Wedding Blogs Allowing Watermarks on Photos

A few years ago I wrote an "Open Letter to Wedding Bloggers" on my personal blog about the allowance and usage of watermarks on images.  I felt like I did a great job of outlining the reasons why it's important for a watermark to appear on an image - both for the photographer needing copyright protection and for the image protection of the clients featured in the photo.  Yet, not much has changed in the wedding blogger world.

There was a suggestion put forward for me to create a blogger list of shame for those blogs that don't allow watermarks, but I don't think that's nearly as helpful as highlighting all of the amazing and gracious wedding blogs that DO allow watermarking of images on their site.  I find it's far better for everyone involved to feed advertising dollars and attention to bloggers who are doing the right thing for their audience and content providers.  

Below is a list of blogs that allow watermarks ON your images, so that when your images are pinned or shared elsewhere from the blog, they can continue to be protected for you and your clients.  It's by no means a complete list, so if you know of more, PLEASE share them in the comments so we can keep growing this list to make it a great resource for all!  Special thanks to our awesome wedding photography colleagues Zofia Crosby, Adam George, and Dina Douglass who helped me update these resources for you.

Submission Links to Wedding Blogs that Allow Watermarks:

• WEDDINGBEE - Self-Upload Gallery of Real Wedding Photos (non-exclusive use and publication means you can upload here and elsewhere)
• BRIDES - Condé Nast's Online Bridal Guide
• BRIDAL GUIDE - Destination & Local Wedding Guides
• OH LOVELY DAY - Real Wedding Detail Inspiration
• WEDBITS - Image Driven Wedding Planning Tips
• OFFBEAT BRIDE - Real Offbeat Wedding Submissions
• ROCK N ROLL BRIDE - Real Badass Wedding Submissions
• SOUTH ASIAN BRIDE MAGAZINE - Real Weddings with Indian/SA Cultural Details
• GRACE ORMOND'S WEDDING STYLE - Couture High End Real Weddings
• POLKA DOT BRIDE - Australia's Wedding Blog
• BRIDES UP NORTH - Europe's North of UK Wedding Blog
• MAHARANI WEDDINGS - Real South Asian Weddings

Anne Ruthmann is a lifestyle photographer in New York City. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography full-time in 2004 as an independent small business.  She loves helping others find creative and smart solutions to business problems.  Stay in touch on Instagram, Twitter, or Facebook.

5 Steps to Making Your Business Legit

While there are many more things involved in running a business, you can set foot on much more stable ground if you have these five things in place before you start to collect money for your services.  I've been surprised to find that even people who have been in business for up to 2 years don't actually have some of these business basics taken care of yet (I may or may not be talking about myself as well when I started over 10 years ago.)  If you want to call yourself a professional, than you need to operate as a professional by answering all of these questions first:

1. Do you have a Federal Employer Identification Number?
http://www.irs.gov/Businesses/Small-Businesses-&-Self-Employed/Apply-for-an-Employer-Identification-Number-(EIN)-Online

2. Do you have a business bank or credit union account with your DBA name?
http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2013/05/07/doing-business-as/

3. Do you have Business Liability & Equipment Insurance?
http://www.sba.gov/content/types-business-insurance

4. Have you contacted your local small business agency or chamber of commerce to understand your local business laws regarding operating, employment, benefits, and promotions in your city and state?
http://www.sba.gov

5. Do you have a Certified Public Accountant (CPA) to advise you on your bookkeeping, expense tracking, sales tax, and income tax reporting?
http://accountantsworld.com/

... also, while there are many resources available online for contracts and legal documents, you will also want to make an appointment with a local small business lawyer to look over any documents which you use as agreements with your clients in order to make sure you've covered all of your bases to protect yourself and comply with any local laws regarding your offerings.

Anne Ruthmann is an editorial & event photographer in New York City. She spent 10 years practicing marketing & management in corporate and non-profit businesses before pursuing her passion for photography in 2004 as an independent small business. She loves helping others find smart solutions to business problems. Stay in touch on Twitter or Facebook.