Popular Post Betty LaRue Posted September 6 Popular Post Share Posted September 6 Although I live in Kansas now, I lived my whole life in Oklahoma. I took the newspaper, “The Oklahoman”. Since I moved, I take the Oklahoman online. Yesterday, I saw a picture of a hummingbird feeding on a trumpet vine to illustrate a story about the hummingbird migration. It looked familiar. I looked closer and saw my credit, Betty LaRue, but no credit to Alamy. Kinda cool to have my image printed in my home state newspaper. And no, it hasn’t shown up as a sale, yet. I hope my hometown/state newspaper didn’t rip me off. 3 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 So great! Nothing like seeing a photo of your own, published, when you least expect it. Hope it shows up soon in your sales. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted September 6 Author Share Posted September 6 1 hour ago, Michael Ventura said: So great! Nothing like seeing a photo of your own, published, when you least expect it. Hope it shows up soon in your sales. Thanks, Michael. Considering your career, I imagine you’ve seen a lot of yours in print considering you know exactly who hired you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 19 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said: Thanks, Michael. Considering your career, I imagine you’ve seen a lot of yours in print considering you know exactly who hired you. Yes, but it is rare that I find a totally unexpected photo in print, that is whole other level of fun!!! I remember once seeing a surprise photo of mine (with credit) of a concert pianist, in the Washington Post. I get the post delivered so I saw it while having my morning coffee. Maybe a year before then, I had been hired to photograph him through his PR firm for promotional photos. But the funny thing about all this is that, later that day, I went to visit an old photographer friend, with whom I grew up, he was visiting his parents (lives in NY now). When I got there, they had the article out on the kitchen table about the pianist and I thought maybe they saw my photo credit! So I said; "Hey that's my photo!" They replied; "Oh wow that is crazy, we know him, Peggy (my friend's sister) was in a serious relationship with him, almost married him". But no one noticed the photo credit 😔 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Martin L Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Biggest shock I had was watching a TV show on a French street artist and nearly choked on my fish and chips when one of my pics flashed up. It hadn't been reported as a sale yet so was totally unexpected 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
M.Chapman Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 11 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: Kinda cool to have my image printed in my home state newspaper. Wonderful. I really like it when I get an image used as a magazine cover shot, always a pleasant surprise. I've even bought a copy of the magazine a couple of times as a souvenir, although the way fees have gone in recent times, it's in danger of becoming loss making indulgence. 😀 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted September 6 Share Posted September 6 Congratulations, Betty. I used to to license travel features regularly to newspapers in the US and Canada, so I often saw my images in print. The better papers actually used to send me tear-sheets. However, the thrill wore off as newspapers started paying less and devising rights-grabbing contracts that I refused to sign. If your sale doesn't show up here, I'd call the Oklahoman and ask where they got your photo, especially since they didn't credit Alamy as well. What, me paranoid? 😱 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted September 7 Author Share Posted September 7 (edited) 21 hours ago, John Mitchell said: Congratulations, Betty. I used to to license travel features regularly to newspapers in the US and Canada, so I often saw my images in print. The better papers actually used to send me tear-sheets. However, the thrill wore off as newspapers started paying less and devising rights-grabbing contracts that I refused to sign. If your sale doesn't show up here, I'd call the Oklahoman and ask where they got your photo, especially since they didn't credit Alamy as well. What, me paranoid? 😱 Funny thing about the photo. I have about 6-8 photos of a hummingbird feeding on the same trumpet vine. I can find the exact one of the flowers, but the orientation of the hummingbird isn’t the same. The original of the flowers shows the bird feeding from the right, but the printed version shows the bird feeding from the left, and it’s not the same bird, wings, orientation, etc. They just didn’t simply flip the image. It’s like they took the flower from one image and composited the bird from another of mine. About drove me crazy trying to find the exact one and not being able to. This of the flowers: This looks like the bird. Both taken in my back yard. Edited September 7 by Betty LaRue 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Like John said, I would contact The Oklahoman, see if you can talk or email with someone who does design/layout/photo editing. Especially since it was credited to just you and not you/Alamy. Let us know!