News
Underwater Photography Competition Ethics
By Matt J. Weiss, January 23, 2010 @ 10:16 AM (EST)
We are in the heart of the underwater photography competition season and this week both the Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year and the LAUPS underwater photography contest had to eliminate winners based on rule violations.
The Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is considered one of the most prestigious wildlife photo competitions. Top names in underwater photography are often seen in the winners list.
This year the overall winner was awarded to an image of a wolf jumping over a gate that was titled The Storybook Wolf. However, upon further review, the wolf in the image was deemed to be a model animal that was trained. Using a model animal is a violation of rule 10 of the competition, and so a statement was released that image was disqualified. The photographer, however, denies that the wolf was a model animal.
The Veolia Environment Wildlife Photographer of the Year competition is considered one of the most prestigious wildlife photo competitions. Top names in underwater photography are often seen in the winners list.
This year the overall winner was awarded to an image of a wolf jumping over a gate that was titled The Storybook Wolf. However, upon further review, the wolf in the image was deemed to be a model animal that was trained. Using a model animal is a violation of rule 10 of the competition, and so a statement was released that image was disqualified. The photographer, however, denies that the wolf was a model animal.
Image by Jose Luis Rodriguez
On the same day the Veolia statement was released, I received a call from Kelly Bracken, President of the Los Angeles Underwater Photo Society, who manages the LAUPS International Photography Competition and she had some disturbing news -- one of the honorable mentions in the 2009 competitions wasn't entered by the original photographer but by someone pretending it was their image.
After Kelly had received a call from someone suggesting that the photograph was improperly credited, she did some investigating.
Apparently, in November of 2008 a dive master in Hawaii, Joe Weston, took a series of 18 photographs of a venus girdle. Back on shore, he printed out his favorite and then also submitted it to the Wetpixel Picture of the Week Contest, which he won. 6 people were on that dive with Joe and witnessed him take the image.
In January 2009, a different person enters what turns out to be an identical image of a venus girdle into the LAUPS photo competition and wins an honorable mention. When the winners are announced, Kelly gets the phone call from a friend of Joe Weston saying he believes the image has been credited to the wrong photographer and tells Kelly that Joe took the image.
Kelly then contacts Joe who says that the winning image is in fact his, and sends her a RAW file of the shot with all the EXIF data. She then contacts the photographer who submitted the image to the LAUPS contest, asking for the RAW file, but he only sends back a JPEG with no EXIF data. He also tells her he took the photograph with a Nikon Coolpix P3.
Kelly compares Joe's RAW file to the competition entry and finds that it looks identical with every detail being
the same, except a few adjustments have been made to the exposure. She asks a number of a professional photographers about the images and they all come to the same conclusion -- it's the same image.
She then asks the man who entered the image for his RAW file again, but he sends back another JPEG, this time with a few different specks of backscatter and the images EXIF information. The EXIF data says that the image was taken with a Nikon d200, a different camera than he originally said he took the image with.
Given these facts, Kelly deemed that this was clearly a stolen photo and it was disqualified. Apparently he had also sold the image to other places , including Asian Diver which used it as a cover for an issue.
We live in an era where intellectual property is extremely accessible. The community aspects of social networking, crowd sourcing and sharing sites make it easy for anyone to take someones creative work and use it as their own. In this case, the thief was caught, but if wasn't for Kelly's diligence, he could of very easily could have gotten away with it.
For many photographers, competitions are highest level involvement they will have with the underwater photography world. There are few things more rewarding than winning a competition. When someone violates the rules, it undermines the whole experience. That might not resonate strongly with anyone willing to steal and image, but it needs to be said. Let these mistakes made be a lesson to all -- violating the rules will not be tolerated.
After Kelly had received a call from someone suggesting that the photograph was improperly credited, she did some investigating.
Apparently, in November of 2008 a dive master in Hawaii, Joe Weston, took a series of 18 photographs of a venus girdle. Back on shore, he printed out his favorite and then also submitted it to the Wetpixel Picture of the Week Contest, which he won. 6 people were on that dive with Joe and witnessed him take the image.
In January 2009, a different person enters what turns out to be an identical image of a venus girdle into the LAUPS photo competition and wins an honorable mention. When the winners are announced, Kelly gets the phone call from a friend of Joe Weston saying he believes the image has been credited to the wrong photographer and tells Kelly that Joe took the image.
Kelly then contacts Joe who says that the winning image is in fact his, and sends her a RAW file of the shot with all the EXIF data. She then contacts the photographer who submitted the image to the LAUPS contest, asking for the RAW file, but he only sends back a JPEG with no EXIF data. He also tells her he took the photograph with a Nikon Coolpix P3.
Kelly compares Joe's RAW file to the competition entry and finds that it looks identical with every detail being
the same, except a few adjustments have been made to the exposure. She asks a number of a professional photographers about the images and they all come to the same conclusion -- it's the same image.
She then asks the man who entered the image for his RAW file again, but he sends back another JPEG, this time with a few different specks of backscatter and the images EXIF information. The EXIF data says that the image was taken with a Nikon d200, a different camera than he originally said he took the image with.
Given these facts, Kelly deemed that this was clearly a stolen photo and it was disqualified. Apparently he had also sold the image to other places , including Asian Diver which used it as a cover for an issue.
We live in an era where intellectual property is extremely accessible. The community aspects of social networking, crowd sourcing and sharing sites make it easy for anyone to take someones creative work and use it as their own. In this case, the thief was caught, but if wasn't for Kelly's diligence, he could of very easily could have gotten away with it.
For many photographers, competitions are highest level involvement they will have with the underwater photography world. There are few things more rewarding than winning a competition. When someone violates the rules, it undermines the whole experience. That might not resonate strongly with anyone willing to steal and image, but it needs to be said. Let these mistakes made be a lesson to all -- violating the rules will not be tolerated.
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