Tag Archives: Virginia

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Memories by Madison in Floyd, VA

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/memoriesbymadison

This photographer has a decent following – I’m told she has gone viral a few times for her stranger sessions she does fairly often.

She’s done so many mini sessions she has her own images of many of these setups but keeps using stolen images.

Why is this a problem even if she says “not my photos” or “inspo” on the ads?

First off, the clients rarely read everything in front of them. Case in point are these comments complimenting Madison on her work in one of the ads with stolen images.

Second, Madison is getting the Google credit as the original source for these images!

One of the sets of images she stole for a “Notebook” themed mini session comes back to her as the original source, not the actual content creator!!!

When someone searches for that image OR anything that image is associated with (i.e. Notebook Inspired Mini Session Near Me) Madison will get that Google boost, not the OP even though the OP has more shares of their post, likely because Madison has more followers so Google is assuming that means she’s the original content creator.

This isn’t new, this has been an ongoing issue for years, I’m just highlighting it today because I’m getting annoyed (and it’s Monday).

P.S. What is it with these photographers that use stolen images for ads and having pay what you can sessions?

P.P.S. Allegedly Madison has been called out before and did a clean up of her page and there used to be more posted that wasn’t hers.

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Carly Fowler in Richmond, VA

Website: https://carlyfowlerphotography.mypixieset.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/carlyfowlerphotography/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/carlyfowlerphotography/
USession: https://book.usesession.com/i/GO1IwjbPT

I don’t know how many times I’ll have to scream this but for the love of pickles IF YOU DID NOT CAPTURE THAT IMAGE YOU CAN NOT USE IT FOR ADS, MOOD BOARDS, INSPO ETC. ON YOUR BUSINESS PAGE PROMOTING YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY.

In searching this person out I also found SO MANY other photographers using some of these images. So… there may be a bonanza soon on this page.

I stopped sourcing because I have a meeting but I’m sure there’s more. I’ll dig in if needed later.

Updated 5:30EST:

Pinterest is for inspiration to be LEFT ON PINTEREST. It isn’t an image vault for you to use any image you find to plop on your Facebook/Instagram/USession page to advertise with.

I am amused she removed *most* of the Pinterest photos but still has one left I didn’t call out that I didn’t find the first go around. I added it below.

Update @ 6:30PM EST

Yo, Carly, sweet cheeks.

*I* made the blog post. Don’t come after the people you stole from.

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Micah Cook Photos / Micah Cook Photography in Falls Church, VA 

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@micahcookphotos
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/micahcookphotos/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MicahCookPhotos
Website: https://www.micahcookphotography.com/

PS Facebook Page Discussion

SIGH.

Apparently this has to be said.

YOU CANNOT SCRAPE PHOTOS FROM THE INTERNET AND PUT THEM ON YOUR TIKTOK AND USE IT TO PROMOTE YOUR PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS!!!!!

Sometimes this “high end wedding photographer” says not my photos in the caption or video but not always and it’s usually below the “more'” link and buried with the hashtags. If you weren’t digging you’d likely assume that these images are his.

Very, very, very few of these TikToks have his photos BUT his Instagram POSTS do appear to be his own work (the reels are mostly reposted TikToks which have stolen images in them).

The vast majority of the images stolen he’s using to promote himself and say basically, “hey if this is your vision of a wedding hire me!” with various high end photos of weddings from around the world. According to this video, this method seems to have worked…

I finally gave up because it was overwhelming how many stolen images he’s using on his TikTok to promote his business but below you’ll get a sample of how many images he’s used that aren’t his while saying “if any of these fit your preferences… I’m taking on 10 more weddings for the 2024 year”

Updated 7/27/2023:

  • Added links to more platforms he’s on, turns out I missed his reels on Instagram that had images from other vendors.
  • Updated his location to Falls Church, VA but he may also be in Raleigh? I’m not quite sure of his location.
  • Micah took down/TikTok removed some videos but there are still plenty with more photos so I dug in more.
  • He REALLY likes Jose Villa’s work apparently since he’s used his images a LOT (which, duh, he’s amazing but damn dude, really?)
Continue reading Micah Cook Photos / Micah Cook Photography in Falls Church, VA  →
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James Roney Photography in Falls Church, VA

Pixels: https://jamesroneyphotography.pixels.com/art
Fine Art America: https://fineartamerica.com/profiles/jamesroneyphotography
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JamesRoneyPrints/

PS Facebook Page Post

The hilarity of this man getting caught because he called out OTHER people for stealing images is *chef’s kiss*

Not only has he stolen images and uploaded them into his various fine art galleries but he’s sold some of these images.

You can even have them placed onto products! I love that most of the items below are shown with stolen images.

There’s so much I don’t have the time to source them all but here’s just a teaser before I head off to photograph a wedding. This is only after searching about 2 of 8 pages of his images on Pixels.

Update 6/25/2022: Apparently James wants to claim that all of these images are in the public domain so he’s free to do as he wishes with them. So I’ve added the usage rights to each photo that I can find releases for.

Here’s what he’s added to his Pixels page:

“All Smith Mountain Lake Images on this site were taken by James Roney. All other photos not taken by James Roney were obtained through a ‘paid’ Copyright license; all other photos were obtained legally through commercial sites specialized in public domain photos. No photos were knowingly or intentionally stolen to sell here. Historic paintings found here are public domain. If you find a photo of yours that we ‘legally’ obtained, please let us know right away, and we will remove the image in question. If you have one, be sure to attach your Copyright License with your take down request please. There are workarounds if you don’t have one. We do not use Google images as picture source to sell. Anyone who tells you we knowingly steal photos to sell here are flat-out lying, and can be held liable.”

He has also added some credits on the images so those images are now being used legally but some of the credits are… kind of wild.

I removed the images he’s now credited properly under the creative commons terms and I also removed a few of the images from stock sources he claims to have procured the proper licensing for.

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Kayla Nichole Photography in Christiansburg, Virginia

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Website: https://kaylanicholephotography.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KaylaNicholePhotography/

It doesn’t matter if you leave a watermark, it doesn’t matter if you say “not my photos” you cannot take photos that are not your own and use them to advertise YOUR photography sessions. 

STOP DOING THIS YOU IDIOTS!

Sorry for yelling but my gosh.  This is so damn old.  TAKE YOUR OWN PHOTOS FOR YOUR OWN ADS!

There’s probably more images but I am tired of digging.

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