What Do You Do When Someone Travels Around The World To Copy You

November 11, 2016 by Udi Tirosh 56 Comments

Some cases of plagiarism are the usual copy-the-photo-and-present-as-their-own, but this one found by Pratik Naik and Bella Kotak just tops them all. At the base of the story are Lauren Bullen and Jack Morris two travel photographers and some of Instagram’s power couples, and Instagram’s favorite travel power couple with just over two million followers combined.

Yesterday, Lauren shared one of the weirdest stories I’ve ever seen. An instagramer is not only following the couple, but copying their every photo, down to the smallest details, like wardrobe, hards, composition, even the food. While copying someone’s work is never a good thing to do, the amount of investment needed to copy someone who constantly travels around the world is just unconsibile.

Pratik says it quite right “Ask yourself, what would you do if one of your followers dedicated their entire social media presence into mimicking every minor detail of your work? Now, they follow your footsteps across the globe in order to continue that obsession.”

And I agree with Pratik: it’s creepy.

Lauren calls the imitator right out, but she is also shocked that someone will go through all the effort and take the resources needed to recreate the photos:

Also the amount of time and pre-organising she put into arranging the outfits, I don’t promote and tag everything I wear, so that would have taken a lot of time and work, even down to the anklets and necklace. Not to mention the cost of all this- those outfits and accommodations don’t come at a cheap price. A lot of what jack and I do is work with companies and brands to create imagery & promotion- this is our business and how we are able to continue to create this for everyone.
I woke jack up to show him what I had been shown in the middle of the night and we both were extremely confused and shocked & I quickly took screen shots of all the posts, Jack was already blocked.. probably because one of her images wasn’t even hers, she had just taken jacks picture and posted it as her own..

You can judge for yourself, originals are on the left, imitator are on the right (photos via the retouchist)

[via retouchist]

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

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Grgas Marko

Uf… that’s a big problem…
- Marvin Løvenfeldt
  
  Really? How?
- Grgas Marko
  
  Sarcasm
Nadine Lianne Spires

Is it me or does this copycat appear unusually tall in photo?
- Nadine Spires
  
  Ok, my mistake, the copycat is on the left. The wording on the photos like “someone needs help” makes you think that the copycat is the photo on the right.
  - Alexander Möhle Fotografie
    
    The Copycat IS the one on the right…
    - Nadine Spires
      
      Yes because DIY fixed the mistake in the article, which you missed. They said the copycat was on the left.
Adam Zdebel

Pitty to say but the copycat images are simply better in both composition and technique 🙂
- Justin Prim
  
  Glad I’m not the only one who thought that
- catlett
  
  Agreed. Better exposure and processing but to my eye composition is better in many cases, including interesting foreground detail or excluding extraneous detail. Then there’s the model posing. In the one where the woman is in the infinity pool looking out the model’s legs are much more gracefully positioned.
- Eddy Kamera
  
  Maybe that’s the point they tried to make all along?
- Alexander Möhle Fotografie
  
  Seriously? There’s only 2 images I would consider “better” in terms of the criteria you mentioned. And thats a percentage that simply comes with copying everything.
Justin Prim

I say invitation not exact coppie allot of the pictures she is facing the wrong way or the guy is in the picture. I’m sure others have taken pictures in the same places before these two did. And the clothes thing who cares immigration is the best form of flattery. If it’s not loosing you any cash then yes call her and him out and do what u cot to do. But if that’s how they want to spend there money let them be
- Brenda Jamieson
  
  The saying is ‘imitation is the sincerest form of flattery’.
Marvin Løvenfeldt

You should be flattered. They liked your idea and felt compelled enough to spend a lot of time and money to try and do it even better. Not that they always succeed at it but still. After all you did the original. And you can’t do anything about it legally unless you own the place – then it whould be tresspassing….
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  Ok, my mistake, the copycat is on the left. The wording on the photos like “someone needs help” makes you think that the copycat is the photo on the right.
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  I thought I was wrong about who was the imitator and who the original but looks like DIY got that mixed up.
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  no man, now I’m confused. which one is the imitator, the blond or the dark haired woman?
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  Because the original article says the opp…
Marvin Løvenfeldt

If people are stupid enough to share all their best photos on the social media, they have them selfes to blame if other people “copy” their ideas. IMHO. Some people steal, download, copy all the best photos they can find. Professional photographers loose huge amounts of copyright fees due to this. And lawyers and other service had a ball earning huge fees trying to get some of all those fees from the sites that – illegally -use other peoples photos. Remember: The photographer owns the copyrights to all his or her photos (unless sold by contract).
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  There’s trying out an idea from another photo and then honing it to fit you and not be an exact copy, then there’s copying exactly everything, right down to the jewellery and clothes and not using an ounce of your own imagination.
- Haoyuan Ren
  
