Monthly Archives: September 2012

Photo

On3 Images by Tom Swoope

1 Comment

Link:  http://tomswoope.com/ or http://www.on3images.com/
Google Page:  https://plus.google.com/112286953875739171750/about?gl=us&hl=en
You Tube:  http://www.youtube.com/user/tomswoopetv 
Smugmug: http://tomswoope.smugmug.com/

On3 Images by Tom Swoope has been caught red handed not only stealing photographs but also stealing text as well.  By the time I was contacted, he was quickly removing the stolen goods but the internet learns quickly and people have been screen capturing and sending it along to me.  When confronted, Tom alleged that the Web Designer did it (of course) but it doesn’t explain how the watermarks got removed.  There is also the problem with the fact that he claims he does web design so one would think even if he didn’t do his own that he would have been combing over things with a fine toothed comb if he outsourced it.  Beyond that, the images that were stolen had the SAME NAME as the source where they were stolen from, that’s kind of too much of a coincidence.

Before going further, I suggest you watch this You Tube video is from one of the people he stole from outlining all of the things that were stolen and the sources.  UPDATE: You Tube removed the video. It’s now reuploaded to Facebook.

Now onto the pictures…

The original images and blog post on Natalie Franke Photography.

The stolen image on the On3 Images website’s wedding gallery.

Seen again on his website under the Investment page as well.

Another image on the same blog post from Natalie Franke Photography.

Seen here again on On3 Images website.

The original images on Jake Holt Photography’s website.

Seen on On3 Images website.

The Google Place page for On3 Images.  As you will see, Natalie Franke’s image is the main image for this page, which we’ve shown as stolen above.

Another stolen image on the google page from Raw Photo Design.

Yet another image stolen on the Google Place page from Raw Photo Design.

Another set of images stolen from Jay Premack Photography as seen on the Google Place page.

A sample of what was on his Facebook Page before it was taken down by Facebook, as you can see, there were more stolen images with his watermark on them.

Update 9/25:

Now that my wedding edit from Saturday is exporting I decided to check out and see how much of the word content on On3 Images site was stolen.  It didn’t take long to find the answer to that.

The bio on La Dolce Vita’s website.

The intro to the wedding section on On3 Images site – looks familiar, yes?

I also found his Smugmug Gallery, which also has stolen goods.

This image on Chloe Moore Photography is on a blog post of a bunch of fun photo booth pictures.

Here is the image on On3’s Smugmug gallery as a sample from the photo booth.   Before I hear the requisite “oh that’s a sample Smugmug left” I want to nip that in the bud.  Here you will see this image used for the local Fox Best of Competition.  Here they are using the image on their Yelp Page.  He’s also using it on his LinkedIn Profile.

 

Photo

HQ Phan Photography

Link:  http://www.hqphan.com/#!__hqphan

Another day, another thief.  I actually have quite a few to post but I had a double header this weekend so they’ll come along in due time.  HQ Phan Photography hasn’t stolen a lot of images which made this submission easier to work through.  Still, there are stolen works on their page – at least three to my count so far.  There should never be ANY images on your site that your photography business did not take unless otherwise credited.  No excuses.  Ever.  

The image gallery on the website has this image a few into the series. 

The image was originally taken by Daniel Jafari.  

The next image in the series is another eye catching image.

This image is stolen from Andrew Collings Photography.

The next image is also a beautiful image… 

…which was also stolen from Andrew Collings.  

UPDATE:  They’ve been outed and I know you’ll be shocked, SHOCKED!, to hear they are blaming their web designer for the snafu, stating that they had been told they were stock images they were free to use as placeholders in their gallery.  Beyond the fact that tune has been sung so many times I could have bet on that excuse, I knew that some of these images had popped on their old WIX site gallery so they are not telling the truth about that nasty web designer.  So… more proof and more stolen works that weren’t carried over to the new site. 

The Wedding Gallery on HQ Phan’s old WIX website, which you will not is NOT their new site, nor the same designer. 

The first image in the gallery on the WIX site is from this page of Andrew Collings Photography.

The above two images are both from this gallery from Andrew Collings as well, both stolen and used on the Wix website for HQ Phan Photography. 

UPDATE #2:  The original stolen works have  been removed from the site (original link) and they have removed their old WIX website (don’t you worry, I have screen caps!).  

Apparently HQ Phan Photography recently presented some of these images as their own work at a portfolio review for WPPI-U.  That is a new level of low!  So beyond just selling these works to clients as their own they are also showing them at workshops as their own.  Just wow. 

UPDATE #3:  They are still claiming the website zombie did it, but now the plot thickens, the logo is ALSO stolen (shock! dismay! oh wait, this is usually the case isn’t it?).  The designer has requested its removal and so far it is MOSTLY gone.  It’s still appearing here and there but they removed it from most of their Facebook page.  

The logo as seen on their Facebook page. 

The request from the original designer for its removal, his original blog post can be seen here.  

Photo

24/7 PROtography

Oh my god we’re back again… I feel like I’m in a Backstreet Boys song or the Song That Doesn’t End.  24/7 is back with MORE stolen works.  I would have added this to the last post but honestly it got to be SO long I had to start anew.  So here’s the old post if you want to catch up on what 24/7’s done in the past.  Now let’s continue on.  

Thief: 24/7 PROtography aka Benjamin Ramalho Photography
Link:  http://www.247protography.com/
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/247PROtography 

The above image is a new image that is a composite on his Facebook and webpage, both are using a stolen image for the backdrop, which he doesn’t state is not his own.

The original image is an album cover for a band.

Another composite image, again, nothing stating that both of these works aren’t his.  

The original image is a stock image, here seen on Shutterstock.  Per the terms of use, no stock images are to be used to represent a photographers own work.