Birds Make Good Neighbors

Last year I joined a fan page on Facebook called Pet Photographers of America ran by Colleen Paige.  How it works is, you submit a photo of your pet and if she “likes” it, you send her a high resolution photo where it may be used in a series of coffee table books, allegedly, to come out this year.  (I also submitted photos for her “homeless shelter” project, in which I took photos of cats at the shelter I volunteered at – and never heard back – after she continuously said she’d be emailing). 

I sent several photos and continuously received several “likes”, but never was sent a release form.  Months went by and people started accusing Colleen of stealing and using photos, so a few of us “fans” got a little nervous.  First of all, emails were never responded to, release forms never sent, fans now needed to become paying members of her website to have first choice of their photos to be used in the coffee table series and then the PPOA Facebook page was dismantled (as well as her personal facebook page).  So I emailed Pet Photographers of America, never heard back and then emailed again, telling them NOT to use my photos.  Sales of the book are suppose to help shelters – “we” aren’t sure what sales go towards because, again, we never received full information regarding the project and emails were never responded to after asking about details.

 Membership at Colleen’s website is $45 for a “regular member”.  Where this money goes, I am not positive either; but if it goes towards shelters like she says, I would rather support my local shelter, rather than support someone who doesn’t email back, deletes and constantly changes her website & email addresses and then dismantles a facebook page where several hundreds of photos were submitted.    I would have been honored to have my cats in a legitimate coffee table book series, but I am even more honored to post MY photos at my very own wesbite (and not be out $45+).

All photos (c) Tiffany 2005-2010.  Do not use photos without permission.

(c) 2009 BMGN . Boston. Winter 2009

(c) 2009 BMGN . Acacia Tree . Arizona . Spring 2009