"Hey! That's My Photo!" | How to Display Proper Facebook Etiquette-ness for Small Business Owners
I'm posting this photo again in hopes to do it right this time. Over 2 years ago now when I posted this photo of MY son, I never dreamed it would go viral to the point where I could not control it - otherwise I would had definitely included my watermark on it. It was just a gorgeous photo of my son that I had to share right away and never dreamed of it going viral like this...I have literally reported this photo for copyright over 20 times now this past year and won every time. I have seen it shared over 90K times. Yes I am honored, but I would like to take this time to educate on the proper etiquette of social media sharing - especially of a photographer's work.
Call it What You Want, It's Stealing.
It is not okay to just take a photo and post it to your page as your own. Especially of children, but in general. A photographer works just as hard as anyone else to pay the bills. And I know a lot of people think that we just "push a button" but there is so much more to the profession than anyone could ever dream. So to go to my personal page, click on the photo and then take that photo from my own personal page, save it to your computer and then post to your own page without any photo credit what-so-ever - that is stealing. You can share from my page, but saving it and posting as our own without any photo credit - IS STEALING.
How would you like it if I walked into your place of business and saw something I loved and was like "OOOO I LOVE THAT - that's pretty - I want that!" and just take it from your business without notice or paying... nothing. Then add insult to injury, go advertise it as my own without any credit to you as the small town business owner, just oooo look its so pretty - its mine. How would you feel? This is how photographers feel when our images are literally ripped from our page and used for others social media sharing.
"Honored" Does Not Pay The Bills
We are not asking for much as photographers. We are truly honored when people love our work and want to share it- however- with proper credit and absolutely no alterations done to our photographs. No cropping, no adding of text, no filters added, no alterations what-so-ever: all these things are representation of our individual work and any alterations done to our photographs are a direct violation to us as individual photographers.
I know we could debate this all day, and I don't plan to debate a single thing about this: it's wrong, period. You will never change my mind on that fact. I know we live in a different world now with social media, however, there are just certain things many need to be educated about in order to support other businesses correctly.
We all work so hard for our money so lets all respect each other and our work/businesses in order to show true appreciation for the working class citizens. Thank you for reading and thank you so much for the love and support to this photo. I pray it continues to move people as it has shown already this past year.
Allie Marie Silvernale Silvernale Photography [Photographer and Mother of the little boy in this attached image]
"How Can I Go About Sharing Your Photo on My Social Media?"
If you would like to use my photo, please feel free to save the image (below) AS IS, no cropping - no removing of the logo and especially NO FILTERS what-so-ever. Also please add "Photo Credit: silvernalephotography.com" within the text of the post. As long as these rules are followed, I will be "honored" for you to share my photo to your page for all to see. However, if you do not follow the rules I will hit you with an intellectual property case on Facebook and the image will be forced down with a warning to your account.
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