Call me crazy, but I’m choosing to view this whole stolen photos thing as a blessing. All the stress and aggravation has been a great reminder that I can still create my own reality. I get to choose how to react to everything. I’ve been able to move past the negative feelings by being present and choosing to be grateful instead. I hope those affected by that thieving website don’t let it ruin their day. Its ok to allow yourself to be upset, for a while, but its also a good idea to choose to be happy, in light of the situation. Life is too short.
There’s not much I can do to keep people from stealing my photos. Truth be told, its incredibly easy to remove watermarks, and logos, from an image. You can even steal from sites that don’t allow you to right click and save the image, by doing a screengrab. The point is that if its online, it can be stolen.
Something these thieves can’t take from us are the experiences. They won’t know the peace that I experience when I’m out shooting scenes like the one above. They don’t get to spend time in nature with other talented photographers. They don’t get to be in the creative flow while I shoot and edit. All of those moments are worth more to me than a few sales of a stolen image.
While I’ve got you all concerned about image theft, I’d like to take this opportunity to let you know that copyright law in the US is about to change…for the worse. The deadline to voice how copyright affects you is July 23rd!
I highly recommend reading this article on Petapixel. If you have time, you should watch/listen to the video on that page. This new copyright law could be pretty scary and make it easy for people to steal our work, and then copyright it as their own. We may even find ourselves in a world where everything we upload to our personal facebook page needs to be copyrighted, or we risk companies using any and all of our photos, in their advertising campaigns.
If you’re willing to take the time to submit your thoughts to the copyright office, this page will give you ideas for what to include in your letter. If you think its not that important to have your voice heard, keep in mind that they don’t have a lot of input from actual artists that are affected by copyright. The majority of voices in their ears are lobbyists that want to make it easier to use our work for free.
iPhone Photographer | David Pasillas 
Thanks, David. I’ve come to the very same conclusion. In making our photographs, and in sharing them lies our gift back to the Universe. OUR gift. And in working with a photograph I’ve brought into creation, lies my source of strength and comfort while going through a very difficult time right now. We can’t let what others do throw us off our course.
Absolutely. I’m glad you’ve been able to come to the same conclusion.
Hi David I just follow you, I love your photography! I came across your Blog through Laura Macky Blog. I am an artist designer and I love photography I am an amateur if I can call myself like that 😉 I love taking photos of all the jewelry I design and anything else that inspire me, most of my photos are taken with an iPad 😉 since I am waiting for the day that I will get a new camera. I was very upset when I was reading your other post about the stolen photos I have on my Blog my Art my Jewelry, my watercolor painting, Digital Art, Photos, Graphics I am sure you can imagine my concerne on this issue and Copyright© I know there not much that can be done to protect our work. Today technology doesn’t help us on this but I am happy about your conclusion on this last post and I will add that no one ever can take your talent away anything you create cames from your own soul…let’s be positive!
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Thanks, David. We share a common mind-set about this company and their inappropriate use of our photos. I will checkout your links to the proposed copyright law. Thanks for making them so easily available. Ω
I very much relate to what you’ve written above. I’m sure I would ultimately choose the same attitude. I found you through AngalineM. I think your photography is beautiful. Thnak you for the beauty you share.
Alison
Thanks David-a long time ago, I realized that if someone wanted to steal my stuff, they would do it and there really was not a lot I could do about it, I do not have the time or the energy to have to constantly monitor my work-it is part of the price that artists and photographers *pay* in putting their stuff out there unfortunately—and with the proposed copyright law, it makes it even clearer how little value and regard an artist’s work is held when it comes to the larger entitites-but I know it will not stop me from doing what I love, just as I suspect it will not stop others either-thanks for such a thoughtful post-
Pretty much exactly how I feel about all the pictures I post. If anyone wants to download them, they may do so with my blessing, and even my encouragement. If I take a photo that I plan to try and sell, then it won’t be posted on social media, because then I can’t sell the First North American Rights (if my understanding of how these contractual things work is correct). So any picture I post, I’ve already decided I’m not going to try and sell. So if you would like to download it and make a print of it, knock yourself out, and thanks for liking my work. To be absolutely truthful, I would be somewhat upset if you tried to sell it under the premise that it was YOUR work.