Call a cop! I’ve been ripped off!
July 15th, 2010 | Published in Photo Biz | 9 Comments
Brad Mangin shows off the menu from the OC Sports Grill with his photograph of Barry Bonds featured on the cover, along with the same image in his online archive on the screen of Dan MacMedan's iPad. (Photo by Dan MacMedan)
Like most freelance photographers I am very serious about retaining my copyright and licensing my images through my agents and through my online archive. I am always poking around the Internet looking for people stealing my pictures. Every once in awhile I will find something on a blog or a really lame website and I will send an email asking the person to take the images down. I have never really been taken advantage of and I am not paranoid about posting my photographs here on my blog or on my website promoting Brad Mangin Sports Photography. All of this makes my discovery at a sports bar in Anaheim, California a few nights ago so nutty, and after many beers, hysterically funny.
Brad Mangin's photograph of Barry Bonds from 2001 is featured on the front of the OC Sports Grill's menu.
I was in Southern California photographing the 2010 Major League Baseball All Star Game at Angel Stadium in Anaheim on Tuesday night. After a long and scorching hot day at the ballpark I gathered with a terrific group of friends in the parking lot after the game and enjoyed pounding some Budweisers that Scott Clarke had so kindly packed in an ice-cold cooler for us. Of course we had no snacks, and John McDonough needed Scotch. So after the 18-pack was quickly consumed we needed food and local shooters Lisa Blumenfeld and Kevin Sullivan knew just the place. The OC Sports Grill was down the street, they served food late, and they had Scotch!
This is the photograph that was stolen. Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants bats against the Oakland Athletics during a game at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on June 16, 2001. (Photo by Brad Mangin)
As soon as our large group of eight tired, hungry and slightly buzzed photographers and picture editors were seated I saw the garish blue menu placed in front of me and knew there was something familiar about it. There was a picture of a left-handed hitter on it and it looked like one of my pictures! I immediately showed it to my baseball picture editor from Sports Illustrated Nate Gordon. “Look Nate- this is my picture of Barry Bonds. They stole it!” I said. Nate agreed it looked familiar. Of course, there are thousands and thousands of pictures of Barry Bonds out there shot from the inside third base position at AT&T Park in San Francisco, but this was a very special image that was burned into my brain. I know my pictures. Jim Marshall once said his pictures were his children. I feel the same way.
Nate was very familiar with the picture and liked it so much he had a large print of it hanging on the wall of his office for a while back in 2001. He promised me he would try to get it published as Bonds was on his way to a record-breaking season of hitting 73 home runs.
Brad Mangin's image of Barry Bonds from 2001 was mocked up for a possible Sports Illustrated cover in September of 2001. It was never published.
I know my friends at the table thought I was nuts, so I needed to prove it to them. Luckily my good friend and USA TODAY contract photographer Dan MacMedan was with us and he had his new iPad. He immediately hooked it up to the wifi in the restaurant and I searched my online archive to find the picture of Barry Bonds that was on the menu. I found it quickly and proudly showed my friends. Now they really thought I was nuts. Of course, the ever-prepared MacMedan also had his Canon G11 with him so he documented the occasion with a picture to prove it (see top).
MacMedan went off to find the night manager and tell him about the picture. I was not mad. I was laughing too much and having so much fun with my friends. What were the odds of me ever seeing this menu? I gave the manager a bad time and told him he at least owed me a beer. He also brought over a gigantic plate of every appetizer they had all piled over a plate of nachos. It was nutty, and it took no time for Bob Binder to dive into the food.
After trying all season to get my photograph of Bonds published, Nate Gordon finally came through for me when it was published in the 2001 year-end issue in a really hideous design. This was not Nate's fault, and nine years later we can laugh about it. We sure did the other night in the bar.
By the end of the night I could not get over the odds of me ever seeing this menu. I know there are some people who would have gone nuts and demanded a bunch of money or caused a scene, but that is not me. I have no idea where they got the picture, and I really don’t care. This crazy occurrence just added to the fun I had with my friends during all star week. Shooting the game was great fun, but the best part of being at a big event like this is spending time with my friends.
The way I look at it, every time I am in the OC I have a free place to drink beer, and that is not a bad thing.
July 15th, 2010at 6:54 pm(#)
Free beer and munchies for life sounds good to me.
July 15th, 2010at 11:50 pm(#)
Brad,
Did they say why they altered the jersey number?
July 16th, 2010at 2:27 am(#)
Brian- no. I did not really ask and I did not care. Remember- I was a little drunk
July 16th, 2010at 4:22 am(#)
Shoot the artist!!!
Brad,
I am the (unknowing) culprit. I designed the menu. Being an illustrator as well as a designer I have found my artwork in the most unlikely places as well. I know how you feel. I pulled the image from one of my morgue files. It was a color copy of a copy I bitmapped and posturized as part of the cover collage. The original (putting my cover design to shame) looks awesome and would have made a much better menu cover. I am deeply sorry to have used your image. I hope you can accept my apology and let me buy the rounds next time your at OC. Like I said, I am not sure where it came from but the image got my attention enough to save it in my files.
Best of luck to you,
Scott
P.S. Huge baseball fan…Hank Aaron fan. That’s why I changed the number.
July 16th, 2010at 1:08 pm(#)
I’m thinking the “86″ was obviously a dig at Bonds, as in he got “86′ed” from the game.
July 17th, 2010at 1:30 am(#)
Brad – You don’t care ? Really ? I would think that as a freelance photographer it would light a fire under you.
July 17th, 2010at 2:34 am(#)
Larry- I promise you that I care- I am a complete bastard about protecting my copyright. But this was a very bizarre situation- one in which you really had to be there after several beers like we were.
After the long day at the park, and being with a group of very good friends I really found it funny. When I see something like this I know that it is a situation where no one meant any harm- they were just uneducated about copyright, etc. The manager was a nice guy and I was not going to accomplish anything by causing a scene. There is a time and place for everything- and for me this was not the time nor the place for me to raise Hell.
Brad
July 17th, 2010at 4:18 am(#)
Brad,
I find it funny sometimes too. We’ve all had this happen at some point in our lives, if we’re doing a good job of getting decent shots of relevent subjects. I was in Arizona a couple years back, and was talking to whoever was the person in charge of credentials at the time with MLB (Stephanie, maybe?). I was looking through the AFL program guide while talking to her, and happened to mention WHY I was looking, saying, “I’m always looking to see who shot what images, and to make sure any of mine were properly credited”. Not two seconds later, I came to a page with my photo of Jarrod Saltalamaccia listed, and “Myrtle Beach Pelicans” was the credit, I believe. I had not given either MLB or the Pelicans the photo…so I found it hilarious that it had made its way into publication…and I just HAPPENED across it. I asked for a copy for my portfolio as payment, then proceeded to get in touch with the Pelicans to let the poor guy know what COULD have happened (the image was registered, so I told him about $100k possibilities). Needless to say, the open market is too big a place to police – we can keep an eye out, but there’s just no way to stop every single instance of use without permission…glad you kept it lighthearted and made a good night of it. Maybe I’ll be out your way some day and we can grab a beer…
David
July 19th, 2010at 5:26 pm(#)
I enjoyed reading this blog. Hat’s OFF to Brad…. sometimes is better to just let it go…. Last week I found that Saigon airport is using 7 of my images to promote flights to Vancouver, and in april I busted a wedding company promoting their business using illegal, 48 of my images. not much I can do here in Canada…
Best regards!
Gabriel