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Mitchell Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 2 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: Funny thing about the photo. I have about 6-8 photos of a hummingbird feeding on the same trumpet vine. I can find the exact one of the flowers, but the orientation of the hummingbird isn’t the same. The original of the flowers shows the bird feeding from the right, but the printed version shows the bird feeding from the left, and it’s not the same bird, wings, orientation, etc. They just didn’t simply flip the image. It’s like they took the flower from one image and composited the bird from another of mine. About drove me crazy trying to find the exact one and not being able to. This of the flowers: This looks like the bird. Both taken in my back yard. That's a very odd, and somewhat disturbing, thing for a newspaper to do IMO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 Another thing, if they took elements from two different photos, they should be paying for two uses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 5 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: Funny thing about the photo. Not same trumpet flower moment as seen here: (what am I doing wrong???) https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/state/2024/09/04/when-do-hummingbirds-leave-oklahoma-migration-season-starts-soon/75057077007/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKuzmin Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 6 hours ago, Betty LaRue said: Funny thing about the photo. I have about 6-8 photos of a hummingbird feeding on the same trumpet vine. I can find the exact one of the flowers, but the orientation of the hummingbird isn’t the same. The original of the flowers shows the bird feeding from the right, but the printed version shows the bird feeding from the left, and it’s not the same bird, wings, orientation, etc. They just didn’t simply flip the image. It’s like they took the flower from one image and composited the bird from another of mine. About drove me crazy trying to find the exact one and not being able to. This of the flowers: This looks like the bird. Both taken in my back yard. It's the same plant. But not the image you have in your Alamy portfolio, look at the shadows. Perhaps you submitted it to other stock, or to the magazine directly, or somewhere also. https://www.oklahoman.com/story/news/2024/04/03/hummingbird-2024-migration-map-shows-hummingbirds-seen-in-oklahoma/73177571007/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Ventura Posted September 7 Share Posted September 7 This is fascinating to me. So the photo credit (online) says "Photo by Betty LaRue for the Oklahoman". That implies that you made this for them or you provided it directly to them. Your contributor name on Alamy is "B LaRue". So it seems unlikely that Alamy was involved. Is there any other source for your photos? Some 15 years ago I used to contribute to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, shooting some travel articles and my credit was always "Photos by Michael Ventura for the Star Tribune". I hope you get the mystery solved and let us know the results! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 I’m not even positive the hummingbird is mine. I can’t study the images side by side to look for differences. I don’t know how Jeff managed to put the Oklahoman link in this thread, I can’t seem to do it. And when I click on Jeff’s link, I only get a flash of my picture, then it disappears. I did submit to iStock before Alamy, but only for a few months & I believe these images were taken after I quit iStock. When I joined Alamy, I read in the threads what microstock was doing to prices, & I quit microstock immediately. I didn’t want to contribute to the price race to the bottom or compete with myself. For the life of me, I can’t remember ever submitting anything except a nostalgia piece (which was printed) to the paper. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKuzmin Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 19 minutes ago, Betty LaRue said: I don’t know how Jeff managed to put the Oklahoman link in this thread, I can’t seem to do it. And when I click on Jeff’s link, I only get a flash of my picture, then it disappears. It is the same image that in my link where you can just look at it and compare to the one in your Alamy portfolio. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Betty LaRue Posted September 8 Author Share Posted September 8 5 minutes ago, IKuzmin said: It is the same image that in my link where you can just look at it and compare to the one in your Alamy portfolio. Yes I can see yours. Jeff’s disappears after a mini-second flash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeffrey Isaac Greenberg Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 The Oklahoman used Betty’s “trumpet vine” on at least 2 different dates? And if they “cloned” hummingbird with trumpet vine without calling image an illustration they may have technically violated journalism ethics…? (I’m not photojournalist, but…) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IKuzmin Posted September 8 Share Posted September 8 (edited) 1 hour ago, Betty LaRue said: Yes I can see yours. Jeff’s disappears after a mini-second flash. You can find the image in his link inspecting the HTML source of that page. Here is the direct link to the image: Conspiracy aside, not many options left. This is your image but it is not a part of your present Alamy portfolio. If you did not delete it from your Alamy portfolio previously, it came from somewhere also, and iS is a very plausible explanation. I often see re-use of my RF images downloaded years ago from different stock sites (including Alamy, and including those which I cancelled my contract long ago). When I inquired the editors, they said it was all right for RF, to buy once for cents and keep in their databases forever, using on demand. As a courtesy, some of them promised to delete my images from their databases, but nobody offered to re-buy them de novo from the contemporary sources. I believe the same is going to happen (or has happened already) with the RM model, with the "in perpetuity" or more limited terms, like 50-100 years, that we see all around on Alamy now. I this context, I would consider this thread not "Kinda neat" but "Kinda bad". Edited September 8 by IKuzmin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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