04/11/2026
This is an educational post and the picture is just for attention.
The world of photography is always evolving. Trends change; photographers come and go. But there is one constant that I notice in my 14 years of doing this. The passion a photographer HAS to have to keep going. Photography isn’t manual labor, but it is difficult. To be in the creative headspace while providing service/ and customer interaction requires a patience and a love for this art form to keep doing it.
It’s exciting on this side of the camera when new software is developed, larger memory cards/hard drives, better computers with faster processors. While exciting it also comes at a cost. These tools however can enable those with bad intentions. Something the client may not be familiar with that photographers know all too well; is theft of someone else’s work being advertised as their own. When you’re starting out as a painter, musician, actor, photographer, any type of art form you start as a fan. A fan of someone or something and you try and create that yourself. Mimicking isn’t theft, let me be clear on that. But taking my images or anyone else’s and putting it on your social media pages, website etc to attract a client is wrong. This has always been an unfortunate reality that artists are always protective of. Those that take this all seriously wouldn’t do that because there is an unspoken honor system most abide by.
Now I’m finding out that people that are new to photography are using or hypothetically could use Ai generated images as portfolio pieces. They don’t trace back to an original artist, and nobody could accuse theft. To make it worse, you can buy RAW images (the format of unedited photos directly out of camera) and when you edit them there is what’s called META DATA that watermarks them as your own within the file data.
I say all that to say this. This hasn’t happened to me or anyone I know, but the threat does exist. Your wedding day is one of your most important days of your life. Please when shopping vendors, do thorough research. Go through their website and look for consistency in edits, composition, etc. Find reviews, look for transparency in pricing, packages etc. If you don’t hire me, there are a ton of talented photographers in our area or any area for that matter. Just please PLEASE do your research. If the price is too good to be true, it is.
I’m not posting this to pat myself on the back or to steer you in any direction. It’s wedding season, and there are always stories this time of year where someone stopped answering emails, delivered a different product than as advertised, hidden costs associated with digitals etc. I love photography. I love working with people that are as excited about it as we are.
9 times out of 10 you’re gonna have a good experience and be happy… but it just takes once. This is an investment that I and all the other talented photographers take seriously. Please be vigilant, it’s hard to trust what you see these days.
