Hello, this is wukyungsoos.

I originally did not intend to do such a post but a dear friend of mine had been experiencing the same thing and has spoken up, so i thought I should too.

It has come to my attention that my photos have not only been reposted on various sites (including tumblr) which honestly I’m okay with. If you want reblogs and likes of your own, that’s fine by me. But what i’m seriously NOT okay with is people cropping out my watermark. I know it’s impossible for NO ONE to edit my photos and that’s why i allowed editing/adjusting, just please, all i asked for was that you do not crop out my watermark.

But there are some people whom I have come across that not only cropped out my watermark, edited my photo without crediting me, AND EVEN ADD IN THEIR OWN WATERMARK.

This, i really do not understand. Just because you edited a photo, does it really make it yours? Do you really have the right to claim it as your own?

I don’t think people understand how much hard work it is for fans who provide hq photos and fansites, even, to take a single photo for you guys. Not only is the DSLR + LENS incredibly heavy, we have to be on standby with the cameras covering our entire faces nearly throughout the concert, just so we wouldn’t miss the perfect moment. It’s extremely tiring, not to mention extremely painful.

Out of the approx 50+ photos I shared of nu'est+apink this time around, those 50 photos were carefully chosen out of nearly 2 thousand photos, and it took me 3 nights of barely sleeping to choose and edit them all.

So you may think, isn’t it my own fault? No one forced me to take photos, isn’t it?

The only reason why I take photos at every concert, not only because I want to keep those memories with me, is because I want to spread the love of the idol(s) i love, in hope that more people would come to love them too.

You may also think, “there are already so many edits out there, why shouldn’t I do it too? Nothing’s there to stop me.”

Just because there are already a lot of people editing photos when they shouldn’t, does that make it any more okay for you to do it too? Does two wrong really make a right?

I don’t think so.

I could have shared my photos on a different website, one with a lesser chance of being rudely edited, but I just thought that tumblr would be the easiest platform to share photos and reach out to fans and potential fans. That’s my main objective.

I try really hard to please everyone by placing my watermarks at an inconspicuous corner so as to not ruin the photo’s quality or block the subject’s face or whatever. But obviously I was shooting my own foot. I just made it a whole lot easier to get edited.

Honestly, it’s really inevitable that people would want to edit my photos, because I know my editing skills aren’t exactly the best, so if people decide that they want to edit it and make it better, which would include cropping out my watermark to have a clearer view of the subject, IT’S REALLY OKAY. Keep it as a wallpaper or a screensaver, whatever.

BUT PLEASE, JUST DO NOT SHARE IT. Not only is it rude to the photographer, it’s hurtful that all the credits are going to someone who doesn’t deserve it at the least.

I’m speaking as a fan, as well as a photographer who understand what fansites/fan photographers go through.

I hope editors will think about this before doing something that they really shouldn’t.

Respect is all I ask for. Please give that to us, who try our best for you too.