fbpx

DIY Photography

Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time

Search

 

Submit A Story

I interviewed a person who stole my photos

by 6 Comments

A few months ago a girl came in to apply for a social media position at my last job. I was one of three photographers at the company and we had an opening for another photographer position. She mentioned to the HR recruiter that she also does photography. The HR guy comes and grabs me to tell me this and was wondering if I wanted to interview her for the open photographer position as well. So I said, “Sure, let me see her portfolio.”

To my f*$#@ing surprise my work was included her “portfolio”. I was in total shock and told the HR guy that she has stolen work on her portfolio. She had an engagement session and the couples same wedding on her website with very low-res photos. I took a few minutes to compose myself and decided to interview and ask about her work without “outing” her. I went into the interview with the HR guy and I asked her about her experience and what kind of gear she uses. She BS’d everything saying, “I have one of the “D” cameras, 7 lenses, a wide, a zoom, and super-zoom. I have it all.”

[Read More…]

$35,000 worth of gear stolen from The Camera Store

by 13 Comments

On December 16, 2017, Calgary-based business The Camera Store had $35,000 worth of gear stolen from their store. The thieves took high-end gear, including a Leica MP Safari kit, a Hasselblad X1D camera, and three lenses. They are offering a $5,000 reward for any information that leads to a conviction.

[Read More…]

Beware: scammers using Facebook Marketplace and Venmo to steal camera gear

by 2 Comments

 

For two weeks now, there has been an ongoing scam that caused twenty people from LA to lose thousands of dollars in camera gear. A user under the name “Andy Mai” uses Facebook Marketplace and Venmo payment system to pull the scam and steal the gear.

Four victims of the scam have been verified, and in total they lost $25,000. However, after two sellers shared their story, it turned out that there may be as many as 20 scammed people, with the total loss of as much as $100,000. As it turns out, the scam occurs mainly because the sellers are unfamiliar with the Venmo’s policy, And in addition to this, the scammer(s) keep making new accounts and pulling off the same scam all over again.

[Read More…]

Midwest Photo Exchange suffers burglary, hundreds of lenses and cameras stolen

by 3 Comments

After a massive theft in Veydra HQ, Midwest Photo Exchange in Columbus, Ohio suffered a robbery too. In the late night of March 15th, someone broke into their new facility, stealing hundreds of gear elements. As MPEX tells DIYP, it appears that the thieves planned the break in advance. It also appears that it was carried out by experienced individuals.

[Read More…]

Your photos will get stolen. And what will you do then?

by 6 Comments

From people who download someone else’s photo for the desktop background, to those who steal photos from others and represent them as their own – photo theft is a pretty common occurrence. Many people don’t take the credits, but don’t give them to the author either (just remember the Tyra Banks case). In this episode of Burst Mode, Rick Boost talks about the image theft. He gives some examples of most memorable copyright infringement cases in recent years and discusses how we can fight this issue. Can we fight it at all?

[Read More…]

Razer announce world’s first triple 4K display laptop at CES then two prototypes get stolen

by 3 Comments

CES 2017 may over, but the gear and technology announced over the weekend is still in the news. For Razer, though, CES 2017 appears to have been something of a bittersweet event. Let’s start with the good news. Razer introduced the world to Project Valerie, the world’s first triple 4K display laptop. And oh boy does it look sexy. With a company like Razer, you know it’s primarily intended for gamers. It does, however, open up many possibilities for video and photo enthusiasts and professionals.

I’ve been using multiple monitors on my desktops now ever since switching to Windows 98. It’s why I’ve come to despise working on laptops. If I have to go mobile with a single screen, I’d sooner just go with a tablet. If the tablet can’t handle it, then it can wait until I get back to a “real computer”. Something like this does make me reconsider my choices for the future, though.

[Read More…]

PhotoTracker Lite is the new free plugin to help you find photo thieves on the web

by 4 Comments

It’s no secret. Copyright theft is rife on the Internet. Finding online photo thieves to send DMCA takedown notices and a bill is even a full time job for some people. But what if you want to look for yourself? Well, there are a few services out there, but checking them all individually, manually, can be a very time consuming process.

Now, thanks to PhotoTracker Lite, it just got a whole lot easier to find copies of your images around the web. It’s available as an extension for Chrome, Opera, Vivaldi and Yandex.Browser. Essentially, it gives you a right click context menu that brings up searches in the four most popular reverse image search engines out there.

[Read More…]

Kylie Jenner is being accused of stealing other peoples concepts and ideas…again

by 23 Comments

It’s not the first time Kylie Jenner’s been accused of stealing other peoples ideas. She’s been accused of copying lipstick formulas form other companies. She’s also been accused of stealing a makeup artist’s eyeshadow palette for her “KyShadows”, as well as imagery from LA make-up artist Vlada Haggerty. You might remember Vlada. We featured a post of hers on DIYP a few months ago on giving credit where it is due. How’s that for irony?

Vlada is now accusing Kylie of stealing from her, yet again. This time, it’s the concept from a shoot she did in September. Vlada posted an image to Instagram in September. Kylie posted hers just yesterday. After seeing them side-by-side, you can’t deny there’s a pretty striking similarity between the two. Here’s Vlada’s image, that was posted two months ago.

[Read More…]

How do you deal with copyright infringement when it’s for “a good cause”?

by 17 Comments

In about one week will mark the anniversary of the most traumatic and violent piece of history in France in the last decades. The 13th of november 2015, several coordinated terrorist attacks took place in Paris, less than a year after the attacks against the newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Still today, Paris feels different. Much like the 9/11 attacks, Paris now has this air of danger, still lingering, and the attacks are clearly in the heads of every Parisian.

[Read More…]

Camera thieves caught trying to sell stolen goods to off-duty Brooklyn cop

by 1 Comment

Having one’s camera gear stolen is the nightmare of every photographer. The nightmare for those that steal it? Being arrested by the guy you’re trying to sell it to. But, that’s exactly what happened to two thieves who stole from a visiting photographer in the middle of a session with a client.

Chicago based photographer Mirlanbek Murzapazylov was hired by a couple to photograph them on Wednesday inside Prospect Park in Brooklyn. During the course of the session, he put down his Canon 5D Mark III to take photos with a second camera. When he turned around, it was gone, along with a $1,500 lens and Glidecam stabiliser.

[Read More…]

Recent Posts