I Published an AI Policy (And Why Your Photographer Should Too)
Protecting Your Photographs from Becoming Training Data
There is a new, rather quiet risk in photography. It does not arrive with a camera. It does not stand next to you during a proposal. It does not interrupt a wedding ceremony.
It happens later.
When your photographs are uploaded, shared, indexed, scraped, processed, and quietly absorbed into systems that were never part of the agreement.
Artificial intelligence does not need to knock on the door. It simply learns from whatever it can access.
And that is precisely why I published an AI policy.
The Invisible Afterlife of an Image
Most people assume the journey of a photograph is simple. It is taken. It is edited. It is delivered. It is shared with friends and family.
End of story.
What they do not see is what happens at scale.
Images placed online can be:
Indexed by search engines
Scraped by automated bots
Collected into datasets
Used to train generative models
Often without the knowledge of the photographer. Certainly, without the consent of the client.
When you commission professional photography, you are not agreeing to your engagement, your wedding, or your family moments becoming anonymous examples inside a machine learning dataset.
At least, you should not be.
Why This Matters
Your photographs are not stock imagery. They are not generic content. They are personal, emotional, and often deeply intimate.
They include:
Your expressions
Your children
Your families
Your once-in-a-lifetime moments
The idea that these images could quietly contribute to training systems that generate unrelated synthetic content is not dramatic. It is simply uncomfortable.
And avoidable.
Consider this: An estimated 6 billion images were used to train LAION-5B, one of the largest AI datasets. Many were scraped from photography websites without permission or notification.
Your wedding day. Your proposal. Your family portrait.
They should never become uncredited data points in someone else's system.
What My AI Policy Actually Does
Publishing an AI policy is not about rejecting technology. It is about setting boundaries.
My policy outlines clearly:
How your images are stored
Where they are published
What protections are in place
How are they shielded from automated scraping
That your photographs are never knowingly submitted to AI training datasets
It also clarifies something important:
Your images are not content. They are commissioned work. And commissioned work carries responsibility.
Practical Protection, Not Paranoia
This does not mean hiding your gallery in a bunker.
It means taking sensible, modern precautions:
Using controlled, password-protected gallery platforms
Limiting metadata exposure
Restricting automated access where possible
Avoiding unnecessary public indexing of full-resolution files
Monitoring platform policies regularly
Working only with vendors who respect client privacy
It also means staying informed. The landscape changes quickly. Policies that were sufficient two years ago are no longer sufficient today.
Protection in this context is ongoing, not symbolic.
Why You Should Ask Your Photographer
If you are investing in professional photography—whether for your wedding, engagement, or family session—you should feel comfortable asking:
Are my images protected from AI scraping?
Do you knowingly allow training use?
Where are my files stored?
How long are they retained?
Who has access?
Do you have a published data policy?
A professional photographer should be able to answer those questions calmly and clearly.
If the answer is vague, that tells you something.
These are not intrusive questions. They are responsible ones. And any photographer who takes their work seriously will respect them.
The Balance
Photography today sits at an intersection between artistry and data. It has always required trust. That trust now extends beyond the shoot itself.
It extends into the digital ecosystem where images live long after the moment has passed.
My responsibility does not end when I deliver your gallery. It includes how that gallery exists in the world afterwards.
That is what this AI policy is about.
Not fear. Not headlines. Not trend-chasing.
Just protecting your photographs from becoming something you never intended them to be.
And in a world that is increasingly comfortable absorbing everything it can see, that feels like a line worth drawing.
Your Images. Your Story. Protected.
Every photograph I create represents a moment you trusted me to capture. That trust extends to how those images are protected, stored, and shared.
If you are planning a session in Naxos; whether a wedding, proposal, family portrait, or vacation photoshoot—and value privacy, transparency, and ethical photography practices, I would be honoured to work with you.