Jeesh.  

I don't know what it is, but today seemed to be the day for people bitching about my watermarking the photos I post here.  I usually get the occassional off-hand comment, but today I had 4 in a row on 4 separate photos.  

Here's two choice ones today:

"Why do u bother to post if u r gonna put a watermark on it"

- ?????  am I somehow obligated to post WITHOUT a watermark?  Are my photos less "worthy" of posting because I choose to protect the image from use by someone else?  Can someone explain to my why, if there's a watermark, I should not dare to "bother" to post my images?  How asinine was that comment?

"She would be much prettier without that hideous dA watermark. Put a signature somewhere where it doesn't deface the image."

- Okay, really?  personally I don't feel the watermark makes a model LESS pretty somehow.  I mean, is it: "With watermark - She's hideous! She's elephant girl! Without watermark - She's a Victoria's Secret model!" - somehow I don't think that's the case. It's not the model's fault there's a watermark on her image, it's mine.

Yep, I watermark my photos with the DA watermark.  I do that because I've been shooting the most recent wave of photograhpy since 2008 (I've been shooting in total since the 80's) - and with thousands upon thousands of pics, I have not had the time to put my own signature on them for posting here... and I'm not sure I need to, either. But since I've had issues with mis-use of my images before, I use the watermark and have no guilt about doing so whatsoever.  Someone wants to pay for a print, they're welcome to enjoy a watermark-free experience.

Folks, I don't mind, like some people on here seem to do, the virtual voyeurs with no art of their own browsing, faving and commenting on my work - it's all good, feel free to enjoy my work (though I have zero patience for those I would characterize as "trolls" - or those who have no work of their own but feel the need to criticize and complain about someone's work on here) - but I really don't feel I'm under any obligation to make an image freely available on here without protecting it.

Well, people are welcome to comment that they hate the watermark, etc etc - but I really don't care.  They're not working the shoots with me, they're not networking the models with me, and they're not editing the photos with me - I feel they're just bitching the boobs aren't clearly visible enough for them to do whatever with...

If someone can't "critique" a photo because there's a watermark on it, oh well - personally I can envision a photo around the watermark, it's not that distracting, and it's not distracting at all to a disciplined mind.  

So, that's my rant, and my unapologetic promise to continue to watermark until I've developed a signature I like and embedded it on my photos.