Mike H pictures passed off as Hurricane Katrina pics

[Andrew Khan]

Re: They Gotta Stop Stealing Images

Originally posted by cdcollura
Hello,

I got the same email(s) aslo at my job way down here in Central Florida. Many people who were in my office were exclaiming how bad the \"hurricane Katrina\" pictures looked!!

I had to correct everyone of them that these were SUPERCELL pictures, and NOT HURRICANE pictures. All the people in my office did not know the difference between the two, except for a guy from Texas working with me!

The average viewer (lacking knowledge in storms and weather, ofcourse) will believe anything you show them that \"LOOKS\" extreme and violent in a unique way (example: dramatic supercell structure) and identify it with a disaster, like \"hurricane Katrina\" or \"The storm that caused a plane crash\".

I also understand that all these pictures involved were taken by Mike Hollingshead, who I know is a VERY respectable and regarded storm chaser and photographer of severe weather. His pictures are un mistakable and awe inspiring to say the least ... And highly un-fortunate for someone to \"steal\" for their own story.

This is another reason why we need to be so careful with our pictures as we post them. For example, always either watermark or caption your photos on the web ... Maybe instead of just putting \"your name\", put something like \"your name - supercell near Girard, TX - 6/12/05\" as a caption, this way no one can \"lie\" about it.

In more sense, I also limit the size of my pictures on my web site to only 320x240 and all are low-quality JPEG's. Here it does not matter if you use a label / caption or not since an image of such a low quality is still viewable but has no value to a magazine or TV proprietor wishing to falsify such an image!

I am sure we all remember the \"Billy Griffith\" scandal of June 2005?

How could we forget that Scandal, man..lol. Everyone just needs to watermark there images. But, I should say it's easy to remove a watermark, if your trying to steal a picture. I am extremely familiar with photoshop, and have been using it for 4 years, and I am a freelance graphic designer, so I know there are tools to easily take out a watermark, without destroying the picture, even if the watermark is in the center. Like the Clone Stamp tool, or the healing brush tool, or patch tool. All of these, I believe could be used to remove them. So guard against this. I'm sure there are some crafty people out there whom have familiarized themselves with photoshop, and are well aware of what they can do with it. I use these tools for some of my graphic design work, to color images, or to make a color match another color, for my clients. Or to take out unwanted things in the picture, like, acne, speckles, dust, features anything not wanted there, in the graphic I made them.

 

[Carrie Halliday]

I got the email several times myself. The last one had 7 pages of 'forwards' on it, so I took the time to 'forward' (or would that be backward? LOL!) each person listed (I never do this, I always BCC personally and usually cut off all the Forwarded screens) and let then know a little about a supercell and also a hurricane, how everyone and their dog is taking these pics and renaming them to whatever natural disaster is currently happening, and this wonderful photographer who has a unique way of capturing nature...along with www.extremeinstability.com referenced to let those whom are curious...get more! Give credit where credit is due.

I wouldn't be cranky if I was you, Mike. I'd be pissed.

 

[Bart_Comstock]

I found another site. Compfused.com is normally a good site for a good laugh, but I'm not laughing this time. They did state that the pictures were not of Katrina, but they do not give credit to Mike. The link to the page with the pictures is...

http://www.compfused.com/directlink/913/

If I find anymore sites I'll be sure to post them.

 

[Andrew Khan]

Originally posted by Carrie Halliday
I got the email several times myself. The last one had 7 pages of 'forwards' on it, so I took the time to 'forward' (or would that be backward? LOL!) each person listed (I never do this, I always BCC personally and usually cut off all the Forwarded screens) and let then know a little about a supercell and also a hurricane, how everyone and their dog is taking these pics and renaming them to whatever natural disaster is currently happening, and this wonderful photographer who has a unique way of capturing nature...along with www.extremeinstability.com referenced to let those whom are curious...get more! Give credit where credit is due.

I wouldn't be cranky if I was you, Mike. I'd be pissed.

NExt they are going to say, "Earthquake in California, makes awsome clouds". or "Smoke from California Fires, spawns bad storms".

 

[Scott Olson]

http://community.webshots.com/photo/449907...50567370CeVMUX#

Here is another one. The name is a neat touch.

 

[Ben Leitschuh]

That hilarious Scott. Cindy made sure to copyright Mike's pics with her name so nobody rips her off. CindySue you are brilliant.

 

[nickgrillo]

What would be nice is if Mike were to look up Cindy's number in the phonebook, and give her a call - to remind her about copyright laws...

 

[Andy Wehrle]

Everybody make sure to report a violation on that Webshots photo album. If you are a webshots member, add a comment to the guestbook too. :twisted:

 

[Rachel Chambers]

I got these from a friend back in July. I thought they were awsemoe and kept them in my inbox. Then, I got them in an email from my dad, saying that they look familiar and they were supposedly from Katrina. I knew they weren't of Katrina. I looked back at the date I first got them and it was July!! I thought is was really funny. Then reading the posts about it on here, I now feel that whoever started sending these as whatever storm they are needs a life!

 

[Andrew Khan]

That webshots account has either been suspended or deleted. Good! One down, a million to go....

 

[Rachel Chambers]

I have told quite a few people about it.

 

[Dennis Gulley]

All this mess could have a silver lining. With all the uproar about it and everyone sending out the truth, Mike Hollingshead could become a household name. Hope it works out that way. Mike deserves all the credit he can get!

Dennis

 

[Scott Olson]

After reading Mike's post in the Information Desk. Im thinking it best that maybe we just let this all run its course without bringing up every instance of recieiving or finding his photos plagerized. At least that way Mike can come on Stormtrack without pulling his hair out.

-Scott

 

[Robert Dewey]

Originally posted by Scott Olson
After reading Mike's post in the Information Desk. Im thinking it best that maybe we just let this all run its course without bringing up every instance of recieiving or finding his photos plagerized. At least that way Mike can come on Stormtrack without pulling his hair out.

-Scott

Agreed...

 

[nickgrillo]

Originally posted by rdewey+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(rdewey)</div>

<!--QuoteBegin-Scott Olson

After reading Mike's post in the Information Desk. Im thinking it best that maybe we just let this all run its course without bringing up every instance of recieiving or finding his photos plagerized. At least that way Mike can come on Stormtrack without pulling his hair out.

-Scott

Agreed...[/b]

Very much agreed, too...