Protecting myself and the photos I take

Copyrights!

Just an FYI for my clients and potential clients.

The photos I take at your session are the property of Sweetpeas Photography. That means that they can in no way be reproduced. This doesn't only mean scanning and sending them somewhere else to be printed, it also means to use them on the web.
Of course, if you buy a CD with all rights, this does, in fact give you the right to make prints and use them on the web (although if you use them on the web, a little shout out would be nice ;) )
But if you don't purchase the rights then you aren't allowed, under copyright laws to reproduce them in any way.
Now, I certainly don't mind, with my permission, if you use them on the web, as in social networking or your blog, just, again, give a little shout out as to who took them and whose work it is. It would be EXCELLENT advertising.

But, this also means that from now on, everything that I do will have my logo on the bottom. The photos you buy and the photos that you get on a CD when you purchase it. It won't be large like when I post them on my blog, it will be down in the corner, but this is only to protect me and I hope that you all understand. I appreciate my clients so much.
Identity theft (in the form of photos) online is a big thing. If you aren't aware of it, teens and adults from different countries, or even in the US try to download and save your/my photos all the time off of the web and use them as their own on sites like My Space, Facebook, and other networking sites. Many photographer friends of mine have had photos of their children and clients stolen off of Flickr and it is devastating. I had one stolen, that I know of. It SUCKS.

So this is only to protect me, to protect you as clients, it would be horrible for you to find your photos from your session on a site and someone else claiming them as their own. Especially if it is a photo of your child. These people were stealing them and then claiming that the children in the photo was theirs. Many photos of my girls were stolen and used. This is the reason that all of us photographers now use our watermark on everything that we post.

I hope that all of my wonderful clients understand this. If you want to scan them and use them on your myspace, twitter, facebook, that is fine, just get my permission first and then, like I said, give me a little advertisement. ;) Also, I hope that the small watermark that will be on all photos at the bottom won't bother anyone. It is only to protect me and my work.

Thank you so much for your business and I am hoping this will help everyone in the future.