When your dearly beloved is far, far away fighting wars and feeling generally deprived, sending him sexy photos of yourself seems like a really, really good idea. And while putting “wife porn” in a care package may or may not be the best idea you’ve ever come up with, surely a tasteful boudoir photo shoot by a professional isn’t a bad idea. … right?
Unless, of course, you choose not to read the fine print on the bottom of the photographer's contract you’re signing. Then it could be a really, really bad idea, as one set of military spouses near Fort Bragg recently learned.
According to this story, the photographer, Tabitha Jennings, had her clients sign a contract that, among other things, said she could use the photos she took of them in marketing and other promotional materials. This is pretty normal. And in these days of social media “marketing” basically means “Facebook.”
The husband of one of these clients didn’t know about the small print – and neither did his wife. And so they were both more than a little surprised to find her boudoir photos displayed on the photographer’s Facebook page.
From the story:
In multiple back and forth emails that followed, Jennings reminded her client that she initialed a contract checklist which clearly states the images could be "used as marketing tools in print, on her website or through other media outlets."The client claims Jennings described the paper as a copyright release that would allow her to print Jennings' pictures herself and says Jennings gave it to her only minutes before the photo shoot started.
"I was standing in my underwear, so I was feeling uncomfortable, awkward," the woman said. "I just quickly initialed and signed it so we could get started."
In the emails, Jennings also wrote that she was "nice enough to remove all of the images that showed (the client's) face," but reiterated, "I do not have to do this."
There are two lessons for all of us here.
First of all, if you decide to have someone take pictures of you in your underwear, do more than just assume that you are the only one with rights to those photos. Read the fine print and ask the photographer, specifically, if he or she will be using your photo anywhere … and then make sure that they don’t.
The second lesson is a bigger one: just because someone says they aren’t going to use your photo anywhere, and just because they claim the photos are yours and only yours forever does NOT mean that they will stay that way. Sometimes people lie.
Think of it this way: someone just took a picture of you in your underwear and pinky-swore not to show it to anyone. You are a sexy lookin’ lady. Can you really trust this person to keep his or her word?
Maybe having those photos taken isn’t such a good idea after all.
