My mother in law went to her local Walgreens to pick up some photos....

ConradM

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That I took of the baby and a portrait I took of our 3 boys. I uploaded them to walgreens ahead of time while she was here visiting...

Well I guess, they ALMOST didn't give them to her without a release :lmao: I remember reading a thread about that with walmart on here... But I didn't count on it happening to me.

Supposedly 3 people had to look at the photo in question (portrait) and they all agreed that she should have got a release for it. They also told her to get written consent from me for any future photos she wants printed. :lmao:



I'm not going to upload the pics because I have in the past for CC, but honestly the portrait isn't very good. The WB is way off as is the comp. Either way, I'll take it as a complement. :thumbup:
 
My uncle had that happen when he shot my cousin's senior pictures. WalMart didn't believe him that he WAS the photographer. He just got them printed somewhere else. The quality is better from some of the online printing companies anyway.
 
Are you f'in serious?

I mean, to be honest, I CANNOT imagine why you would EVER print pictures for anything important at a Walmart, but IF I was doing so and they gave me that crap, that place would lose ALL business from me FOREVER... photos and otherwise. Who are they to police your pictures? Seriously. I'm disgusted.
 
I refuse to print photos at WalMart. They print absolute crap. I still shop there, though, because my brother works there, which means I can send a list and pay him back when he gets home. ;)
 
What I don't get is when this happens they don't just say they took the photos. May not be "ethical" just surprised they don't.
 
Do they read the metadata from the files?If so it could state "bob slob photography", which would raise the question if they were your images (if you aren't bob slob of course).
 
It's because people are lawsuit happy these days. They are protecting their best interest, as well as the copyright owner, and I can't fault them for doing that. They know professionals don't use their print services so they question when something remotely better than average comes across their lab.


and yes their prints SUCK.
 
What I don't get is when this happens they don't just say they took the photos. May not be "ethical" just surprised they don't.

I know you meant that in general terms, but my mother in law would literally not lie about anything.
 
But how does any person, with any sense, make a judgement on their customer as to whether they have a right to print a picture of another person based solely upon the content?

I think it's time to add Walmart to my list of hated companies. Probably long overdue.
 
But how does any person, with any sense, make a judgement on their customer as to whether they have a right to print a picture of another person based solely upon the content?

I think it's time to add Walmart to my list of hated companies. Probably long overdue.

You hate them for taking measures to try and protect working professional photographers from having their photos reproduced (printed) without their permission?

Honestly I can understand a tiny amount of frustration at not being able to get the prints at the instant you arrive, but the policy is there purely to protect the professional photographer (something many here are keen to do). It might not be a perfect policy and relies upon human judgement (mostly lowly trained as well), but it is at least a step toward helping protect the professional in a modern environment where such is increasingly difficult to do.
 
Yes. I get pissed when anyone sticks their nose into someone else's business. The world is full of doing things in the name of some seemingly perfectly just cause, but handling it with all the hamfistedness of someone with absolutely no clue what they are about.

The end result is invariably a disaster.

What qualifies some untrained retail employee to judge whether the picture I had printed was likely do good that there was no way the customer could have printed it?

Or a better question... Put a seasoned professional photographer behind the counter. How is HE gonna know?

The answer is there IS no way.

The BEST thing you can say about this is Walmart assumes that none of their customers are competent enough to take a good picture, and therefore questions everyone. Or perhaps they assume that no one with a clue would ever be stupid enough to print their pictures there. So insulting their customers, or their own quality. And in truth both. Awesome. Let's go shop there!
 
What qualifies some untrained retail employee to judge whether the picture I had printed was likely do good that there was no way the customer could have printed it?

Well chances are someone working in printing photos at a popular printers they'll see more photos per day than most of us will - and per week more still. So they probably build up a half decent ability to tell general snapshots (esp when there is more than one) from people who generally know a bit more about their craft; about framing, posing, processing presenting etc...

Like I said might not be perfect every time, but its making the effort and it is trying to protect the professional without confusing the average customer (release forms for all photos would be darn confusing and a hindrance).


Honestly I think you've grabbed the wrong end of the stick Mana and I feel you'd be on the very other end if Walmart printed some of your pictures up for someone else without them asking first ;)
 
What qualifies some untrained retail employee to judge whether the picture I had printed was likely do good that there was no way the customer could have printed it?

Well chances are someone working in printing photos at a popular printers they'll see more photos per day than most of us will - and per week more still. So they probably build up a half decent ability to tell general snapshots (esp when there is more than one) from people who generally know a bit more about their craft; about framing, posing, processing presenting etc...

Like I said might not be perfect every time, but its making the effort and it is trying to protect the professional without confusing the average customer (release forms for all photos would be darn confusing and a hindrance).


Honestly I think you've grabbed the wrong end of the stick Mana and I feel you'd be on the very other end if Walmart printed some of your pictures up for someone else without them asking first ;)

No, you don't know the strength of my convictions or how deeply they run.

I believe that a thing done poorly is FAR worse than a thing not done at all. Especially when it comes to areas of people telling other people what to do, how to live their lives, what is and is not acceptable, etc. Since I also believe that, generally speaking, no one is more qualified to live ones life that oneself, this means I'm pretty far down this particular road and have no intention of turning back.

I have no doubts that were my pictures good enough to be stolen, that they would be... and I have no doubts that if they were printed at a Walmart by the thief that the Walmart would have about as much chance of determining that they were not the shots of the customer ... than I would... which is to say... zero. Or at best, a blind shot in the dark. The same chance they would have to wrongly accuse someone.

I am absolutely not on the wrong end of the stick.

Unfortunately there are faaaaaaaaaaaar too many people who think as you do.

No offense, you know I love you, man... but people who take positions such as you scare the hell out of me.
 
You guys realize this happened at walgreens right? :p
 

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