Monthly Archives: February 2023

Photo, Photo Shyster, Scam

Whitney Slusser Photography in Lancaster, PA

Website: https://www.whitneyslusserphotography.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whitneyslusserphotography
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1037237566984504
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/whitneyelizabethknott/

Past Business Names: Whitney Elizabeth Photography, Whitney Jones Photography, Whitney Smith Photography, Irish Twins Photography, Don’t Blink Photography

Past Locations: California, Utah, Arizona, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland

PS Facebook Page Discussion Post

Holy moly.

Whitney has been submitted to me a few various times over the years but generally when I’ve had her dumped into my lap I’ve been too busy with the job that actually pays me to invest time into unraveling the mess that is Whitney Slusser / Whitney Slusser-Smith / Whitney Elizabeth / Whitney Elizabeth Knott / Whitney Elizabeth Knøtt.

There is some photo stealing here, she does like her some inspiration pics! However, the bigger picture here is the problematic history that Whitney has as a professional photographer.

I prefer things to be told chronologically so I’m going to attempt to tell this story in a timeline format so the sourcing format for stolen images will be a bit differet.

While I tried to mostly stick to things related to photography there are some other parts of this story that play into the photography parts so I’ve included it.

Grab your popcorn. It’s a (long) ride below the cut but I promise that it’s a story that needs telling.

Summary: In the past ~8 years of being in business that I can find online, Whitney Elizabeth Knøtt / Whitney Elizabeth / Whitney Slusser Photography (aka Don’t Blink Photography and Irish Twins Photography) has cancelled or no showed to many weddings and sessions. If she does show there has been problems getting photos and/or prints. Refunds are few and far between. She has also at times used images that were not her own to represent her business.

Canceled/No Show/Undelivered Sessions: 14+
Canceled/No Show/Undelivered Weddings: 22+

Trigger Warning: infant loss, child loss, cancer, sexual assault, suicidal ideation, suicide attempt

Last Updated 11/9/2023: Ugh. I wish I could say that I’m surprised to hear that Whitney is up to her shit again this fall but I’m not. I’m mostly sorry for the clients she’s burned, yet again.

• Added four more weddings for 2023. One from July with photos and a refund that weren’t delivered until this week after the client posted online, three for October that she cancelled last minute on (as per usual, two were for the same date).

• Here’s hoping that maybe she’ll be prosecuted like CP Family Photography who has a similar history to Whitney (but with less clients affected).

Update 7/14/2023:
• Added another client who Whitney sent in a last minute replacement for on 10/22/2022

• Added a post of Whitney needing last minute second photographer coverage for a wedding 5/27/2023

• More proof Whitney is still pursuing photography despite her claiming to be stepping back

Update 5/10/2023: Whitney is back to replying to ISO’s and posting ads for her photography business.

Update 2/20/2023 @ 10AM: even more receipts including a rebuttal from Whitney via email and Facebook (spoiler alert: she doesn’t refute anything with the sessions, only asserts the medical history is factual). Also included a chat message from Whitney telling her friends that she’s stepping back from photography in 2023.

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Why Using Stolen “Inspiration” Photos is Wrong

I can scream into the void and post dozens of photographers doing this but I figured I’d also attempt to make this a teachable moment and explain why this is such a huge no-no and those doing this are not only hurting the industry but also themselves.

DECEPTIVE ADVERTISING

This is the big one and what I’m going to start out with. When a photographer posts an ad using an image they did not personally create, that is deceptive advertising which is illegal.

But… but… but… no buts. Flat out, this is illegal.

I don’t care what delusions that you may suffer, if you didn’t create that image, you are not capable of recreating the quality of that image. Every artist is different. You have different training, different gear, different set ups and a different artistic eye.

Have you ever looked at Cake Wrecks and laughed yourself silly? This is exactly the same thing but with photography.

Guess what? Clients can sue over this.

PS: Saying “not my photo” or “mood board” or “inspiration only” doesn’t absolve you of this.

COPYRIGHT INFRINGEMENT

I don’t care if you say not my photo. I don’t care if you left the watermark on. I don’t care if you tagged the photographer.

