I’m not one to usually post any kind of controversial ‘musing’ on this here Blog, however I was moved to write this feature today after picking up a message on Twitter from one of my lovely Sponsors, favourite UK Wedding Photographers and all-round lovely chap, Tobiah
Tayo.
Tobiah is a relative newcomer to the Wedding Photography Scene who is fast making his mark as one of the names to keep an eye in on the UK Wedding Photography Industry. I mean, if ‘Lord’ Damien Lovegrove describes Tobiah as “one of the North of England's most up and coming Talents”, you know he’s something worth keeping a very close eye on —> www.tobiahtayo.com.
Now I shall never ‘name and shame’ as I’m far too polite and just not into any of that shenanigans, but dear Tobiah has had his work featured on another Blog today. Brill! More exposure for a wonderful new talent! This is the internet working at it’s best to raise the profile of fabulous new skill that the world needs to know about!! How fantastic!!! Or at least you might think. But not so, because Tobiah’s permission was not sought. His photographs were simply ‘lifted’ from his website and reproduced on another. He received no enquiry from the person that did this – just (this time around, at least) a brief email informing Tobiah his work was now featuring on said Blog. The first time this happened, this email notification wasn't received at all.
And therein lies the rub.
Love My Dress Wedding Blog – All
Photography on this page is Copyright (c) 2010, Tobiah Tayo
It’s fabulous for Tobiah to get the free publicity he gains from having his weddings featured on this and other blogs. And for the record, yes, Tobiah is currently a paying Sponsor of Love My Dress, but none of the ‘real wedding’ features I publish on these Blog pages are sponsored features – they are all here because I love and am inspired by the photographs and would like to be in a position to share them with my readers. Simple.
So on to the point (well, two points….)
I don’t wish to come across as anything but honest and genuine here and I've tried very hard to word this so not to appear like I think I'm the big "I am" or that I have some Lordly right to lecture you all, but I have to say, if I can find time in my crazy old schedule of working/blogging/making a baby/caring for a 4 yr old/trying to find time to actually sleep whilst all the while polishing off my ‘fabulous wife!’ status (ha!) to make a polite request to a Photographer to feature their work on my blog – then anyone can. Jeez Louise, I practically have to make a diary appointment to go to the Ladies Room at the moment! Yet it seems some Bloggers are (and repeatedly in some cases) publishing Photographers work on their blog without the Photographer’s permission. This is a CARDINAL SIN in ‘wedding blog’ land’! {infact, in 'ANY' Blog land!!}. It’s like stealing the art work from a gallery and placing it in your own shop window. Would you get away with it on the high street? No. So what makes one think it’s an acceptable act in blog world?
I have to add here – this 'lifting' of images practice is certainly not common place in the wedding blogosphere (not as far as I'm aware?), but never-the-less, it is an issue and one that has caused both Tobiah and myself a touch of, 'disappointment' this afternoon…
Whilst a Blogger might feel they’re doing the Photographer a favour by featuring the Photographer’s work on their Blog, they’d be making a pretty darn big assumption that the Photographer would be OK with this by not checking first.
Let me put it to you ~ what if that Photographer is trying to control his/her brand and image (that they have worked months, possibly years on to establish, at great cost to him/her personally) and your Blog just doesn’t fit in with that brand or image? What if you offend the Photographer by stealing (because effectively, that is what you are doing) their work to showcase in your own shop window (blog). Just because a Blog doesn’t have any of those Mission Impossible type red laser lights protecting it’s photography and just because no alarms are going to go off when you start saving the images on the Photographers blog to you own hard-drive ready to upload them to your own server, JUST BECAUSE it’s easy to swipe images in this fashion does not make it right. Not EVEN if you fully credit that Photographer for his/her work on your blog. I know it might seem like a genuine and kind act in showcasing a Photographer’s work (without permission) but the issue of etiquette here is HUGELY important. At least, if you wish to build a good, sound reputation in the world of blogging and with the people that feed your blog with the beautiful content that has created the reason for it's very existence in the first place.
You must ALWAYS ask for permission first.
Think too how easy it is for a Blogger to just swipe a Photographers images in this way, then compare this to the time and energy another Blogger has invested in establishing a relationship with the Photographer in order to gain their trust, respect and ultimately their approval to reproduce their work on THEIR blogs. I’m one of these latter described Bloggers (just call me Saint Annabel!) that spends a lot of time indeed working on said ‘relationship building’ and it does, well, end up getting my goat a little when I see other Bloggers ‘swiping’ Photographers work without asking. Especially if that particular ‘work’ has already featured on my Blog (which it had – and this isn't the first instance it had either).
Which leads me on to my second point (I’ll summarise things in a moment, don’t worry!).
And that is, the issue of exclusivity.
Most Bloggers have an ‘exclusivity policy’ that on the whole states that if a Photographer’s Wedding Photographs are to be featured on their Blog, then their blog alone should have exclusive rights to feature those images. It is the Blogger’s way of saying ‘Thank you very much Photographer for kindly supporting our Blog in allowing us to feature your work – but we would rather this particular set of snaps was from now on not featured elsewhere’.
Of course, whilst the word ‘policy’ might impose some sense of a legally binding restriction – it isn’t and can’t actually do this at all – and so, the Blogger’s can’t really enforce anything here. Technically speaking, an ‘exclusivity policy’ is really more like a ‘gentleman’s agreement’; a polite written (emailed?) or verbal confirmation from both parties (Blogger and Photographer) that a particular set of wedding snaps will ONLY be featured on that one Blog. And indeed, most Photographers are usually more than happy to sign up to these strict style exclusivity policies, because most Photographers enjoy fostering sound relationships with the Bloggers who are willing to showcase their work (and who I know work hard behind the scenes to make this happen).
