Imitation is the greatest form of flattery

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Mr Jones

Soldato
Joined
16 May 2006
Posts
11,334
Location
Dubai
One of my most circulated photo is this:

How Many Troopers To Mend a Shoe? by C.Jones Photography, on Flickr

And after doing my routine reading on Engadget, I came across this http://www.engadget.com/2012/07/05/spam-happy-ios-trojan-slips-into-app-store-gets-pulled/ - Reported to the editor and he was nice enough to credit my work as the screen shot is either too low in resolution to show my website or Kaspersky blurred it out.

Anyway, because of this incident, I went back to DeviantART and searched for people who've used my photo without crediting: http://browse.deviantart.com/?order=9&q=lego+converse&offset=0

Reported a couple of them (one even tried selling prints!) but I also found a few who attempted to do the same idea and I was quite happy about it. I set a little trend of my own! Small, maybe insignificant but I was flattered.

Here's a few of them:
http://fav.me/d3ko4wu
http://fav.me/d4q8suf
http://fav.me/d38ve6s

How about you guys? Must have had a few of your original idea remade / remade someone elses idea. Share them here!

Here's one of me imitating Martin's lighter sparking shot:

Sparking by C.Jones Photography, on Flickr
 
I think that would bug me if they were passing it off as their own idea. I copy techniques to learn new skills and gain experience, but I'd never try to set up an identical shot like that. Where's the fun in that?

As far as I'm aware, no one has tried to imitate my heretofore unimaginative work!
 
I'd feel somewhat flattered and also a bit p'd off, so probably mixed emotions.
Seems their attempts don't work as well. I think they has used too many lego men.
 
I started posting photos on Flickr just over a month ago and I took a set of the carnage after our town was underwater a few week back.

Doing a search and I spotted someone else had taken a very similar pic to one I'd put on there..... until I realised it was mine, complete with watermark!

Turn out the guy is the manager for the Environment Agency so I was well chuffed.
However, if he'd have chopped the watermark out or tried to pass it off as his own, or worse still was trying to sell them I'd be less flattered and more annoyed.
 
When I had my 300D, I took a load of various types of photos as I was new to it all, and was trying to find what I liked most. One day I took a photo of a gardener burning leaves and stuck it on dA as that's all I was using at the time. One day I randomly came across a new user on there, and he'd stolen about 4 of my photos. The odd thing was that one was from da and I had no idea where he got the other three from as I had no recollection of uploading them anywhere! I reported them, and as it turned out, unsurprisingly, everything on their page was stolen from other users of the site, who had similar stories. The only thing I could think of was that on an old pay site I used to frequent, the person had taken attached files from the forum, and then gone to the links of sites in peoples profiles.

That experience always makes me wonder how on earth you'd even begin tracking if someone has stolen your image, as unless they use key words that accurately describe your image, you'd never find it.

I can't say I've started any trends, although I suppose being a victim of property theft makes me join a trend :D

The only thing I've ever had so far is a Ukulele site using an image for learning chords, and the BBC flickr page commented on my photo of the grand hotel. Other than that, my stuff is poop :D

Oh, I forgot to mention that your converse lego shot gave me an idea for macro photography, and I still haven't done it, all this time later. I'll maybe sort that while I'm off :D
 
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I cant imagine any of my work being claimed as someone elses, but it would irritate me. A credit doesn't take long to type and makes the original artist feel warm and fluffy.
 
If you mean for posting to OCUK, yes you can watermark with your name. You can't advertise your photography business. I guess its all about context.
 
ElDude said:
How did you find out about your dog photo being used by someone else? I assume someone spotted it and told you?
Click to expand...

A american girl messaged me through my website asking what kind of puppy it was because I have my name on it.

I was curious how she came acrossed it, it could've ben Flickr (it made Explore), and she linked me to some random page, and then i clicked through a few links and found it someone who blogged it. I found him on Facebook and sent him a message.

He never replied funnily enough, it is some kid from the other side of the pond.
 
DampCat said:
If you mean for posting to OCUK, yes you can watermark with your name. You can't advertise your photography business. I guess its all about context.
Click to expand...

Take a look at the "show us your photograph" thread. Practically every page is littered with it with no consequence.

Until I do it.

I'm over it tbh.
 
I always try to see where people are viewing from, as occasionally I'll see a link that doesn't backtrace on Flickr. I find it hard to believe that someone would just randomly select the tags I used or the random names I call things, so I can't help wonder where things are being linked from. It's rather annoying when you can't find anything to follow, link wise.
 
It's happened to me more than once. I don't mind as long as the core of the idea has been worked in to the photographers own style so until you really really look at the photo you wouldn't see the similarities.

I've had some direct copies to the point it's so obvious it's virtually a carbon copy of my own idea, style and setting. That sort of thing annoys me but I never rise to it as what's the point. I try to use it to push myself to find new ideas and try to keep as creative as possible rather than getting ****** over it.
 
great shot, would be flattered using my image but annoyed at same time, the others who have copied dont give same impact.
tinyeye is great site to search for images used
http://www.tineye.com/
found one of mine before albeit used by a friend!
 
ElDude said:
That experience always makes me wonder how on earth you'd even begin tracking if someone has stolen your image, as unless they use key words that accurately describe your image, you'd never find it.
Click to expand...
You can put the image through reverse image searches. The best are TinEye and then you can, of cause, use Google image search by clicking the camera icon and uploading the file.
 
I find occasionally going to the latest "hip" sites where people spam nice photos and have a look, if like mine, you have something significant, searching is easier. I found a couple of mine on fhotoroom since I joined them as I started using Windows phone.
 
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