If you did not get permission from the original copyright holder to use their work to advertise with you are committing copyright infringement.

As soon as an image is captured it is copyrighted to the creator (unless there is a contract in place that states otherwise). Registering the copyright only gives the owner additional penalties if they choose to pursue a lawsuit.

Lawsuit?? Yes, you can be sued for using an image that isn’t yours by the original owner.

STOCK IMAGES

Did you create that stock image? No? Then don’t use it.

Yes, there are some cases where using stock images is permissible by a photographer but why would you want to use one to represent your own work? Even still, rarely does the photographer have the correct license purchased that allows the end user to use it to represent their own body of work.

This also goes for using the stock images included with WIX templates. They are not intended to represent the photographer’s talent but rather what the website is supposed to be selling. i.e. a wedding officiant can use wedding images to convey they work in weddings, a gardener can use images of rakes to show what they do. Again, this comes down to licensing and the license doesn’t extend to allowing photographers to use this to represent THEIR work.

DEVALUING THE INDUSTRY

Why should you care if your neighbor photographer is stealing images and posting them? It doesn’t affect your business right?

Wrong.

Clients who invest in professional images are less likely to do so again when they are not happy with the end result. They are even more less likely to do it when they feel like they were swindled.

Sure, the $50 clients may not be your market but it doesn’t mean that those $50 clients aren’t going to someday be $500 clients. Or that those clients tell their 500 friends, who are not all $50 clients, about their terrible experience with a fauxtographer. Then those friends also become less likely to invest with a photographer and THOSE clients may have been your clients.

How many of us have been grilled by a client after a friend/relative/someone they know online that had a bad experience with a fauxtographer? I know I have and I’m certain I’m not alone in this. It especially rears up when a local news station has a story about a wedding couple who hired a fauxtographer who showed beautiful images and they got terrible images or the photographer ghosted them.

Bottom line. Don’t use images your company did not personally create. Ever.

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Natural Images Photography in Foley, AL

Website: https://www.naturalimagesphotovideo.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bgriffin70

PS Facebook Page Post

This photography group appears to operate in just about every state they can get their hands into.

There’s so many stolen images in the galleries I gave up sourcing. It’s ridiculous. Most are stock but not all. Most of the top gallery on their wedding page is stolen/stock, most of the real estate photos are stock and many of the corporate images are stock.

PS: Their pricing is bananas.

Update 2/13/23 @ 7PM:

Added: The owner’s excuses and more stolen images.

A local photographer gave me the heads up that Billy, owner of Natural Images, has been posting ads in quite a few local wedding groups on Facebook. Mind you, I’m in OHIO and he’s in ALABAMA. So WTF? Of course the ad is with one of the stolen images that I posted below.

Billy is placing the blame on a former employee and says he’s hired a new employee, Mallory, to fix the issue.

There are a lot of issues with this “former employee trying to sabotage me” lie, mostly that Mallory posted an ad on their Facebook Page 20 hours ago and the top image is stolen. So if she’s supposed to be fixing it all… uhh… you may have hired the wrong person. Oorrrr, Billy is lying and trying to come up with any excuse since he got caught.

Oh and there were stolen images on his website so claiming that everything there was their own work products is yet another lie.

Oh and another issue? That back in June someone realized that they were using stolen images so contacted the original photographers back when I was in retirement. Note the date of the message to the photographer.

Since Billy is active in about every local Ohio wedding group you may want to make sure that yours doesn’t have any ads from this photography group. He’s definitely all over the Gulf Coast area groups and Alabama groups. Possibly Kentucky too.

So… now I’m on a mission and I’ve added more sources below of images he’s stolen.

Fuck off Billy. Don’t lie.

Adding more stolen images below. I gave up at 50 but I could have kept going.

Update 2/14/23 @ 2PM:

Added: Mallory’s side of the story, faked review from website with stolen image, stolen image in an ad, stock landscape photos…

Billy blocked me on Facebook *cue the violins* and finally appears to have deleted most (NOT ALL) of the stolen images off his Facebook Page and website.

Mallory, the newly hired employee/past bride, commented on the Facebook post. She claimed that she was just using the images that Billy sent her to use in ads he had her create and post and she had no idea that they weren’t his images.

