2/24/2009

Getting ahead?

This evening one of our dear friends and fellow photographers emailed us a link to a photographer from Colorado who is using one of our photographs in her online advertisement at www.listphotographers.com. Her name is Photography by Allison and as far as I can remember, this is our first introduction.

Screen capture from www.listphotographers.com on Feb 24, 2009




Screen capture from www.garrettnudd.com on Feb 24, 2009


Modern technology is amazing and it has opened up innumerable opportunities for business advancement and personal gain. But swiping images from the websites of others and "selling" them as yours is inappropriate on so many levels. Moreover, the fact that this individual calls herself a professional photographer is a disgrace to creatives everywhere.

Clearly, her moral compass could use an adjustment, but perhaps her artistic compass as well. At the very least, you'd think she would have kept the image a somewhat decent photograph by maintaining the horizontal crop rather than changing it to vertical and removing all reference points around the subject of the photograph. Oh well, at least the new vertical version has her name on it and not mine.

26 comments:

Chung Nguyen said...

Based on her website, it looks apparent that she's just starting out (image quality and lack of diversity, ridiculously low pricing). What a terrible start because Google is just gonna remember this for all eternity. It's too bad that she felt like she had to steal someone's image. For shame.

Brandy J Rammel said...

I am really glad you posted this. What is obviously wrong to most is unfortunately completely acceptable to others. Hopefully this will stop others in the future.

Brandi said...

FOR SHAME. For sure. I saw this before over on ILP someone not only had a site full of stolen images (including some from Gabe at Perspective Eye) but she was trying to swindle a bunch of people out of money selling all this camera gear.

Nathan said...

So sorry to hear this happen, but glad you got it taken care of this early. And nice to know you have friends keepin an eye out for ya, right? :)

I'm glad you wrote so sternly about this too. In situations like this, I don't think people should hide or be vague about what happened.

Melanie Watson said...

Boo to that!!! What a sad and disgraceful thing for another photographer to do. I'm glad you all posted this... hopefully it will help put a stop to image stealing.

Christina said...

WOW!! That is so shitty of them. Your the third person I heard who this happened too. Good luck with it all.

Maria Navarrete-Leyva said...

That is so horrible! Glad to hear you got it taken care of. Some people go so low...

Dawn Davis said...

I left her a nice email letting her know that copyright infringement isn't a wise choice. I hope that she removes your image along with any others she may be using that are not hers.

Sorry my friend...

~ Dawn

Anonymous said...

Crazy Bro!!!! Seriously. We have been talking about branding the images on our blog but people can just crop and do whatever they want so what is the point. Bonus points to the friend who was looking out for you. My hope is that my friends look at our work enough to recognize it. People really need to get a life and find some drive of their own.

Anonymous said...

UGH! So sorry to hear that this happened! It always irks me when I see this happen online, but it is great to know that there are people watching your back out there. I hope that there is a positive resolution to this for you.

Anonymous said...

That stinks. I would definitely contact that website to let them know! When you click through to her listing, though, that isn't one of the pictures associated with her "profile." Maybe it's the website assigning "random" images to photographers? The site doesn't even have their own terms of use (it says "coming soon"). Hope you guys get it resolved!

Anonymous said...

UNBELIEVABLE!!! LOVE the way that you chose to handle it. What a disgrace though.

Anonymous said...

Garret & Joy,

I am so sorry to hear about this. I would contact PPA and have the legal team start action immediately.

There is never an excuse for actions like this.

Best Wishes,
Michael

Sublime Studios said...

it looks like she got the hint and changed the picture! sorry about that- it must be extremely irritating!

Anonymous said...

This sucks - but great way to deal with it. It's frustrating times that we live in ...

Corinna Hoffman Photography said...

Yikes!! Sorry to hear this. I'm sure this is very frustrating :( Yay for Krystal R. to find it! I also heard that this photographer took down the image off the site. Thank goodness!

Keep up the lovely work,
Corinna

Corinna Hoffman Photography said...

Yikes!! Sorry to hear this. I'm sure this is very frustrating :( Yay for Krystal R. to find it! I also heard that this photographer took down the image off the site. Thank goodness!

Keep up the lovely work,
Corinna

Anonymous said...

Truly unbelievable! It's so desperate and sad that someone would go to those lengths. You both have handled it like the professionals you are. Very scary she did that though... wow, wow, wow....

Anonymous said...

Oh my....this just makes me sick! I am so glad that you have blogged about it to educate fellow photographers and clients. Thank-you for sharing and I am so sorry that this has happened.

Home Project Manager said...

Wow, that is something else. I am glad you posted this. I followed the link to her website and see she has taken YOUR photos down.

Kate said...

I'm sorry that this happened to you guys! It's really pathetic that people can't even use their own images to advertise. I had to contact photographers a few months ago when someone in Nashville was trying to get into the baby market by using work from photographers that I recognized. *rolling eyes* Sad, sad.

Courtney said...

I can't believe someone would do something like this. Well, I guess I can believe it b/c it happened, but still. I agree w/you that the crop makes it look a lil strange, but I guess serves her right. Sorry yall, that sucks.

Amy Clifton said...

Unbelievable. I can't even imagine thinking that was OK to do.

Mark Stagi said...

That is just crazy, so sad

Daniel J. Watkins said...

Garrett -- I totally forgot to ask you about this / mention it to you...but last year I found a local videographer who used one of your images (a shot of J* from OSPMC, no less) for one of his ads. What made me laugh was that if I had also run a shot of J* from that Corona Del Mar session in the same mag...some people might have noticed something peculiar!

Anonymous said...

Dear bloggers. Our online photographers directory company, www.ListPhotographers.com takes claims of fraud very seriously. Thank you for pointing this out. We are working hard to implement technological solutions, however they rarely manage to supersede diligent eyes of readers like yours. Thank you very much again.