Bottom feeders need love too
Click HERE for today’s photos.
I was recently notified that someone has been offering a couple of my photos for sale on eBay. After I contacted eBay the seller did remove one of the two images (The one that they had neglected to remove my copyright statement from) but so far the last one remains for sale.
There are a few things that really chap my ass about this situation:
- The seller was so stupid that they left my copyright statement on one of the images. I’d call the seller an idiot, but that would be a put down to all us idiots out there. I’d also like to call the seller a ”slug” but that would be giving garden slugs a bad name. After all, slugs do serve some valuable purposes: They provide many people in the chemical pesticide industry with an honest living, and they also do an amusing little jigg when you sprinkle salt on them. (Kind of like seeiggn a politician dance his way around a direct question, with the added beenfit of seeing them die at the end of it)
- The photos themselves were stolen from my website, so they are only 72dpi in resolution, thus any prints made from them will look like utter crap. The only photos I upload at full resolution are the ones that I place on my smugmug page, and that is why that is the only place where valid prints can be ordered. The fact that my name will be on an image that looks like crap really pisses me off. It does not bother me in the least when someone does not like my photos. It’s art after all, and totally subjective. But even if someone thinks my photographs are crap, I want them to be finely printed crap.
- The seller is asking bargain basement prices for the photos. This is an insult to artists everywhere.
- I only had two o my phtoso stolen. From looking at the sellers eBay page it is obvious that a lot of other people have been ripped off as well, and a lot worse than me.
- Mel Brooks hasn’t released any new movies recently.
OK, maybe that last one is a bit off topic, but is has been a while since Spaceballs and Robin Hood: Men in Tights, arguably two of the finest films to ever grace the silver screen.
But I guess I should feel sorry for such a no-talent hack (The person who stole my photos, not Mel Brooks). I can’t imagine going though life stealing other peoples work and trying to turn a profit from it. Heck, that sounds a lot like being a rapper; stealing real musicians riffs and hooks and polluting it with their own words.
–
I have recently discovered the new lenses that Cosina/Voigtlander has produced for both Nikon and Pentax mount cameras. SO far I have the 58mm f1.4 Nokton, and 40mm f2 Ultron, and I absolutely love them. You can see the results in today’s photos as most of them were taken with my new Voigtlander lenses.
I’m not sure if I will go for the new 20mm f3.5 Color Skopar since I don’t do a whole lot of super side angle shooting, and my current Nikkor 20mm f2.8 adequately handles any wide work I currently shoot.
Jeff,
I am surprised you didn’t leave a link to the ebay web site of the moron.
David,
If you check out my Flickr page (through the image links on the left hand side of this page) you will find some more information about this. Just browse through the images until you get to some that are screen shots.
Jeff
Jeff man, that sucks doggy d!ck…
Indeed I cannot understand people would even try such things out! If the photos are on smugsmug, then he is violating copyright laws and can be prosecuted for that. Since you have the original ones you have nothing to worry about. However, the seller, if he is based in any western country, does have a LOT to worry about. Basically he gave an invitation for you to empty his pockets. I’m gonna have a look now and place some remarks I think ^_^
personally i don’t even frame other people’s photographs in my house at all. Simply because people know I like photography and will assume I made them. I do not want to take any credit for other people’s work ever, so I prefer to put up my own work. At least I can then brag about it “legally”, heheh.
The only thing I sometimes do is use Jeff’s POTD as a background for my PC. At work people always start asking questions, and I can then proudly say I know this great photographer in Japan who made the image. ^_^
Also, sometimes I borrow other people’s work for my blog, but exactly because of copyright, I always refer to the source.
Contact eBay, they should force him to take it down and might ban the seller.
By the way, I absolutely love “Yukka Bokeh – Yokosuka”! What lens+settings did you use?
That was the 40mm Ultron @ f2. To see the setting, just click the “photo info” button that pops up when you mouse-over the image.
Some people say the bokeh of the Ultron is not very pleasing, but I beg to differ.
I love today’s photos. Especially the lantern photo and the vegetable stand photo.
Jeff, Since you are using the D700 a lot these days, can you say that the colour rendition is better than that of the 5D? In case of the photo I mentioned earlier, i would almost believe the colour rendition is awfully close to that of Velvia!
Actually, I think it is the lens that provides that unique signature.
It has been my experience that between the 5D and D700, unless you are shooting at the upper range of the ISO scale, the 5D has the better image quality.
Although, unless one is doing some sever pixel-peeping, the difference will not really be noticeable.
It just proves that the lens is the most critical link in the image making chain. (Other than the idiot pressing the button, that is…)
sorry to hear about that, jeff. i notice that you’re kind enough to use a creative commons license on your work, too, but that guy blatantly violated it.
but, in a way, it’s kind of a compliment. this person thinks your work is very good. presumably, better than he could do himself.
Hey Jeff,
Awhile back, when your old site got hacked, I recall you mentioning that you’d managed to recover your original articles? If this is the case, I was just curious if you ever posted them back online – I was going through my bookmarks the other day and found a whole folder of “Sushicam Articles I Really Like”, all of which are now dead URL’s…I was just wondering if this info is lost-and-gone-forever, or lingering somewhere I’m not aware of
You’ve got a great blog here, and I love your post. Thanks, keep it up!
use ebay’s VERO. Nothing else will work. Strange, photos don’t really make money on ebay. Can’t have much of a brain, this scammer.
Apparently a class action lawsuit has been filed against Ebay for failing for failing to protect visual artists from copyright infringement.
Here is a link where you can submit your complaint to see if you would qualify for damages or remedies that may be awarded in the case.
http://www.lawyersandsettlements.com/case/ebay.html
Jeff,
Love your work!
I couldn’t get back to the bizarre to purchase more framed prints.
How do I purchase the metallic on line? I didn’t see that option.
Thanks
Take your company to the next level with our Corporate Video Service.