July 9, 2012

Will the real Liz Bradley please stand up

An open letter to those who feel the need to copy.

I have never believed the statement “imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”. In all honestly, it boils my blood a little every time someone says it. I want to propose that the quote be officially changed to “inspiration is the sincerest form of flattery”. In the field of photography, we pride ourselves on being creative, and copying is far from creative, it’s offensive. Be inspired and make it your own, but don’t directly copy.

I work really hard. I am not complaining about this – I actually really enjoy my job and I am so unbelievably grateful to be able to do this and call it my career. But I work really hard. When someone comes along and takes my work and calls it their own, whether it be using the images I have captured, or the words I wrote, it denounces every iota of time and energy I have taken to carefully craft these images and words and it’s quite upsetting.

I recently discovered that not one, but four separate people in four different places, copied my work. One photographer even took an image of me and was calling it her. My first thought was utter and complete shock, and then I felt violated. Maybe these emotions are too strong considering what they took were just pixels and words, but it really got me thinking about what this meant.

My website is honest. It is 100% me. Whether you like me or not, it doesn’t matter – what matters is that I’m not trying to hide behind anything. I put myself out there in order to connect with the most amazing people. I adore my clients – I honestly do, and one of the main ways I do this is through my website.

When you steal a part of that website, you aren’t assimilating it into yours, you just stole a piece of me and that really has no affect on you or your business. You are lying. You are being dishonest with your clients, but most of all, with yourself.

Running your own business is hard. There, I said it. It’s no walk in the park. It’s paperwork and taxes and hours and hours of work. Coming up with your own creative vision and even words on your website is hard. The easy thing to do is to just find someone who can “write better than you” and take that right? No. That’s so wrong it’s not even funny. That is you telling the world that you didn’t have the drive to figure things out yourself.

And if you think that no one is going to find out, think again. Photography is a huge industry, but at the same time it’s not. Even if you live in another country or halfway cross the world, you will be found out.

Some of my absolute favourite people in this world are photographers and I would not be where I am today if it weren’t for their encouragement and support. We help each other out with everything and refer business to each other all the time.

Respect your peers. Learn from them, don’t steal from them. If you’d like to know where I got something or how I came up with it, just ask and I will freely share. If you deceive me by pretending to be a “friend of a bride getting married in Ottawa”, I will not share with you.

If you feel the need to take something I have written because it sounds like something you believe in, take a step back and think about why you are taking it. I am not good at writing – it’s not my strong point in any way, shape or form. I work really hard to come up with words that sound good. The sentence “Vibrant and captivating wedding photography for people in love” took me months to put together and get right – I’m not kidding. It took a long time because I had to look at my work, at who I was and what I wanted to attach to my work. I chose the word vibrant because my images are vibrant and that’s really important to me. I tried vivid for a while but it didn’t feel right. Captivating represents what state I want to affect on the viewer – I want them to look into that image and see something in there that evokes an emotion, be it laughter, joy, lovewhatever THEY feel. By taking this statement, and by far it was the most plagiarized paragraph from my website, you aren’t saying things about your images, not really anyway. Have you sat down and thought about what your images are saying? How would you describe your work to others if you didn’t use those specific words?

I took a business course last year where we had to figure out what our “why” was. Why we took photos. On the outer layer of that query, it seems really easy to answer, but when you actually sit down and think about it, it’s so very hard. This was a tough one for me – it took me almost four months to figure it out, and once I did, I felt silly for not realizing it sooner. It’s family. It’s love. I photograph you for everyone in your life who loves you and this is so important to me. It is what drives me to pick up a camera and to record you in pixels. I want your family to have this memory of you. I want your children, even if they aren’t in the picture yet, to have the image of your wedding day – the image that speaks to them and tells them how in love you are and how happy you make each other. I want them to have these memories because I was lucky enough to have these from my family and I really treasure them. I want you to have that perfect picture of your dog being exactly who he is so that you have that memory forever. So when you look at it, you can almost smell her coat and see the way her little nose hairs sit on top of her muzzle.

Someone stole my why. This makes me almost laugh because it means nothing to who they are. It may sound nice, but if it’s not YOUR why, and it isn’t, then you are not being authentic and people will pick up on that. The best way to be authentic about your why is to actually figure it out! Don’t just agree with mine and be done with it. That’s cheating.

I must be honest and say that it’s a little odd to search for someone stealing your words and click on a website only to see yourself staring back at you. It’s one thing to use my words and an entirely different thing to take a picture of ME and claim it’s you. Not cool. What happens when I don’t show up when a client is expecting who is in the photo? Awkward.

