Here’s another submission which came to me after the offender wouldn’t take the images down. This is what I see a lot of, a photographer wants to branch out into a new genre but doesn’t have the work to show to bring in the clients. So instead of going about it the honest way they “borrow” some images for their promo and lead people into believing this is the work they already do in this genre. Granted, in some of these images, there is a statement that the images are just inspiration and not her actual work but not all. Note that NONE credit the original photographer. Also? When you are on a photographers page, one should be able to safely assume that you are looking at the photographers own work, NOT someone else’s they are inspired by. If you feel that you must show someone else’s work you do not remove logos and always link back to the original creator. ALWAYS.
The original ad on Facebook, note there is not a disclaimer stating these are not her original works. This ad has been posted many times, sometimes with, sometimes without the disclaimer that these images are NOT by this studio.
There are more “inspiration” photos for various portrait setups posted including many which I cannot find the source of due to Pinterest and one is from H&M. However this one did pop up the source. Again, Jaren gives no credit to the original photographer, just sometimes (not all the time) stating it’s the inspiration for her set for Christmas portraits.
The original “inspiration” set up on Photography by Jaren’s page.
The original image by Melissa Rieke Photography, which is not credited and the watermark was removed from the image.
UPDATE: The images from Vavoom are down but not all of the works from other photographers for “inspiration”
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 thief was sent to me today by a photographer that I greatly admire because he had stolen her work. Apparently he is using the images on his site, as well as in a marketing email to brides in the LA Area.
Many more of the photos in the slideshow are stolen I suspect (or all of them) but they either have way too many sources to even begin to guess or I can’t find the original source.
Thief: Sin City Photography Link: http://sincity-photography.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SinCityPhotography
When looking up sources for 24/7 PROtography’s stolen images, I came across this website which jumped out at me as a thief. Once I was done screen capping the mess that is 24/7 PROtography, I decided to head over here and see what I could find.
An image on Sin City’s wedding gallery with their water mark clearly seen.
The image on the original photographer’s site, Ace Photography.
Another image from Sin City.
The image appears to be a stock image for Las Vegas Wedding Photography, seen on many sites including this one.
Another image that appears TWICE in their gallery.
This thief was messaged to me by one of the multiple people they’ve stolen from.
I couldn’t possibly source all images on his site as it is flash and requires a bit of work but here’s just a tiny amount of the work on his site that is stolen. You may want to peruse the galleries to see if there is anything that is yours or someone you know.
*** there are MULTIPLE updates to this thread, keep scrolling until the end ***
In the senior portfolio on their website (these images also are featured on the Facebook) the first few images are from Prestige Portraits’ senior gallery.
UPDATE 8/21: Here’s what Benjamin has to say about being caught on his Facebook Page:
I will never understand why when caught, thieves tend to deny and act like they are in the right somehow. Here’s a tip: if you do get caught, apologize. It’s that simple.
So, since he pissed me off with his Facebook denials, I’m going back and screen capping more images to prove my point, he’s a thief. He removed the images I screen capped but left others that he’d stolen.
Another image from his senior section which should look familiar if you perused Prestige Portraits gallery yesterday.
The original image on Prestige Portraits site, which he has heavily borrowed from.
The second image in the slideshow on the Senior gallery.
Yet again, stolen from Prestige Portraits.
The third image in the slideshow of 24/7’s senior gallery.
Stolen again from Prestige Portraits.
Fourth image in the Senior Gallery.
It is of course, stolen from Prestige Portraits.
The 5th image in their slideshow of seniors.
The image on Prestige Portraits website.
The 6th image is an obvious change of style from the first 5 images in the series.
Which it would be if you were using a new source to steal from, here is the source from Halberg Photographers.
The 7th image is the same girl as the 6th, which to the normal user would make this photographer seem more legit since there are multiple images of the same people.
It’s the second image from Halberg Photography’s blog above.
The editing style changes again in the next image in the gallery.
It changed again because it’s another stolen image from Prestige Portraits.
The following image in the senior slideshow is another great image.
Which of course has been stolen as well from Prestige Portraits.
Low and behold! FINALLY at image 11 in the slideshow we stumble upon a picture that this photographer ACTUALLY TOOK! Images 11-16 appear to be his own work as there are not any outside sources for these images and they are also on his Facebook page.
At image 17 we’re back to a different style of photography, which raises flags.
The next image in the slideshow is again a departure from style.
This image is yet another stolen from Prestige Portraits.
Another image of the same girl above, which we now know isn’t his work.
