Mutual Respect and Appreciation
It has been a long time since I stopped watermarking photos. I never had much of a problem with people stealing my work. Most people I have photographed understand the investments that are made into every photograph before, during, and after it is taken. It's one of those things that separates serious professionals from mere camera-owners.

Why did I Stop?
So awhile back, when I started QuiStone Studios, I decided that I wasn't going to watermark my photos. It's ugly and time consuming, it requires me to double the amount of storage space I use for finished work, and it is generally unnecessary. Why unnecessary? Because Myspace reduces the image quality so much that the end result is barely even suitable as a preview, and most people would rather pay my disgustingly low prices and own the pictures outright. My other galleries are a bit more with the times and have right click protection. It's not perfect, but it keeps the honest people honest, as they say. So I decided I would not bother with the watermarking until I inevitably have to deal with someone too selfish to care.

Time for a change
Well, the clean days are over. My gallery is growing in size, and my images are starting to find their way into places they don't belong. Waiting any longer to make a change will just make it that much more work to accomplish.

New Policy
From now on I will watermark all new images, and I am also going to go back and systematically repopulate my existing galleries with watermarked pics. If you are one of my wonderful clients that has purchased rights to photos featured in my gallery, please contact me if you would like me to leave your images unmarked.

The Law
The Federal Copyright Act of 1976 protects photographs as intellectual works, copyright of the photographer from the moment of creation until transferred by contract to another party. Without permission or copyright transfer from the photographer, you cannot copy, distribute, or reproduce the photographs in any way.
Look it up in Wikipedia, the Library of Congress, or wherever you can google it. It's been the law since before I was born, and hasn't changed in 33 years. For a quick and concise breakdown of photographers' copyrights, click here.

I'm a Dick
I just had to say what needed to be said. Now that it's done, let me point out a few things about how much of a tightass I really am. I don't care if you save a picture from myspace on your hard drive for your own little private digital collection, just don't print it or redistribute it without permission. You remember where you got it, but the next person may not, and the 5th person down the line doesn't even know your name, much less mine.
But why bother? You know how much it costs to get full rights on a photographers photos? Some of you know, and some of you would be shocked. Go on craigslist and request a 2 hour photoshoot with full rights to the finished images, with or without post-editing, and say you don't want to spend more than $100. Make sure and use a dummy e-mail address, by the way, because you are going to get flooded with angry emails from even amateur photographers screaming about how you are a cheapskate, pointing out that the rights transfer itself usually runs a minimum of $1000 for a small shoot or around $300 per image, telling you they won't take the cap off of their lens for $100, etc., etc., etc.
Now look at my blog. Fifteen bucks for individual images, after the editing and optimization has already been done. $40/hr for shooting with fifteen images included per hour with full rights.
Most photographers tell me I'm short-selling myself and undercharging, others get downright angry and attack me with profanity for setting a new standard within such a competitive field (although that's not quite how they phrase it). I'm just secure in my ability, and targeting a different demographic.  I've been doing this for over 15 years. I take better photos, touch up in a fraction of the time, and operate much more smoothly than alot of other players. I shoot what I like, and what makes me feel good. I shoot underground/unsigned bands, portraits for families that typically have little money to spend these days, and struggling models. I give a lot of freebies to the clients I work with regularly, and cross-promote whenever I can help some band I get along with.
But for some reason, I'm still just a dick.