Comments on: on competition

By: Harland

Harland — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:09:48 +0000

You’re approach to fostering community rather than competition will truly pay off for you. It’s always better to act out of passion and commitment rather than fear.

With that said, for those times when you do need to protect your interests, you should probably add tin-eye (http://tineye.com/) to your toolkit as a backup to picScout.

By: Stacy Larsen

Stacy Larsen — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 02:48:32 +0000

I am a photographer in Tampa Florida (but was born and raised in Seattle) and I have become friends with five of the most amazing, talented photographers all at different times and we are all in direct competition with eachother! We all get together to shoot, shop, eat and discuss everything about our businesses very openly. They are some of my best friends and I cherish each and every one of them! I just loved reading this post because I have personally experienced how beneficial it can be to have people that are like minded as your allies.

By: Mandie

Mandie — Wed, 13 May 2009 04:03:20 +0000

You rock! Thanks so much for posting this.

By: Julie M.

Julie M. — Sat, 09 May 2009 23:26:01 +0000

Thank you for a wonderful post and GREAT information!

By: kathy weller

kathy weller — Sat, 09 May 2009 00:36:49 +0000

You’re pretty amazing. Thanks for your excellent, huge post.

By: jackie

jackie — Thu, 07 May 2009 04:00:11 +0000

GREAT post Jamie! You know, sometimes I think (or perhaps I’m hoping) that two different people can come up with the same idea for composition. I have many examples– but one of which is in the motorcycle magazine industry. I never look at other photographer’s work because I want my editorial work to be 100% unique and I don’t even want to be subconciously influenced. As I’m sure you know, you can’t publicize images until after they’re published by the magazine. There has been more than one occasion where I had either come up with an idea for a shoot or had just finished a shoot, to only get a magazine in the mail with someone who used similar ideas. (in other words, there was no way either me or the other photog knew of each other’s ideas or pictures).

On the flipside, I have also put up images on my blog of my favorite shots, only to find VERY similarly styled shots on a high profile photographers site a few weeks later. Because she’s more well known than me, I’m sure it looks like I copied her (even though if you looked at the metadata you’d see that mine were taken earlier). That’s my only concern, other than that I just tell myself it’s probably the same thing as the motorcycle example above — merely coincidence.

By: Chelsey

Chelsey — Thu, 07 May 2009 03:31:55 +0000

Truer words have not been spoken. With a few rules & boundaries and respect from all parties, a little competition is a good thing.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Wed, 06 May 2009 19:04:32 +0000

Did you ever know that you’re my heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeero, you’re everything, everything, everything I wish I could beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee…

By: Angie W

Angie W — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:22:56 +0000

wow, another great post! Too bad for me that I am not as friendly as you are or at least do not come across as one..Here is my short story, my sis in law has a photog friend who wanted to photograph her dog’ he launched his pet biz this month, she said confilict of interest, cause of me..he said who? And then he said “oh, cool I have based my whole buiness on her website, I spent hours on her buiness and even copied her pricing, you can get the same service from me!” She will not tell me his name, as she does not want to be involved, but I am sure I have his IP address.. what should I do?
Thank you Jamie!

By: sabrina

sabrina — Wed, 06 May 2009 05:40:49 +0000

wow! that was an AMAZING post!! thank you!