Feeling a bit low about the whole cake decorating business - Page 2

I suppose I missed it, as I cannot seem to find it. I don't like threads like this because it always hurts my feelings when I don't find that any of my cakes were stolen, lol.

I understand the pressure of wanting a decent portfolio, when you don't have one, but these things take time. It's not fair to other cakers, or customers when you pass off other cakes as your own. One good way to build your portfolio is to take pictures of cakes at each stage as you're decorating. Cover in fondant, snap a pic. Put a flower on it, snap a pic. Take that off, put a ribbon border on it, snap! Take that off, put a quick drape on it, snap! Put the drape the other way, add a broach, snap! I did that in the beginning, and no one knew!

Well this looks bad. I think after this (not that anything i have done would ever get stolen) I am going to start putting watermarks on my photos or a photoshop mark of some sort.This will make sure this never happens.That is a very nice cake and would have taken some time to create not to mention a good eye. Start photoshopping your pics everyone and put a signature in a spot that can not be cropped.

*snort*

I am assuming she has deleted her fb page? Before I read the whole thread I went to look for her on fb and couldn't. Picture stealing is unacceptable. You are lying to prospective customers saying "I made this!" and when you can't deliver what they order they don't understand. If you feel like you CAN. Make a cake. Make it. Use dummy cakes. But post YOUR work. Not someone else's hard work.

 

This.  Always and forever, this.

LeeAnn - your cakes are gorgeous!

I'm sorry, but what in the world would possess you to STEAL someone else's hard work to pass off as your own and then, tell the very people you have stolen from to go look at your page?? That is beyond stupid. LeeAnn, I love your work and you should feel kinda honored that your work is good enough for people to want to steal. Well, maybe not, but your get te point. OP, get a dagum life that doesn't involve being a thief.

I'll give the OP the benefit of the doubt and hope that she didn't start out to 'steal' the photos. When I was having my website made I didn't have super awesome photos (still don't) but I remember my web designer suggesting getting pics off the internet, even had another friend suggest the same to me. To non-cakers they're just like stock photos, their goal being to get the best pics on your website. Of course I knew better, my pics or no pics. Maybe OP didn't know the photo etiquette in the cake world. I doubt if she would brazenly invite us to her site and facebook if she knew that she had 'stolen' the photos.

I understand that people are irate about stolen photos, and rightly so, but I also get the impression that people are also cranky about their work getting copied.  People are always posting pictures on this site of cakes that they want to copy and asking for advice on how to do it.  Any great cake is going to be copied by amateurs and professionals alike.  Many customers take in photos from magazines and the internet and say "this is what I want".  Many cake decorators are not artists but can still make great cakes because they can use someone else's idea (and yes, i know, hard work).  Sorry but that is the way of the world.  Take it as a compliment if your cake is copies cos you won't be able to stop it.
 

But has anyone actually mentioned anything about copied cakes?

 

I don't have a problem with anyone copying cake designs.

 

But passing someone else's hard work off as your own is just not on!!!  One usually finds that the people who do this don't have the same skill level as the cake pics they've stolen and then the customer doesn't get what they think they've ordered!!!
 

I totally agree with vgcea.  OP probably didn't realize there was an etiquette issue.  She probably just wanted to show her customers an example of what she could make for them.  It doesn't make it right, but that's probably what happened in this situation.  She took the pictures down, but I doubt if that will stop the lynch mob.  I have had my pictures stolen as well, but it is what it is.  You put your stuff out there on the internet, and it's there for the taking.  Again, it doesn't make it right, so if you want credit given to you, it's best to watermark your pictures.  But don't expect a watermark to be a magical force field that is going to prevent them from being stolen.  On the same site where someone had stolen my picture, there were also watermarked pictures.  So watermarks aren't always a deterrent.  However, if someone goes to a website and sees watermarked pictures from other bakers, that person will know that the baker isn't giving a true representation of what s/he can produce.

 

And cazza, to address your comment, I have very rarely seen a "truly original" cake.  It's usually just the same techniques done over again, with different spins.  That is really not what's being addressed here, but you are right-people get irritated when their work is "copied."  But we could have a whole other thread on what constitutes originality, and you can do a search and find old threads where that has been debated ad nauseam. 
 

 

Exactly, which is why I said it was a different situation entirely.  Generally the originality threads get locked or deleted very quickly. 
 

Well, it looks like that even though she hasn't responded here, she's deleted her fb page and removed the photos of other people's cakes from her website. So she appears to have gotten the message and hopefully won't make that mistake again. 

If OP felt low before, she's definitely reached new depths now.

the genuine misconduct is the use of another's photograph without permission no matter what the content

 

the emotional matter is the use of the image but that's a non issue, has no merit

knowing that she prolly didn't know makes it a tremendous complement to have your cake chosen as one she'd like to do

 

no offense to anybody (that cake rocked big time!)

 

and yes esp since she's a newbie not even pricing right and burnt out already she surely did not know

 

but she does now~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

airplanes take off into the wind, the wind is not at their back pushing,

it is in their face helping them lift off, rise higher,  take flight

 

and op you can take all this tornado and fly higher going forward

 

everybody had to learn

 

(((((big hug)))))