Help Small Business Owner & Single Mom

Hi Everyone!

This is Jen, with Fractured Lens Photography. After posting my story about what happened with Cambria & Choice Hotels stealing my photo I was surprised beyond belief to see just how many people reached out to show support. I truly am the luckiest person in the world to have a community full of such caring, thoughtful folks. Several of you have encouraged me to start a GoFundMe, not just to continue to seek justice against the hotel, but also to recover some of the thousands of dollars that I have put out in legal feels. Unfortunately lawyers, documents, and court fees are incredibly expensive (I was told that the federal court filing fees would be around $10,000 on their own.) I have already put out a little over $7000 and as a single mom and small business owner that was already difficult, and this just isn't a journey that I can continue to do anymore on my own. I'm incredibly grateful for any and all help and support.

Cambria and Choice Hotels should be ashamed of themselves, but sadly I have learned from others around town that unethical business practices seem to be the standard for them.

If you're here and you haven't heard the story about what happened, here it is:

In August of 2020 Cambria Hotel Ocean City Bayfront in Downtown Ocean City, Maryland stole one of my photos. The Cambria brand is owned by the global conglomerate Choice Hotels, who decided to use the photo that they stole from me in an international marketing campaign.

From what I understand an individual named Dawn Dillon, who worked for the Cambria at the time, handling their social media (and now works for the Jolly Roger at the Pier doing the same line of work, and I can tell you that through recent business dealings she seems to have learned nothing about professionalism in the process) saw the photo and decided to poach it. She then sent it to the liaison for the Choice Hotels brand who then distributed it company wide for use to promote themselves, all without my permission. The used the image on all on their social media platforms, on their website, AND in marketing campaigns.

I am a single mom of 4 kiddos from ages 15 - 6. Their father has completely abandoned them and decided that he doesn’t want to be a parent anymore, so I’m all they have. I am a full time photographer and my photography business is how I support my kids and provide for their needs. It’s important to me to raise my kids to be hard working, kind, honest, productive members of society. I try to impart on them that it is always within their ability to make a positive impact on the world, and that they can do anything that they set their minds to.

The licensing fee for use of one of my photos would have been substantial and made a large difference in my kids lives. Choice Hotels/Cambria couldn’t be bothered to pay that though. The image that they stole was one that I’d registered with the federal copyright office, and also one that I’d watermarked. Choice Hotels/Cambria violated clear federal copyright law by using the photo as their own without permission on several counts and then again on two separate counts by editing out my watermark (which is also against federal copyright law and punishable by up to $500 for each offense). Copyright law is very clear on both of these.

I hired a lawyer to seek a fair resolution for this after my attempts to reach out directly failed. I spent THOUSANDS of dollars on my legal fees and Choice Hotels/Cambria basically responded with belittling sexism from their counsel, and by making it clear that they had deeper pockets to go to court with than I did.

I had no choice but to to let it go because I couldn’t afford to go up against a large international corporation with deeper pockets. I just dont have the money to fight the legal fight, and so Choice Hotels/Cambria gets away with it because they can afford to. All in all I am beaten down, broken, and dejected because not only has Choice Hotels/Cambria cost me income from the photo they stole from me, but they also cost me money in legal fees for a battle that I simple couldn’t afford to continue.

Congratulations, Choice Hotels/Cambria, you win. You beat the locally owned small business. All I wanted was fair compensation for the image you stole, so that I can continue to provide for my kids in the best way possible.

To my followers/fans of my work: I know that many of you were supportive of what was going on, so I feel that I finally owed you guys the full story, including the names of the individuals involved. Thank you for always being so wonderful.

*The cover photo here is NOT the one that Choice Hotels/Cambria stole. It is a photo of two of my kids, because my kids mean the world to me and will always be the driving force behind everything I do.

You can find my Facebook posts about the matter here:

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