Come on sports fans, certainly you're better than this!
Caution ; Rant Alert, Rant Alert.
I'll try to make this short but I gotta vent a little. If you've ever visited one of my galleries you noticed that I require an "email address" to sign in. There are numerous reasons why I ask for a valid email address and the reasons are all good, safe. Nothing nefarious. Simple as that. You'll also see that the watermark on every photo has grown over the past two years (it's an experiment that I'm conducting but that's for a future blog).
Of course many emails are not valid due to typos. We all make mistakes, right? No problem.
But the rash of blatantly rude and obscene bogus email addresses that I now see is unacceptable. It's so disappointing that the overwhelming majority of this "crap" is from a local school AND from two particular sports. It's one thing that they copy, print and post copywrite photos with watermarks all over them indicating that they are copywrited, but to be rude and vulgar - nope, it stops now.
Not sure what to do other than require folks to contact me and verify an address OR stop posting. But since my goal is, and has always been, to capture life-long memories for people, so without posting there's no reason to capture photos.
Why is this behavior so prevalent today? Is it the perception of being anonymous that you act in any way? The curse of social media prevails.
I long for the days when sports taught character. I long to take great photos and provide memories to people that truly want them. But perhaps that's too much to ask for these days. Stay tuned.
Until next time, be kind, be safe, and R-E-S-P-E-C-T.