The stolen ads live on though in what feels like every wedding Facebook group in the United States. If you’re in the US make sure to check for them and their ads similar to the style below. Various profiles will post the ad from Billy to random profiles to a BIRD. So far he’s been found posting ads for weddings in Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Ohio. I’m guessing there’s more.

In researching all of Billy Griffin / Natural Images Photography & Video Productions online footprint to make sure everything is down I found he’s also used a stolen photo in an ad for Foley Local Magazine (page 19). The top image is not his (sourced below) and I have my doubts about the second but I cannot find the original source.

Someone brought up that they had doubts they actually won the various awards they are claiming to. Since I’m digging in, I’m going ALL in and started to dig into that claim as well. I had concerns that like other thieves in the past, Billy may have entered a stolen image in a contest.

Claim 1: “Winners of the 1997, 1999, 2011, 2021 and 2019 Telly Awards for Wedding Videography, Cinematic Films Category”

There IS no Telly Award for Wedding Videography that I can find. I’ve searched for their names, business name… nothing. You’re welcome to browse yourself but I couldn’t find any record of them or the category they claim to have won. They may have done but I certainly couldn’t find any record of it.

Claim 2: “Winners of the Pretty Poser Magazine Weddings in the UK, 2021 and 2022 seasons”

Pretty Little Poser Model Magazine is based in the UK and appears to be a voting based magazine. There is NO yearly winner as he implies but there is one photo that they apparently did win something with

Claim 3: “Winners of the Wedding Galleria Magazine Portraiture Awards in 2011, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2020, and 2022 seasons”

THERE IS NO WEDDING GALLERIA MAGAZINE!!! Which means there is no Wedding Galleria Magazine Portraiture Awards.

MOST of the stolen images are gone from their website but some, like the images above remain. I know it’ll shock you to find out they are all stock images.

I also sourced below that there’s an image that was alongside a testimonial that was a stolen image. So, does that couple even exist? Do all of them?

Update 2/14/23 @ 4PM:

Fucking hell I missed the Instagram page.

Update 2/15/23:

When I get mad I dig and boy I keep digging.

Guess what I found?

Billy got caught doing this in 2005. More chat about it here.

He made a lot of storm chasers mad. Like this guy who was still talking about his theft 3 years later in 2008. He’s also mentioned by another storm chaser in 2011 on Twitter.

But I’m sure it was the employee hired in 2022 that got in a time machine and did that all to sabotage him. *rolls eyes*

Update 4/24/23:

Billy is still posting ads (with their own images this time) pretty much all over the US and if confronted about the link here claims that lawyers are involved and they are suing me for “personal slanderous attacks” against him and his wife. If they are, I haven’t received anything but if/when they do the truth is the truth. These images were not created by Natural Images Photo and Video that they used to heavily advertise in the United States. Billy himself posted many of these ads online, not just his employee. I’ve had others try to sue me but no one has won a case against me yet because the truth is a defense and I do not post here without evidence of the truth.

This ad below was posted by Billy himself, though he claims he never posted anything that was stolen and everything was posted by the claimed past employee.

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AmPhotography in Knoxville, TN

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100086142794688

PS Facebook Page Post

Why is it all of these fauxtographers I’m outing lately all have “pay what you can” pricing?

Anyway – more of the mini session madness.

Update 5/11/2023 – AMPhotography / Angel Murphy swiped another photographer’s entire portfolio it seems and used that to apply for a second shooting position. Images at the bottom of the original post.

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Schirmbeck Photography in Omaha, NE

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SchirmbeckPhotography
BBB: https://www.bbb.org/us/ne/omaha/profile/photographer/schirmbeck-photography-0714-300170425

PS Facebook Page Post

My eyes are burning y’all. In my pause from the blog apparently fauxtographers thought it was open season for copyright infringement.

Schirmbeck Photography not only uses stolen images for their ads but also has a history of not showing/canceling at the last minute for sessions and weddings and not refunding.

If you aren’t on Facebook you may have missed that I have a new discord server for this community. If you become a Patreon member at $5/month or more you also get exclusive access to certain channels and discussions.

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