Wow, just had an upsetting situation happen on Instagram. I made a comment on a non photography post on Instagram and someone must have gone to my page, or what ever you call it, and looked at my photos. They then went on to say that many of the photos were not mine! They even said they had seen one on Nat Geo and was not mine and I was not giving credit! I responded to this person saying they were certainly all mine and the response back was there is no watermark and why do others names show up? Then proceeded to ask if I worked for Nat Geo.... I can only assume the other names they referred to are the people I tagged who were on the trip with me and I do not use a watermark, as many on Instagram do not.

This just really upsets me to be accused of claiming someone else’s photo! I did once again reply that I guaranteed that 1,000% they are all my photos and I was honored they thought my photos were Nat Geo worthy....

There are of plenty of trolls Who reside in social media. This is because of the anonymity they are given. As an accomplished photographer, the EXIF data can vouch for your work. As a hobbyist, my photos are not my livelihood. I can understand how your experience can be upsetting.
Perhaps spending time with a book called, “The Copyright Zone, A Legal Guide For Photographers and Artists In The Digital Age” by Edward C. Greenberg and Jack Reznicki. You could watermark your photographs or even create a poor man’s copyright. You take your photographs and mail them back to yourself. When you receive them leave the envelope closed.

As I am Jewish I practice several laws and cultural rules. I will NOT go into those here because I do not wish this post to end up in the Attic. I can be privately messaged so as not to offend others here or the Administrators.

As I am not a professional photographer, I can understand how you must feel. But we have several professionals here who have their wits about them. Follow their advice because it is from experience.

In any case, don’t lose sleep over this, you have this covered. Just remember there are a lot of trolls out there and they gather on Social Media with nothing better to do.

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Photo Lady...

I will only say that your second answer was absolutely the best... End of Story

... leave it at that... God Love you

After being on this planet for 74 years and being a cop for over 30 years, I learned a long time ago, there are many different types of people in this world... and that will "NEVER" change. You, are you... and that is "OK"

One philosophy I have in life is... "Live, and Let Live" and with your second answer, you did just that.



Cheers
GeoVz
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YMMV but I never cast pearls before swine. Logical or rational defensive argument is ineffective against stoopiditty. Unfortunately you have already dignified the accusation with a logic-based reply. I never dignify such BS by means of reason, logic or fact.

In your shoes I’d have been rather bombastic, claiming to work for not only Nat Geo but also MI-6, and the KGB and that all other practitioners are all just my puppets.

Essentially such replies say “Your accusation is so fictional and irrational that it can’t be taken seriously”.

I can claim I work anonymously for Nat Geo. My accuser says “prove it”. I reply “prove I don’t”. Then I ignore whatever proceeds from there.

Watermark ??? “I don’t deface my work. I use an invisible radioactive watermark and it has always held its own in court, 100%.” and “Visible watermarks are mainly for sad little nobodies pretending to have something to protect”.

Cast no pearls of logic or honesty before swine. No half measures. Make your fictional and illogical replies blatantly tall tales. Radioactive ? Digitally online ? Tell me thaz unsane, and I’ll ask you “Is the hook hurting your lip much ? cuz it’s all swollen and bloody!”.

Beth, I, too, think that very many of your images are worthy of Nat. Geo. Just wondering; with digital images METADATA, why would such a thing ever come up? Perhaps it is how we set up our cameras but, when I look at the data attached to my images, there is clearly the name of the artist and copyright info as well as date, time, lens, camera, etc. No problem. Drop these into Jeffrey Friedl's page and see.
https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-607697-1.html
The world is full of jackasses. Just tell them that digital images hold more than just pictures and that the data within yours "don't lie".