Don’t try to be someone you aren’t. Be you. You are awesome the way YOU are. Don’t try to be me – I’m not even that good at it all the time.

Work hard, and when you think you are done, work more. Good things don’t come to those who wait, good things come to those who work really really really really hard.

Sincerely,
The Real Liz Bradley

p.s. I would really like to thank my family, friends, clients and peers for the outpouring of support on this matter – you are truly amazing and I really appreciate each and every one of you. You make me a better person.

UPDATE – Tuesday June 10th, 1:30pm
It seems I have to clarify the origins of my web design. It is NOT a template. I, along with my husband, designed this website using Illustrator and Photoshop and my husband, a web developer himself, coded it for me. Everything on my site, with the exception of my shopping cart, was custom designed and coded for me from scratch. No templates at all. Since the release, the code for the image slider has been licensed under an open source license (meaning other developers can use the code), but hasn’t been publicly released online yet. Everything else, including the graphics and contact form, are not open source. The website is built on the WordPress platform, but is not a template.

Good for you, Liz Bradley! You are a talented and generous person and photographer. And a good writer too, by the way. I hope you will be pursuing this from a legal position as well as literary. Your work deserves to be protected.
— Kim

Good for you Liz!
— Tracie

Super proud to be one of your friends and peers and appreciate all that you do for the photography community. You are a talented artist and an amazing person, and I'm continually grateful for your support and generosity! So sad that someone(s) did this to you and so glad that you've decided to rise above it all. Thanks for being The Real Liz Bradley!
— Sandra Regier

I'd like to second what Kim said - you're an incredible person and your work is a reflection of that. No one should try to copy that and steal from you, it's an incredibly cheap and sneaky move. But... good for you for including words of wisdom and inspiration in this post while calling them out for it. You really took the high road here.
— Katie

While there can only ever be one Liz Bradley, it makes me incredibly sad to see someone stealing your work, because I know first-hand just how freaking hard you work, and how AMAZING you are. I also second the legal comment.
— Mel

I am so glad that you not only contacted the offenders to tell them that stealing isn't cool, but that you addressed it publicly in order to educate people about the unfairness of stealing photos and words. I am glad that the offenders have listened to you and removed the stolen content. You are a hard worker, so it really isn't fair for people to try to ride on your coat tails. Good for you.
— Linda B.

Bravo...could not have said it better...
— Melanie Rebane photography

Liz, You work so very hard and are so very good at what you do! I appreciate the real Liz Bradley, immensely!
— Stephanie

Liz, I'm shocked that this has happened but I agree with Katie that you have taken the high road in this matter. I'm happy to say that I have met and had the pleasure of working with the REAL Liz Bradley; that I can hear your voice and see your personality in the words constructed on your pages; and know that words not spoken or written are even more powerful through the experience you bring your clients and the images you leave with us. No one can replicate this because the heart of what makes your business thrive belongs with you - personally, socially, creatively, uniquely - it's a full package which cannot be separated into isolated pieces. You rock!
— Krista

Liz you are one of the most hard working people I know. You deserve all things good and none of this silliness. Hope you never have to deal with anything like this every again. You keep doing what you do best and enjoying this gift we've been given :) <3<3<3
— Amna Hakim

Good for you for not letting this go unmentioned. Your letter was amazingly well written. It is horrible the lengths people go to . . . be strong and know in the end it will all work out. Also know you are a wonderfully talented photographer! Best of luck!
— Kristen

Wonderfully written Liz! So glad we got to work with the real Liz Bradley and not those creepy, uncreative people stealing your images and your words.
— Cynthia

It's honestly a shame it even came to this. And it really makes all of us wonder I think what could be happening to our work... we would have no idea really, it's amazing you found all of those sites in the same day! Good for you for taking the high road and being yourself.
— Brittany

Liz, I agree with the other people who have mentionned that you have taken the high road. You have not acted low or rudely, which reflects highly on how amazing a person you are. As a proud client of yours, it hurts me to see that people have taken advatange of your work, your words and especially you, to call it their own. It is clear that you work VERY hard. Know that your friends, family and clients are behind you and love you for who you are. Keep strong in this difficult time.
— Jacynthe

Did you ever consider the four that copied your website may have used the same web designer who originally stole your work?
— Unjust

Well said. Hard work and being true to yourself is the only way to make it. Cutting corners will alienate you from your peers and your clients. There is no shortcut or magic bullet for success. You can definitely see that your site, images and words are 100% authentic. Don't let this knock the wind out of your sails!
— Vanessa Dewson

well said Liz. no one messes with a Bradley!!
— angela hubbard

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