One would think that a person saavy enough to market a photography business by building web sites, advertising online and using social networking would know enough about how the Internet works to realize how simple it is to track someone down. Unfortunately such is not the case for a New Jersey kid who allegedly tried to build a portfolio with another photographer’s work and got nailed.

The short version of the story is that an e-mail listserv member found a New York-based food photographer who would do a lot of work for a price that was entirely too low. Another member of the listserv checked out the studio’s portfolio and found his own work being showcased. The identity of the suspect and much of the online real estate he occupies was quickly uncovered through a series of searches.

Here’s the part that doesn’t make any sense — how does such a photographer pull this scam over even just one client? If we assume that the portfolio images were stolen because the alleged liar cannot produce results of that caliber, how does he deal with a client whose images do not meet the standards that were expected? Surely most businesses would refuse delivery and stop payment.

However it all worked, or didn’t, the site is only a year old. We’ll see how much longer it lasts.

Photo by El Mariachi 94. ]]> http://www.totallysweetphotos.com/2008/12/10/building-a-business-with-lies-youre-gonna-get-caught/feed/ 0 http://www.totallysweetphotos.com/2008/12/08/new-site-aims-to-help-young-photographers-break-through/ http://www.totallysweetphotos.com/2008/12/08/new-site-aims-to-help-young-photographers-break-through/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 2008 17:22:05 +0000 Tom http://www.totallysweetphotos.com/?p=201

Too Much Chocolate is a new web site by photographer Jake Stangel that aims to help young emerging editorial/fine art based photographers by bringing them together through galleries, dialogues, and interviews. Jake writes:

At this point, we all exist in a hazy internet bubble, not really sure who or what is exactly out there. Sure, we all have a handful of internet photographer friends, and we bounce around on informative blogs, but there is a need for a ‘hub’ where emerging photographers can reach out to one another, have a running dialogue, ask questions, just talk, and feel some sense of collectiveness.

Jake’s standards are high, as you can tell from the message on Too Much Chocolate’s discussion page.

Link via “A new Website For Young Photographers” by A Photo editor. Photo by Hamed Saber.

This link came from the excellent photography site Digital Photography Insights by Rob Galbraith.