  That’s like saying it’s the rape victim’s fault for wearing something provocative when they’re out and about.
Nadine Spires

Hey wait, you guys have the imitator and the originals changed around. See the original article snapshot below. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/57123043c3ec523c69c8422ff596c3906c574fb20cd4b1a0557c847517b0f486.png
- udi tirosh
  
  how embarrassing, we have the captions fixed.
Nadine Lianne Spires

Am saying again, the imitator, who as far as I understand from the original article, is supposed to the be dark haired woman on the right (not blond left photo as DIY posted), is unnaturally tall in the photo.
- Ian McArthur
  
  Maybe she’s average height and the blonde is short ?
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  Lol then I can say I’m short.
Nadine Lianne Spires

DIYPhotography are you guys correct? Your article says the photos on the left are the imitator’s and the photos on the right are the originals.
- Marvin Løvenfeldt
  
  Does it matter? These places look like public tourist sites. Anyone have the right to go there and take photos, and if they happend to look like some other jerks photos who cares?
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  Actually is does matter, not in what concerns you but in correctly stating who the originals belong to. That’s my point. My other point about the size of the imitator, to which you commented on, made me wonder if photoshop was used as the imitator does look taller than she should be. Yes, anyone can take photos there, but this person deliberately took almost exactly the same photos. None was created from their own imagination.
- Carina Larsen
  
  The real photographer is on the left like you said . I agree with you the woman in the picture is too large and seems to be photoshopped in .
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  Also, do some of the photos look as if the lighting doesn’t quite match the imitator? Don’t know how many of the photos are really photos but have a feeling some are composites.
- Marvin Løvenfeldt
  
  Nadine Lianne Spires As long as the socalled copycat didn’t steal the original photographers image jpegs and just changed them in photoshop, theres nothing illegal going on.
- Nadine Lianne Spires
  
  Marvin, I really think you need to calm down. This post was more about correcting ownership of the photos on the DIY site as it said the owner was the imitator.
AJ

Hats off to the imposter for taking so much pain and effort to find all the places and take the shots
ikillflesh

all those pics look similar, but could simply be a coincidence
- robo
  
  are you serious? she’s even matching her outfits in each picture
  - ikillflesh
    
    no
Paul Iştoan

Creepy
Melissa Matejka Buckley

Well if I went around the world I’m safe cause I don’t have any friends that can afford this. Really? This is a problem!?
Michael Kemper

Not everyone is into blondes.
catlett

Maybe be a little flattered and then get a restraining order just in case it might get creepier than copying composition.
aleroe

“unconsibile”: Dude, you’re sitting in front of a computer. You have spell checkers, dictionaries, and Google at your fingertips. If you don’t know how to spell a word, look it up or use a synonym.
Jeremy Christopher

This is fabulous. I’ve always wanted to see what artists would do with the same material. Honestly, I like most of the ones on the right more than the left, but that is easy to say with any kind of innovation. Sure, maybe there’s some weird vendetta or maybe they really like the artists work enough to copy it, either way, this is gold; who cares, people invite the dramas they need in their life anyway. Now if we can have a few movies made, where maybe the whole post team changes for 3 variations, tossing out the director. Dunno, this is a blast tho.
Allison

Does no one else think it’s a little odd and maybe too convenient that the photos occur in exactly the same spots during the same seasons and at similar times of day. .. and now the copy cat is mysteriously m.i.a.? Just saying it’d be very good publicity to loan your traveling buddy your clothes for a few shots, then pass the evidence around to a few photo blogs hoping it goes viral…
- Tueksta
  
  that or… photoshop
Brian H Lewis

What difference at this point does it make?
Stephen Douglas

Creepy and sad. The copier is without creativity. How sad is it. The imitators life is just noncreative of another’s life. Live your own life!
Britt Thomas

I actually love this in the awkward obsessive creepy way! How crazy! They need to meet.
Ian McArthur

The copier is a much better photographer.
Justin Akard

So no one can ever take a photo where someone else has? This is kinda stupid.
- Aankhen
  
  That’s what you understood from this article?
John Armstrong-Millar

Sounds like “Art”” to me.. You’re famous
Mateusz Polkowski

If i had a copycat like that, I would be so interested in meeting that person. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery after all.
willdmo

To me the copycat is more pretty and got the better figure. Funny if they would meet though
Amilcar Alzaga

Probably it’s also about the fact that she’s mostly traveling alone, in any case, the “originals” are only bragging with half good photographs, the “copycat” could be considered doing actual art…