If you’ve been to a local high school football, maybe a kids soccer game, or at a recent high school graduation ceremony, perhaps you may have seen photographer Jacob Cantu on the sidelines taking pictures and capturing memories.

Cantu first started taking photos as a junior in high school after his mother bought his father a camera for Christmas. His father never used the camera so Cantu taught himself photography. Cantu said he fell through the photography rabbit hole by taking photos for his friends and bringing his camera to Victoria East games.

This eventually snowballed into him getting opportunities as a sports photographer after graduating in 2021, as his friends would recommend him to take photos of the football team.

Now Cantu photographs a variety of things ranging from sports to senior portraits. What keeps Cantu motivated with his photography is knowing he has the ability to capture memories for those involved.

“There’s a lot of memories through the pictures I take,” Cantu said

“Let’s say it’s a championship game or a graduation party. Those are big moments that you’re capturing and everyone’s gonna look back to that picture.”

Cantu shares his work on his Facebook page which has 1,300 followers. Most of his followers are members of the community who leave supportive comments on his posts.

“Everything I post, it’s just nothing but love from the community,” Cantu said.

Cantu hopes to take his photography further by taking photos for the NFL or the Houston Astros. Ultimately his personal goal with photography is to explore new places and make as many friends as possible.

On LinkedIn, Samuel Oluwagbemiga is a brand photographer, a virtual and remote photographer, and a storyteller who is inspiring others to take up virtual photography and earn in foreign currencies across the world – a brand which would have been nothing short of aspirational if it wasn’t a bogus lie.

What is true is that Oluwagbemiga has been claiming copyright over photos belonging to other photographers to pass himself off as a virtual photographer, misleading his unsuspecting audience into paying him to teach them about virtual and remote photography or contracting him for a virtual photo session.

About a month ago, Oluwagbemiga posted photos of Chef Love who, according to him, was Nigerian and resident in the United Kingdom. He claimed that the photos were a result of one of his virtual photography sessions shot using his phone and even posted a snapshot of messages exchanged between him and the said client.

“Chef Love (a Nigerian), who resides in the UK, had her first virtual session with me for her brand, and she’s yet to get over the experience. She was so surprised at how easy it was to get her images taken from a distance, while I was at my end creating clean and authentic virtual shots. And seeing the final image, she couldn’t tell the difference,” Oluwagbemiga wrote on his LinkedIn page.

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FIJ found that the person in question was not Chef Love but Sandra Brooks, a clinical psychologist who championed plant-based nutrition, and she was photographed by Meg Marie, a San Diego-based brand photographer.

Similarly, in another LinkedIn post, he claimed to have shot ‘Valerie’ for her birthday, but it was in fact a photograph of Tina Barr, a Ukrainian actress and journalist, which was shot by Nastya Boreiko, a female Ukrainian photographer professionally known as photobypinkfox, who had the photo pinned on her Instagram page.

Oluwagbemiga also had Barr’s pictures as one of his pinned images on Instagram.

READ ALSO: Wakanow Used Copyrighted Image Without Permission, Then Demanded N100m From Photographer

There were also photographs of soon-to-be-wed couples Shelby Alvarez and Fabian taken by Utah wedding photographer Mady, alias visuals.jm, and a family photoshoot taken by BreAnne Weston, a Utah-based photographer, which Oluwagbemiga claimed to have shot virtually.

FIJ noticed that Oluwagbemiga only lifted photos shot by female photographers, among whom were Aubrey Burman, a Michigan-based wedding and brand photographer whose Instagram pinned photo he claimed to own; Utah photographers Hannah Mack, Breanne Weston, and Mady; and San Diego photographer Meg Marie.

FIJ contacted Oluwagbemiga through WhatsApp for comments on our findings, and he admitted to obtaining the photos from Instagram, adding that he had given due credit.

“All these pictures were later given credit that they are from Instagram. And all pictures I snapped, I have it in my portfolio on the app shot virtually (sic).”

FIJ confirmed that Oluwagbemiga had yet to acknowledge any of the original photographers on his LinkedIn posts or admit that the images he claimed to own were taken from Instagram.

Those photographs were still on Oluwagbemiga’s LinkedIn and Instagram pages at press time.

From under the sea to a bush toilet, the beauty of nature can be found everywhere as these talented photographers have revealed. 

Winners from across Australia have been celebrated for their stunning shots in the 2023 Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year. 

Marking 20 years of the competition, Australian Geographic picture editor Nicky Catley said the images also depicted the “fragility of our natural world”.

“The competition has become a record of our changing world, an earth in perpetual transformation, and this year we recognise that photography is more important than ever in showing us what is at risk of being lost,” Ms Catley said.

There were 11 categories this year, including: 

• Overall winner 
• Animals in nature 
• Urban animals
• Macro 
• Landscape 
• Threatened species 
• Monochrome
• Astrophotography 
• Junior 
• Our impact
•  Portfolio 

Here’s a look at the breathtaking images.

Overall winner: My Country Burns by Samuel Markham 

Animals in nature: Aftermath by Matty Smith 

Urban animals: Frog in a Bog by Tom Owen Edmunds

Macro: Nectar of Life by Dan Jones

Landscape: Intricate by Tania Malkin

Threatened species: Golden Seahorse by Peter McGee 

Monochrome: Desert Tower by Luke Tscharke

Astrophotography: Mungo by Jason Perry

Junior: Hidden Courage by Isabella Alexis

Our impact: Swamped Skies by Joshua Rozells

 Portfolio: Aerial Oceans by Lewis Burnett