Corey Ann Photography Corey Ann Balazowich of Stop Stealing Photos Corey Balazowich, Photo Stealers, Stop Stealing Photos, Corey Ann Wedding photographer/Blog ownerIs not telling the truth and is heavily involved in online harassment and stalking Canton Ohio

Corey Ann Photography also runs a blog called Photo Stealers/StopStealingPhotos.  She recently started a Go Fund Me and has raised over 11K, for legal defenses since she has announced that she is facing more than one pending lawsuit against her for her alleged involvement in online bullying and more.  There is nothing wrong with the Go Fund Me, but it is her recent update that she posted on it that is a BOLD FACED LIE.

Here is what she wrote:

"First of all - THANK YOU to all who have donated to the fund. I'm amazed, gobsmacked and speechless by all of the support - monetary, hugs, and/or messages - I have received. 

Yesterday the campaign was reported for fraud but it was luckily quickly reapproved and is back up and running. 

I have decided to end the donations later today as I have surpassed my goal.

I wanted to clear a few things up here before this comes to a close. 

1 - I never have gone 'searching' for photographers that have stolen images in their portfolio. 

2 - The majority of the time, the (or one of) photographer stolen from brings a thief to me, asking me for help. Often by this point the thief has told the photographer that asked for their image to be taken down to buzz off (typically in more colorful terms) or ignores the requests for the image/s to be taken down.

3 - If not the original photographer, I reach out to the victim/s and let them know and make sure the photographer in question wasn't a second photographer, assistant and/or associate photographer. Typically this happens when the vast majority of the images are from one photographer and/or one region of photographers.

4 - I clear it with the victims before making a post when possible. Often things are resolved quickly and I don't need to make a post. 

5 - If/when I make a post, I try to notify all photographers that were victims that I didn't get a hold of before the post. Often there's dozens of photographers so I don't always get to everyone beforehand. 

6 - If the thief has made retribution and the victims all agree, the post is removed. 

Hope that helps clear up some questions as far as what is going on behind the scenes at Photo Stealers."

I was "Featured" on this blog for taking photos that were not not mine and wrongly using them as my own.  I have since rectified this and made ammends with the original photographers.  I am not bitter at all, but I am angered by this untrue statement on her Go Fund Me.  It is deceiving. 

The problems with the above statement are that they are not true and there is confirmation of the lies throughout the comments on her blog.

Statement #2 - Vary rarely (small percentage) is it the stolen from photographer that goes to her, at least not in the featured posts.  It is usually a competing photographer from the same area.  This is confirmed in many of the comment sections by various comments.  I can also prove this statement as untrue based on the facts I have about who reported me.  I was never contacted by an original photographer or anyone from photo stealers before the post on me took place.  The original photographers also have all told me they were never contacted, by Corey or anyone else with photo stealers.  They were also very upset to see the online slaughter going on, that they never requested.

Statement #3 - I was never contacted prior to the posting and given an opportunity to remove the photos and make ammends.  Never!

Statement #4 & 5 - NOBODY was contacted prior to the posting. Not me and not a single one of the original photographers.  I have seen photographers comment, after the listing has been up for a few days, very surprised.  Some have said Thank You, but the fact that they were surprised shows that they had no idea prior to the post.  Almost all that have commented have made a simple comment and have not taken part in the personal attacks and harassment.  

Statement #6 - I have made full retribution and yet the post remains. The photographers that I took from told me that they were sorry that I was going through the online attacks.  One contacted Corey, asking her to remove the listing, and Corey never responded.

I just felt it necessary to point out the fallacies in what Corey is saying here.  I honestly do not believe her regular commenters realize that none of this goes on behind the scenes as she is saying it does.  In my case, I woke up one morning (the morning my grandmother died) to an onslaught of attacks  on my Facebook Page and website, complete with links to the listing, as well as attacks on my character, attacks about my family, attacks about my actual work, and much more.  What I did was wrong, but had I had an opportunity to rectify it before the listing I would have, because when I did it, I really did not see it as theivery.  I do now, whether it is 1 or 100 photos, it was wrong.

I am not posting this to comment on her own photography skills.  You can determin that on your own and you can also decide on your own if you want to hire a photographer that is involved in these activities.  I am posting this because people need to understand that www.Stopstealingphotos.com founded, moderated, and operated by Corey Ann Balazowich of Corey Ann Photography in Canton, Ohio is actively involved in destroying human lives and lying about the process.