I couldn’t sleep last night because my anxiety over this stupid AEllis case has been keeping me up the the past few days. I don’t know why, likely because it’s about a year since he started his reign of terror against me, but it has been a rough go the past couple weeks.
Since I’m my own worst enemy I started digging into my messages since I was awake anyway and started working on a new post.
Most of the ads by this fauxtographer are using stolen images. The differences in the ad imagery and her actual work is notable.
The reviews aren’t all sunshine and rainbows either. One review pointed out Belle Grace Photography was late to a session and refused to refund and someone commented that they agreed. There also appears to be issues with their ‘membership’ for $150 and the scheduling of said sessions.
When I start a post with so many AKAs known already you know it’s going to be a long one.
*nmp* is a new one to me for what I am assuming means “not my photos.” Even if it was widely known what nmp meant even spelling it out doesn’t matter – you can’t use photos to advertise your own work without permission from the copyright holder. Full stop.
There’s at least one post in a local group that was found with stolen wedding photos and no disclaimer about these not being her photos and I’m sure there’s more that I haven’t been sent (yet).
One thing I noticed when searching this photographer out is that she posts *everywhere* so check your local Facebook Groups to make sure she’s not in there. She’s based in North Carolina but I found posts in Pennsylvania, New York, Montana, Tulsa, Colorado, Tennessee, Salt Lake City, Pensacola, Chattanooga, Outer Banks, basically everywhere in the United States she’s in a local wedding group.
While the copyright infringement is the main story here, there is also a side story that Courtney allegedly has a history of not delivering photos/is slow to refund and is why she’s changed her business name in mid 2023 after conversations like this popped up in local groups. This story is at the bottom of the page with the update.
Update 1/29/2024:
It turns out the above was just the tip of the iceberg and there’s a lot of people out there who have had issues with Courtney.
In summary – she has allegedly canceled many times on clients at the last minute for boudoir sessions and weddings. She has allegedly sometimes sent in subpar photographers but sometimes she hasn’t sent in anyone at all. This girl allegedly gets covid a LOT. She allegedly rarely delivers albums. She allegedly owes a LOT of refunds.
She also posted this as an excuse before unpublishing her Facebook page.
Apparently he’s been already approached about his use of others copyrighted works and took a few images down but apparently he didn’t care to take down ALL the images that weren’t his.
Sorry for the bit of silence on the blog – I’ve been going through a lot from a past thief and it’s been a bit soul sucking. Thank you for all the kind words and support over the past three months as I’ve been dealing with this.
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.
