Reply To: Fauxtogs who should end up on the main page…

[fstopper89]

Monkey Butt/Justine/Marissa/Lawyer Bill found me because I commented on her page that she in fact was stealing photos. Then she deleted my comment.

Justine, no matter how many times you write on your page “Im not stealing photo’s!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” you still are stealing photos. Whether or not they are high-quality professional photos, it’s still stealing and laying some kind of claim to them. You have multiple images listed as “by Walmart” and some as “By ????” meaning someone took the photo, you downloaded it, you put some frames/clipart/doodles/your watermark on them, and uploaded them to your page. It’s wrong, and copyright infringement. No self-respecting or law-abiding photographer would use anyone else’s work to promote their own.

By the way, “Marissa,” I know you love your new job taking all those session bookings at Monkeying Around, but I don’t think Justine is paying you considering she made a gofundme website asking for personal monetary donations just to make her ends meet.

And, by the way, watching your page or commenting on images, and voicing our opinion on a forum like this, are not illegal or slander/libel. You posting our names on your “business” page is closer to that than anything we’ve done.

I agree with Alexandra. If you actually put this much effort into learning how to do photography, you could maybe become good. Right now you’re spending all your time online trying to promote your page via multiple outlets, having multiple accounts on Facebook, running a cutest kid contest to win a stuffed monkey, etc. when you could be spending that time on photography forums/groups or researching photography vocabulary and technique. I mean you clearly don’t even know the basics! You’re not shooting with an iPhone. An iPhone surpasses the quality of many point-and-shoot cameras. You either have a cheap point-and-shoot, or a really basic camera phone. Most of your photos say “mobile upload” anyway, which does mean it was from a cell phone. Some have date stamps, which mean it came from a point-and-shoot.

We’re not idiots here. Most of us are either full-time professional photographers, part-time professional photographers, amateurs working toward becoming professionals, hobbyists, or just enthusiasts who enjoy good photography.

And, most of us wouldn’t mind offering advice if you are actually interested in becoming a real photographer. I’ve reached out to a handful of fauxtographers and a few have been receptive to advice. Some are bucky like you and by keeping that attitude they’ll never improve. They’ll crash and burn in a few months. It will happen to you. I’m always improving my skills. I learn something new every day on the photography groups and forums I participate in. There’s no reason you can’t do the same. For starters you need to ditch your FB page completely, and start working on individual photo challenges. Even if you have a point-and-shoot, you can practice simple things like composition, perspective, and getting human subjects engaged. You’re limited to the technical aspects until you can pick up a real camera and lens. You could seriously get an older Canon Rebel with a kit lens used on eBay or craigslist for just around $200-$300 I bet. Then you can start looking up how to shoot in manual mode. Sign up for a free Flickr photo sharing account and start posting only your best shots for your challenges on there and ask other photographers for a critique. Most are really good about telling you exactly what is wrong with a photo and what you can do to fix it. My first photo critique that I can remember was when I was entering projects in the county fair at age 12. I had a really lame photo, and the judge told me what I should do differently. Yes, it hurt my little 12-year-old self that my photo was perfect, but in just a few years from then I had improved a lot!

There’s my attempt at advice. It’ll probably fall on deaf ears anyway. But that’s what you need to do Justine.