Do I have en exclusivity policy?
No.
Well, not in so far as I ask for strict exclusivity of every real wedding I feature, I don't. I'd like to have a strict exclusivity policy, but I just don't feel I can justify it. I do expect a degree of respect and courtesy to be demonstrated towards me by fellow Bloggers and the Photographer's I work with however, and whilst we're at it, this is NOT an open invitation for my inbox to be flooded with requests from other Bloggers asking if they can feature some of the Photography that I have already done. Uh-uh, no!
It's a bit complicated, isn't it?
Let me try and explain…
I personally believe that as the Intellectual Property Owner of the images, it is down to the Photographer to decide where and on how many ‘wedding blog’s he/she is happy for his/her work to be featured. That said, most of the real weddings I have featured, have only (so far) been featured on my Blog and not any other (so you might think ‘well it’s easy for you to claim you don’t have an exclusivity policy then!’), but this doesn’t mean I’m uncomfortable about approaching a Photographer or other blogger to ask if I may feature a wedding that’s already been featured on their site (especially if it was some time ago)- and can I add, I actually VERY VERY RARELY do this – and often there is a reason if I do, ie, the Bride of the wedding has emailed me to ask if her wedding can be featured on my Blog (it's such a shame to have to say 'Sorry no, so'n'so has already featured it on their Blog – did you know?'. The Bride has to be taken into consideration too, even though legally speaking, she isn't copyright owner of the images. The Bride feeds the Photographers, who feed the blogs. We all need to be kind to one another.
And so no, I wouldn't immediately tell another Blogger who might approach me asking if they can run a feature of images I've already used to 'blog off!'. I'd talk through it, negotiate and come to a mutually agreeable way forward.
If I was the Photographer, I would appreciate the additional exposure of being featured on another blog after all, but, fair-do's people, if a Blog is very keen to feature work already published by another blog – they should have the courtesy IN THE VERY LEAST to wait a while before they do this. (Note to any Wedding Blogger rolling their eyes at this: I really have thought long and hard on this one and am comfortable with my ‘policy’ on exclusivity – I don’t wish to alienate or provoke any of you that have much stricter policies – I respect all my Blogging friends and contacts).
Does this mean I don’t agree with strict exclusivity policies?
No it doesn’t mean that, because I can understand for those Bloggers who have worked hard on their Blog/Brand etc that they want to retain a sense of exclusivity in all of their content – and especially so for the bigger more established Blogs. BUT, the way I view it is that as a Blogger, we rely very much so on the creativity of others (the Photographers, Designers etc) without whom, we wouldn’t be here. And my way of acknowledging that is to be a little bit more flexible on the issue of exclusivity, whilst always, ALWAYS showing respect to other Bloggers too.
I don’t mean to bleat on, and hope I’ve made my two points clear enough, but just incase you needed a bit of clarity:-
Point 1: Dear fellow Bloggers – Please always approach the Photographer before you feature their work on your blog. That Photographer is the Intellectual Copyright Owner of the images and you absolutely MUST seek their approval before reproducing them. You know who you are :)
Point 2: Dear fellow Bloggers again – please always check out with the Photographer if their work has featured elsewhere when approaching them for a feature (see point 1), and if it has, enquire as to what the other Blogger’s exclusivity policy is. Approach the other Blog directly out of courtesy and ask them their thoughts about having that particular set of snaps blogged by you. Offer to wait a while. Offer to credit the other Blogger with being the first blog to host the images (including a link, of course!). Even if the other Blogger usually does employ a strict exclusivity policy, you might be surprised at the response. If they say no, well heck, forget it and move on to the next blog feature you have in mind. At least you know where you stand and there will always be enough weddings out there to take your fair share of to make your blog look beautiful. But in any case, you should always demonstrate courtesy to your community of fellow Bloggers.
And the moral of this feature really is I guess aimed at the newbie blogger out there who needs a little guidance on the nature of 'Blogging Etiquette' (and the less new Bloggers who haven't quite got it yet!), though I hope I've made a couple of valuable points for anyone involved in Photography and Wedding Blogging to think about. And may I reiterate once more, I DO NOT think I'm the big "I am". I am learning every day too as I wind my way through the perils of this exciting and almost entirely very rewarding choice I have made to be a 'wedding blogger'. And really, I'm a very nice person! 🙂
There are opportunities for lots of Blogs out there and for Photographers and Bloggers to work together for the benefit of BOTH parties. We all just need to remember that as in most situations in life, a little etiquette and manners go a long way … (cue me bursting into song with lyrics about what a wonderful world we live in and how we should all get on and be polite and courteous to one another………oh happpyyyyyyyy dayyyyysssss!)
Sorry if this sounds like a yarn! I’m not raging with anger about any of this, I just felt moved to write a bit about it because these issues are important to me as a writer/Blogger and every now and then I like to add my musings and ramblings to this blog – just for a little good measure :) Promise I shall now return to pretty wedding related photographs 🙂 aaaaaaaaaand, a little interview next week too with one utterly fabulous British Bridal Wear Designer!!!
Blog Love and world-cup winning luck to all! {hmmm, or maybe not!}
I welcome all and any comments and thoughts on the above.
Annabel xXx
♥
Please note, comments on this feature are now closed – thank you so much to all those that took the time to leave their thoughts…. xXx
