I spent twelve hours on the last post with all of my research and I don’t have it in me today to do the elaborate side-by-sides for this post so see the captions for links to original sources.
I already know that I’m not going to get through it all because there is SO much.
Also if we could knock this shit off it’d be great. I’m tired.
Update 5/2/2025 – Crystal thinks there’s nothing wrong with using images that aren’t hers and claims the ones she used to ‘fill in’ are all stock. Nope.
This is one that has been brewing for a long time for various reasons.
The main story here is that there is a company called Astrid and Aria in Northeast Ohio is using wedding and engagement images on their website they do not have a copyright release for. These images were taken by photographers who do not work for Astrid and Aria and have never worked for them.
This is a convoluted story so sit down, get a drink and snack and make sure your device is fully charged.
Before I get to the photos there needs to be a bit of backstory about how we got here because it’s not your typical Photo Stealers story which is why I’ve been working on it for so long.
The short-ish version of this mess is that there was a husband/wife duo that ran a photography studio in Northeast Ohio named One Red Door Photography. Dustin and Melissa Lopez ran it and they had other photographers (6?) under their umbrella that also worked for them at different times. Some of these photographers also shot independently for their own studios while picking up weddings with One Red Door. The photographers that I have spoken with all confirmed they never signed a contract or release with Dustin/One Red Door giving him any rights to the images photographed for One Red Door.
Things started to slide after the pandemic apparently because one of their photographers sued One Red Door/Dustin in court in 2024 and won for nonpayment for work she’d done for the company. She left in 2021 and she was owed over $56K. I do not know if she was ever paid in full.
Dustin and Melissa end up splitting up in late 2022/early 2023 and Melissa left One Red Door Photography and left Dustin in charge of the company.
While there had been various bumps in the road up until this point it seems that things really went downhill after Melissa left. Not only were employees not getting paid but there’s also allegedly a lot of clients who didn’t get photos delivered in a timely manner, who were ghosted and some did not get deliverables that were part of their package.
Eventually Dustin is court ordered to close One Red Door Photography as part of the divorce and the company shutters in early 2024ish (I think?).
Enter Astrid and Aria who opened their doors in September 2024.
Now, you won’t find Dustin on their page introducing their team and I’ve been told that is by design due to all of the issues that follow him from before. However, Dustin IS included in their team page from their Iconic Portraits offshoot website.
Dustin has also been credited as the photographer for an image on Instagram with Astrid and Aria.
One thing that is hilarious to me is that on their Pinterest profile they have a photo of the team:
DUSTIN
Dustin’s been *possibly* photoshopped out of the similar photo on their website.
I don’t know how invested he is in Astrid and Aria (if he’s a silent partner, silent partial owner or just a worker bee) but what I do know is that multiple photographers who worked for One Red Door Photography have their images on the Astrid and Aria website/Instagram.
This won’t be the usual side-by-side since the images are no longer online as One Red Door Photography has gone offline but all of the images have been identified by the original photographer who still holds the copyright for these images.
Also, this isn’t an exhaustive list, there are still some of the ORD team I haven’t spoken to and I wouldn’t be surprised if more images in these galleries online belong to them.
Bottom line: the images below do not belong to Astrid and Aria, nor do they represent the portfolio of any photographer who works or worked for Astrid and Aria.
Update 4/7/2025 @ 9PM: Saige is one of the owners of Astrid and Aria and commented on one of the shares that they’ve “temporarily” removed all images provided to her in good faith for their portfolio and that they were under the impression that there was a shared IP agreement.
There was one misidentified photo that I removed but I’m adding more since the files weren’t stripped and I was able to use metadata copyright tags to find more original photographers I was able to confirm were not contracted with Astrid and Aria.
There’s still images on their website that were not created by Dustin/Astrid and Aria photographers and shouldn’t be on their website. They didn’t even touch most of their other pages so I’ve continued to add more.
Beyond all of that – per Saige’s statement she knew these images belonged to photographers that do not work for Astrid and Aria so why in the hell are you using those images to represent your brand?
Since some of the images have been removed the gallery representing the work has a different vibe in my opinion.
There’s also a new side story to all of this – Saige worked for another photography company and some of the images used on the website were taken for that company. No contract was signed so while she retained the copyright she does not have model releases for the clients whose likeness she is using.
I started Photo Stealers before Google Lens was a thing and it was all due to my ability to be able to guess who the original photographer on a thief’s website was. While there are SO MANY new photographers now that it’s impossible I am still often able to do this with photographers whose body of work I’m familiar with.
Case in point, Brooke Mayo.
Brooke is not only an immensely talented and AMAZING human, she was my wedding photographer and who I looked up to SO much when starting out and through to today. I love her work and who she is.
So when I came across this website I didn’t have to Google Lens shit, I knew in my soul that this was Brooke’s work (of course the one image he didn’t crop the logo out of helped prove me right). I also know Brooke and I verified that Vincent Gross was not her employee.
I’m guessing that Vincent is rebranding from Outer Banks Photography to Duck Photography to get away from the bad reviews out there but who knows really the thought behind it.
Also fun fact, I’ve actually met this guy. His (ex?) wife was an officiant at a wedding I photographed in the Outer Banks and lets just say he didn’t leave a favorable impression.
Case in point of why I do what I do, when searching to find the source link for the first image on Vincent’s page, the source URLs Google comes back with don’t link to Brooke despite the image being on her homepage. Google thinks the image belong to Vincent and may be punishing Brooke’s page for the duplicate content even though it’s her image.
I don’t know what Vincent’s intention was here but it’s kind of creepy to use a Brooke’s images AND images OF Brooke and her family/children.
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.
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.