The sourced image for the above from Prestige Portraits.
Finally the last image in the gallery.
Stolen again from Prestige Portraits.
As you can see, in the senior gallery of 20 images, 5 were 24/7 Photography’s own work (hidden in the middle) with 15 images stolen from other photographers all around the country.
The first image that now opens in the Wedding Gallery is this image.
This is apparently a stock image as it’s all over the photo book sites.
The following image on the gallery is a lovely wedding image that any bride would be thrilled with.
The rest of the images in the Wedding Gallery are his own work, he removed the slew of stolen images that I referenced in the original post and put his own in from a wedding he shot in April.
Now onto the babies gallery which opens with this lovely image.
I can’t find a direct source but it appears to be a stock image that is pretty much everywhere on the web including this site for wallpapers.
While I was working on these 24/7 started removing them but luckily I was able to screen capture them all before he removed them. Thank you to those helping me source these photographers and notify them of their stolen works.
This is an image in the artistic section, which is made MOSTLY up of Benjamin’s legitimate work.
This image is also seen on his Facebook gallery. It is also featured in many of his cover image collages.
Ok now the images are kind of everywhere so I’m going in the general top to down method. These images were stolen from Elizabeth Anne Designs (seeing a pattern here?) originally taken by Red Bird Hills.
UPDATE 8/21 @ 5:45PM: He’s deleted the Craigslist ads.
UPDATE 8/21 @ 6PM: I stand corrected, there is still one left.
UPDATE 8/21 @ 6:30PM:
FINALLY! AN APOLOGY!
UPDATE 8/21 @ 10PM: Ha ha, nevermind. Apparently the apology is only TWO of the photographers he stole from, not the dozens as seen above. I’m tempted to tally it up now.
OK here’s the tally of the photographers he’s stolen from, which far exceeds TWO. Also, these are just the few I was able to capture and source. I’m one person and there are a lot there were used in ads and on the site that I didn’t capture and source before he started removing things. This list has been updated with all images from the photographers in the Craigslist ads included.
I’m up and I’m irritated enough not to be tired so I figured I would finish the sourcing I started on the Craigslist wedding collage from 24/7’s advertisement.
This image is from the same wedding stolen from Jaime Lee Photography in the original wedding gallery (there were multiple images in the gallery from this wedding). Multiple images from this wedding are used in the Craigslist ad.
This brings the grand total of photographers that had work stolen to 37 adding this additional 9 additional photographers that images were used in the Craigslist advertisement.
UPDATE 8/22 @ 1PM:
He’s still deleting comments as fast as they are being posted on his Facebook wall. I’ve received replies to most of the emails I sent out the latest batch of photographers and thus far NONE work with this photographer nor ever have heard of him or his studio before.
Here is a rundown of how his story/response has changed through this process – IN ORDER
The people accusing me are just jealous haters.
Those are my partner sites, we work directly together.
Those people stole images from me.
I’ll talk to my staff and see what happened, will have a staff meeting regarding this.
The people who are accusing me of stealing have had their Facebook accounts hacked.
If you dislike the images or find them offensive, then report them to Facebook.
They were already on my site when I bought it.
I only put a couple of images on my site as placeholders.
I Googled “wedding photography” and chose images that I admired, then used them because I didn’t know they weren’t free to use.
Lightroom put the watermark on the photos, not me (note that in several cases, he removed the original watermarks).
I never used anything stolen on my site. He literally said this, despite admitting 10 minutes earlier that he had taken images off Google: “Nothing you have ever admired or commented on was anyone else’s work but my own.”
I did steal the photos, and I am ashamed. I welcome any negative comments you have to say about me. (even though at this point he continued to delete anything negative said about him and leave only the positive messages)
My apology is only to two photographers. I didn’t take from anyone else.
Okay fine, I stole from 3 photographers, but that’s it.
If you tell people I stole photos, I’m going to sue you for defamation.
UPDATE 8/22 @ 2PM
For those wondering what copyrighted works he’s still using on his site and/or Facebook as his own, the below screen captures.
This image is a edited version of a stock image, the legalities on this are in a somewhat grey area but it is definitely not 100% his own work, which he is claiming is what is on his website and Facebook now.
One of the many uses that the stock image has seen on other websites and advertisements including this page.
This collage, used for a cover image, features the image sourced above that is on the far left that is Slinky Genius’s original work.
As for his website, the following page still appears when you click on the gallery section which shows you the opening image for the Newborn Gallery, which is not his own, as referenced above.
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.
