What to do when you have a bad copycat?

LCCphoto · Oct 6, 2012

There is this other photographer that lives in the same small town that I do and she mimics everything I do but is a horrible photographer. She has a photography business Facebook page but doesn't even own a camera she borrows her uncles, grrr everything about her annoys me! I have never called myself a photographer yet I have been shooting for about 5 years I dabble in just about everything. I love to try new things and share my best work with my friends on Facebook. But because I enjoy feed back it allows her to see my work and to copy it, if I do water droplet pics then she does them, if I paint with light then she does............. I love to photograph HDR and now she found out how to do it but doesn't own a tripod and has horribly aligned photos but she has been going around offering less money to my clients that I had lined up to do custom cars, trucks, planes .... What would you do ???

prodigy2k7 · Oct 6, 2012

Ignore it and make your photography better that people will love it and not theirs.

TonysTouch · Oct 6, 2012

Count your blessings. Every time she posts something you already did, but worse, it makes your work look even better.

Majeed Badizadegan · Oct 6, 2012

I would ask her out on a date. Sounds like she's into you!

Derrel · Oct 6, 2012

Look at it this way--you are a trend-setter! A style leader! You have a groupie! A fan! Pretty good way of thinking about it!

globeglimpser · Oct 6, 2012

links to both facebook pages or it didn't happen!

StarLyt · Oct 6, 2012

Derrel said:
Look at it this way--you are a trend-setter! A style leader! You have a groupie! A fan! Pretty good way of thinking about it!

+1

bratkinson · Oct 6, 2012

Hire a professional leg breaker?

manaheim · Oct 6, 2012

Ignore it.

Read a book on anger management.

I say this as an angry person reading a book on anger management myself.

If you're really better than her, then you have nothing to fret about. If you're not better than her, then either get better or stay ahead of her and you'll be fine.

A bad copycat isn't nearly as much of a problem as a good one. And a good copycat is only a problem if you either a> care or b> have a business and she's better at business than you are... at which point your problem is really your business skills, not your copycat.

Tee · Oct 6, 2012

You say you don't call yourself a photographer but then a few sentences later you claim to have clients? Using the term client implies you have a business. Here's the deal. Whether you want to admit it or not, you're jealous she is marketing herself better than you. You feel she should not have a Facebook page because you are better than her. None of that is within your control. You have several options that you can control:

1) De-friend her on Facebook so you don't have to see her marketing herself better than you
or
2) Confront her. Seriously, forget this passive aggressive stuff. Ask her why it's so coincidental that she's posting the same stuff after you do
or
3) Create your own Facebook page with prices lower than hers
or
4) Create your own Facebook page with higher prices and let your work speak for itself
or
5) Be happy she has the cojones to make a FB page and offer to give her tips
or
6) Do your own thing and enjoy what you do. Either stand up, grow a set and speak your mind or eliminate bad people from your life. It's really not that hard.

jake337 · Oct 6, 2012

Practice, hone your skills and create images that are much harder to replicate or mimic.

LCCphoto · Oct 6, 2012

Tee said:
You say you don't call yourself a photographer but then a few sentences later you claim to have clients? Using the term client implies you have a business. Here's the deal. Whether you want to admit it or not, you're jealous she is marketing herself better than you. You feel she should not have a Facebook page because you are better than her. None of that is within your control. You have several options that you can control:

1) De-friend her on Facebook so you don't have to see her marketing herself better than you
or
2) Confront her. Seriously, forget this passive aggressive stuff. Ask her why it's so coincidental that she's posting the same stuff after you do
or
3) Create your own Facebook page with prices lower than hers
or
4) Create your own Facebook page with higher prices and let your work speak for itself
or
5) Be happy she has the cojones to make a FB page and offer to give her tips
or
6) Do your own thing and enjoy what you do. Either stand up, grow a set and speak your mind or eliminate bad people from your life. It's really not that hard.[/QUOTE
I have a full time job and I am worried that if I start a page I will become to busy, but I still have people who insist on me taking pictures for them. I feel that in 5 years of doing it there is still tones to learn and I guess I can't settle on one type of photography to perfect it so I am afraid that to call my self a photographer because I might not meet someone's expectations in the field that they hire me for. I just don't want to look like all these other people that buy a camera and the next day they call them selfs a photographer and start a page on Facebook. I have all ready unfriended her but she still manages to see pics through my friends. i should not let it bother me because her work is truly terribleI but I might consider reading a book about anger management I believe my temper gets In the way of my positive thinking .