Sneak Peek #9

September 1, 2021 Tiffany Bumgardner

Another month, another sneak peek into the book I am still working on— editing at a snails pace because I really, really, just despise editing. This month focuses on chapter nine which discusses some of the dark realities of being a photographer. All the not so sensational stories that make up the career field that if we are 100 % honest we do not like to discuss or acknowledge.

This is a chapter that initially had stories and reflections from years past but unfortunate incidents lead to an update that is entirely to fresh and new. Something I debated on and off including in this book but ultimately decided that not to include it was a disservice to the intention I have for this work. While it is a memoir following my journey in photography, my secondary intention was to provide tips, tricks, and insight into highs and lows so beginning photographers can avoid many of the mistake I have made. Naturally, the event that happened in March of this year is an excellent learning opportunity so it will find its way into chapter nine.

Unfortunately for you right now, you won’t get that story as the sneak peek because I am tragically behind on edits and haven’t exactly written it yet for inclusion— I am trying really hard, but busy season hit me hard the last few months.

I guess you are making it as a photographer when big businesses start to steal from you? Perhaps you’re more than making it when it is multiple big businesses? Just so you know I never took it as a compliment and was more often frustrated, deeply angry, and almost always in the beginning ready to fight. Problem for me is legal battles are expensive so my goal became resolution that resulted in me accomplishing a task, which usually was reparation- I required payment for the image and for it to be taken down. In nearly all the cases I achieve this through simple phone calls, and email correspondence yet there is always an exception. That exception occurred in 2017 with an arena that will remain nameless for confidential reasons but also because I loathe the business and the man I was in contact so much I refuse to acknowledge their existence with names. Just thinking of this entity makes me seethe with rage, even four years later and especially when I learn of someone else getting taken by this companies duplicitous nature. Ironically for me, I wasn’t directly hired by the company I was actually shooting exclusivity for the performers with the images given a limited marketing contract for the purposes of marketing their abilities. It was actually fairly standard for me at the time, I was photographing images to market performers, not events and venues. So color me shocked when an image that wasn’t even delivered to the clients yet, but I shared as a preview on my instagram account suddenly appear advertising a coming show and ticket sales for this venue. So I contacted the producer letting them know they were in violation of my copyright and offered a fair cost for them to license the image to continue use. This producer was a condescending man who laughed at me over the phone, insisted there was no such thing as copyright and because it was on the internet they could do whatever they wanted. I wasn’t as enraged by the theft of the image as I was a grown man laughing off my legal rights, claiming I was making things up, and acting entitled to whatever he desired

Glass Eyes: A Photographers Journey- Chapter 9 : Dark Realities of Being a Photographer By Tiffany Bumgardner