ADVICE: CIERRA F'S MODELING: Why You Should Always Be Original, Don't Steal Ideas
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| Model: Cierra F's Modeling Photo: Allen (TiO2Edits) Hair: Andi (Techniques Hair Shop) Manager: Joseph A. Camp |
Why You Should Always Be Original
Don't Steal Other People's Ideas
Don't Steal Other People's Ideas
As an aspiring model, one of the hardest things to cope with is when you put an abundance of hard work into planning and executing the perfect photo shoot for your portfolio only to see a few days later that someone else copied your concept, ideas, and design.
They say that imitation is the best form of flattery, but imitation is frustrating when the person who stole your ideas is attempting to pass them off as their own -giving you no credit.
Cierra F's Modeling has often been the victim of intellectual property theft by other models, going so far as to copy caption style, credit style, and even image concepts.
Why It Matters:
When you are an aspiring model, early in you career, still full of enthusiasm and naivety, you put forth hours and hours of labor into each shoot. Planning for every contingency and possibility. The model has probably rearranged numerous scheduling conflicts, and put out numerous fires and has probably invested their own monies into the shoot.
Then, after the shoot, and the images come back, the model is excited to see the fruits of their creative labor materialize into beautiful images worthy of the cover of a magazine. Three or four of those images are posted to various social media platforms to share with followers. Excitement grows as the "likes" and "reactions" pour in. Then, two days later, another aspiring "model", one that you even looked up to, posts several images that are almost exact replicas of your shoot.
Then, after the shoot, and the images come back, the model is excited to see the fruits of their creative labor materialize into beautiful images worthy of the cover of a magazine. Three or four of those images are posted to various social media platforms to share with followers. Excitement grows as the "likes" and "reactions" pour in. Then, two days later, another aspiring "model", one that you even looked up to, posts several images that are almost exact replicas of your shoot.
The planning, and preparation by the other model was not as high quality, of that you can tell. The images look like they were taken on a cell phone camera ad hoc. The caption is simply a paragraph of hashtag SPAM. You are devastated. You want to cry. You see the hard work you put into your shoot pale because the other model's hashtag SPAM gives the impression that their version of YOUR shoot is more popular.
DO NOT BE DISCOURAGED
It was once said "I would like to see another person beat me at my own idea". You can rest assured that if the other model has stolen your concept and ideas, they have probably also stolen ideas and concepts from others as well. This is a good thing, because it means that this other model has probably gotten ire from others as well for their intellectual theft. Meaning, so long as you continue to be the best you possible, maintain the high standard that is worthy of theft, and keep up the hard work that you put into the stolen shoot, you will always be more creative and will advance further than the copycats.
Your originality will be seen by the professionals in the industry, and you will learn that the real professionals who make the decisions, write the checks, edits the publications, produces the shoots, etc. know the difference between original high quality work, and the copycats.
Your originality will be seen by the professionals in the industry, and you will learn that the real professionals who make the decisions, write the checks, edits the publications, produces the shoots, etc. know the difference between original high quality work, and the copycats.
You can rest assured that the person who stole your idea isn't going to be working with the same high standards that you have set for yourself and your shoots. Keep up the hard work, the enthusiasm, and joy of modeling, because before you know it, you will see that not just one, but LOTS of other models will start copying your style. That is when you know you are setting the bar standard for modeling.
