencing a similar issue with this photographer. So they posted to the group and it kind of exploded from there. It was brought to me and I wasn’t sure what I’d do with it at first since she is allegedly battling some health issues.

I posted the story to Substack without naming names and decided that the decision would make itself known to me. As the day progressed I got more and more stories and it became overwhelmingly obvious this isn’t just a couple people having an issue. Then one person turned the tides and I decided to go for it.

There’s a multitude of issues at hand here but overwhelmingly it’s people not getting what they paid for and often not getting refunds.

I have a feeling this is just the tip of the iceberg here. I kind of feel more like I’m on Ocean Gate instead of the Titanic at this point. All I need is a Logitech controller…

The easiest way for me to tell this is via timeline I think. I don’t know. Fuck. Continue beyond the jump and I apologize in advance for the chaos.

Updated 10/9/2024 : Added more stories, added more updates, added more WTF below. It was going to be in the newsletter like it was last week but hot damn, there’s just too much.

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Lenaria Photography in Anderson, IN

Website: https://lenariaphotographyindiana.mypixieset.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lenariaphotography
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lenariaphotography/
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/lenaria-photography-fortville

Location: Based in Anderson, Indiana ish. She’s also had Fortville and Fishers as locations as well.

Other Areas She Advertises/Has Booked: All of Indiana, Illinois (she was in a Chicago based group), Missouri, Washington (Seattle), North Carolina and likely more areas I haven’t found yet.

After my post about Well Kept Design I got a few messages from people wanting me to look into Lena because she has a similar shady track record as a photographer.

The complaints are varied but all basically boil down to me not even letting my ex husband book this photographer. Stolen photos, last minute cancellations, no showing, overbooking, not paying photographers, not refunding clients, faking her Mom’s death, booking multiple photographers for her own wedding and cancelling last minute for various reasons, and just flat out not being professional.

Lena has been changing her name often on Facebook to avoid the comeuppance coming for her or to possibly evade getting booted from the hundreds of wedding related Facebook pages she’s in. She’s currently using Lena Ralston but has gone as Lena White and Lena Ervin.

This post took me almost 6 HOURS to write. So buckle up and figure out below where I finally lost my cool with all of these terrible stories.

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Memories by Madison in Floyd, VA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/memoriesbymadison

This photographer has a decent following – I’m told she has gone viral a few times for her stranger sessions she does fairly often.

She’s done so many mini sessions she has her own images of many of these setups but keeps using stolen images.

Why is this a problem even if she says “not my photos” or “inspo” on the ads?

First off, the clients rarely read everything in front of them. Case in point are these comments complimenting Madison on her work in one of the ads with stolen images.

Second, Madison is getting the Google credit as the original source for these images!

One of the sets of images she stole for a “Notebook” themed mini session comes back to her as the original source, not the actual content creator!!!

When someone searches for that image OR anything that image is associated with (i.e. Notebook Inspired Mini Session Near Me) Madison will get that Google boost, not the OP even though the OP has more shares of their post, likely because Madison has more followers so Google is assuming that means she’s the original content creator.

This isn’t new, this has been an ongoing issue for years, I’m just highlighting it today because I’m getting annoyed (and it’s Monday).

P.S. What is it with these photographers that use stolen images for ads and having pay what you can sessions?

P.P.S. Allegedly Madison has been called out before and did a clean up of her page and there used to be more posted that wasn’t hers.

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Well Kept Design in Summerville, SC and Lancaster, PA and Pigeon Forge, TN and more

Website: https://wellkeptdesign.mypixieset.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wellkeptdesign/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/wellkeptdesign/?hl=en
Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/well-kept-design-summerville

I cannot tell you how many times Well Kept Design has been sent in to me over the years. It never fails that something always happens when I’m swamped with weddings and I can’t get a post up.

I finally have a tiny smidgen of downtime and the thieves I was working on seem to have taken down their images so I thought it was about time I posted about Amber.

Much like her partner, Whitney (YES), Amber’s history isn’t focused just on stolen photos (although they have been part of the story) but more about her repeated backing out of sessions, not delivering sessions and not refunding when she doesn’t deliver or ghosts the client.

So grab the beverage of your choice, get comfy and your scrolling finger ready.

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