Tag Archives: Photo Shyster

Photo Shyster

Photo Shyster: SEOtographer aka Michael Thomas Ireland aka Michael Thomas in Tampa, FL

Website: https://seotographer.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/seotographer
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/michaelthomas0821
Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/hostographer
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@seotographer
Google Reviews: https://tinyurl.com/2za9mpuw
BBB: https://www.bbb.org/us/fl/tampa/profile/commercial-photographer/seotographer-0653-90435327/complaints

PS Facebook Page Discussion

THIS PHOTOGRAPHER HAS NOT STOLEN IMAGES

Guess we’re back with another entry into the Photo Shyster category with another person trying to be an industry leader but instead takes money and doesn’t always deliver. SIGH.

Today we’re here to talk about Michael Thomas Ireland who ran “SEOtographer” but now is focusing on his new business Tanooki Marketing.

The summary is SEOtographer has taken a lot of money from people and not always delivered the goods.

This post is an attempt to reach more possible clients who are also waiting for work that hasn’t been completed.

Update 7/14/2023 @ 9AM EST:

  • Michael sent me his rebuttal, you can read and judge for yourself here. The clients all maintain their stories are true as posted.
  • Added Client #6
  • Added supporting evidence that Michael may be behind Tanooki

Continue reading Photo Shyster: SEOtographer aka Michael Thomas Ireland aka Michael Thomas in Tampa, FL →
Photo Shyster

Photo Shyster: Ryan Schembri

Ryan Schembri has not stolen images!

This is another entry into the photo shyster category which is reserved for industry leaders in the photography world that are doing shady shit that is NOT stealing images. Shady shit is qualified as things such as not delivering products or images to clients in the promised time, not delivering what photographers pay for with mentorships or workshops and so forth.

Enter Ryan Schembri.

For those who don’t know him, Ryan Schembri entered into the photography world about 10 years ago or so. Not long after dipping his toes into wedding photography he began to collect lots of awards including big ones such as the Grand Award at WPPI, Photographer of the Year with AIPP and also was a Grand Master of AIPP. He began to speak at various conferences and lead his own workshops shortly after, as many do. He’s pretty well known within the industry, especially to those in the awards circuit and in Australia (where he is based).

Now that you have a gist of who he is, lets get into the thick of it.

TLDR: Ryan Schembri allegedly has dozens of photography clients waiting on images and/or products, allegedly left at least one workshop early, allegedly failed to properly cancel another workshop where at least one student is still waiting for a refund, and allegedly has at least mentee waiting for a refund after not delivering what was promised. Despite all of this, Ryan has recently posted he’ll be traveling the world workshopping before retiring from teaching photography despite being based in Australia where travel to/from the country is difficult due to the pandemic and slow rollout of the vaccine.

Continue reading Photo Shyster: Ryan Schembri →
Photo Shyster

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

Gallery

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 →

Photo Shyster

Photo Shyster: Amy Rushbrook aka Life: Unmade in Melbourne, Australia

Website: http://amyrushbrookphoto.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/amyrushbrookphoto/

THIS IS NOT A PHOTOGRAPHER WHO HAS STOLEN IMAGES

This is another entry into the “Photo Shyster” division as she has allegedly been not delivering images to clients and not delivering goods for workshops that have been purchased.

Since there are many prongs to this story I’m going to attempt to separate them as best I can.

This is a VERY long read without photos.  However, I had to be wordy to properly cover the story in full.  Scroll to the bottom if you are a victim and want to know what you can/should be doing to protect yourself going forward.

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 3/1/2020:

I’ve been meaning to update this post since more has been brought to light.  Updated to add photos, more details etc. since it was claimed I didn’t have any proof this happened.

While I do have the multiple conversations that have taken place privately with Amy’s victims to back up my words I am not posting anything that hasn’t been posted publicly, especially since someone has begun to threaten me over this post.

I am willing take the fall for this and don’t want anything else to happen to the victims who were brave enough to come forward.  Please know I wouldn’t go forth with this post without ample proof this is what is taking place.

Continue reading Photo Shyster: Amy Rushbrook aka Life: Unmade in Melbourne, Australia →