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.

Jim Marshall signs his iconic Johnny Cash print for Brad Mangin in his San Francisco home on Feruary 11, 2009. (Photo by Grover Sanschagrin)

The voice on the other end of my cell phone had a sense of urgency. My friend Tim Mantoani was calling yesterday afternoon to tell me that his very good friend, legendary rock and roll photographer Jim Marshall died in his sleep Tuesday night in a hotel room in New York City. How could this be? We both had just seen Marshall at the 65th birthday party for Michael Zagaris (The Z-Man) last month in San Francisco. Many thoughts raced through my head. Tim told me to call the Z-Man to find out what had happened.

Jim Marshall flips off Kim Komenich as he photographs Marshall in front of his iconic Johnny Cash image hanging in Brad Mangin's photo gallery in Mangin's home during a party on July 11, 2009 in Pleasanton, CA. (Photo by Robert Seale)

Thanks to Zagaris I had the good fortune to meet Marshall and get to know him  a little bit over the past few years. The Z-Man and Marshall were dear friends who met while photographing the music scene in the 1960′s. They hung out together all the time, meeting for coffee on Fridays and spending time with each other on holidays like Thanksgiving. They knew everything about each other. There was no bullshit between them. Spending time with the two of them over dinner and listening to their stories was an unforgettable life experience.

Jim Marshall and Michael Zagaris pose for friend and photographer Tim Mantoani and his 20 x 24 inch Polaroid camera in San Francisco, CA on January 11, 2008. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

Zagaris and Marshall were the first two photographers to be photographed by Tim Mantoani with a 20 x 24 inch Polaroid camera for his Behind Photographs Project in December of 2006. It was only fitting that Marshall was the very first living legend who Mantoani documented. The larger-than-life Marshall loved Mantoani and would make it a point to come visit him at the studio in San Francisco whenever the San Diego-based photographer came to town to photograph new subjects for his ongoing project.

Kim Komenich, Michael Zagaris and Jim Marshall hang out and swap stories during a break in a photo session with Tim Mantoani in San Francisco, CA on January 11, 2008. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

After meeting Marshall several times at some of Mantoani’s photo shoots in San Francisco and some other events I finally had the amazing opportunity to attend a dinner with him, Zagaris,  my new friend Baron Wolman, and some other friends a few years ago in San Francisco. At this dinner I marveled at the camaraderie and respect between these three dear friends. They were all such amazing photographers who could spend all night telling the most exciting stories about the people they had met and the places they had been. There was no need to impress each other. There was also no need for me to say anything. I just listened. All night. It was amazing.

As Michael Zagaris looks on, Brad Mangin hands Jim Marshall $2,000 in cash to buy some prints in Marshall's San Francisco home on February 11, 2009. (Photo by Grover Sanschagrin)

Zagaris had always said he wanted to get me over to Marshall’s house so I could buy some prints for my growing photo gallery in my home. My gallery would not be complete until I had some signed Marshall prints on my walls. I finally had the amazing opportunity on February 11, 2009 when Zagaris arranged for Grover Sanschagrin and myself to join Marshall and him for dinner at one of Marshall’s favorite restaurants on Market Street, just steps away from his long-time him in San Francisco’s Castro District. What an great night! Marshall knew all the waitresses and they treated him like a king- and deservedly so! After dinner we walked to Marshall’s house for a tour of his collection and then got down to the business of shopping for prints for my gallery. His living room was set up like the most amazing store I had ever been in with Jim Marshall prints all over the room in custom racks arranged by size. 11 x 14′s over here on one wall and 16 x 20′s over there on the other wall. Where to begin?

With Grover’s help I eventually picked out the three prints I wanted: Johnny Cash, The Beatles and Miles Davis. I knew that Marshall loved cash, so I came prepared. We struck a deal that were were both happy with. Nothing could wipe the smile from my face.

As Michael Zagaris and Brad Mangin look on, Jim Marshall signs a 16 x 20 print of his famous Beatles picture for Mangin in Marshall's San Francisco home on February 11, 2009. (Photo by Grover Sanschagrin)

My three new Marshall prints were the key acquisitions to my updated photo gallery that I wanted to show off to my friends with a Gallery Opening Party in my home on July 11, 2009. I had friends flying in from Texas and driving in from Los Angeles for this event. It was going to be an amazing night. The only thing that could send this Opening over the top was to have Jim Marshall himself attend. Zagaris told he that Marshall wanted to come and he would bring him from San Francisco to my home an hour away in the east bay suburbs of Pleasanton. I wanted to make sure we had Marshall’s favorite drink, so Zagaris told me to get some Macallan 12. Done. When Marshall showed up a little past 6pm I could not believe it. As more and more photographer friends arrived to my opening they were astonished to see who was holding court in my living room telling stories. We made sure his glass was never empty.

“That was an amazing evening at your house listening to him (Marshall) talk about his photos. What an incredible body of work he left. My favorite is his Jimi Hendrix sound check photo but there are so many more,” said San Jose Mercury News photographer Patrick Tehan.

“I feel truly fortunate to have been at your home last July to hear Jim talk about his pictures in person. What an incredible life,” said Oakland Tribune photographer D. Ross Cameron.

“That was one of the greatest times meeting Marshall and your party Brad and getting the chance to talk with him. I loved the story he was telling me about hanging out with John Coltrane in Berkeley. Kim Komenich took a photo of me and Jim Marshall and gave it to me on my 59th birthday last summer. He had so many wonderful stories that night,” said Contra Costa Times photographer Dan Rosenstrauch.

Marshall hung out and told stories while going through all of his books I have in my collection for hours until he got tired and left around 11pm. There were three Pulitzer Prize winners in my house that night, but all of them were speechless as they listened to Marshall’s tales throughout the evening.

Jim Marshall shows his knife to Deanne Fitzmaurice as Andy Kuno, Bob Binder and Michael Zagaris look on during the Gallery Opening Party at Brad Mangin's house in Pleasanton, CA on July 11, 2009. (Photo by Robert Seale)

I got to know Jim the past few years through our personal meetings and his books. The more I learned from him the more I respected him as a businessman and someone who did things his way. I love that. He didn’t give a shit what anyone else thought. He lived his life the way he wanted and refused to conform to corporate America and the bullshit that comes along with it.

It was while reading his book TRUST that came out last year that I really began to be inspired by his words and actions and how his wisdom could help my own photography business. Marshall talks about the TRUST he had with his subjects:

“I don’t sign shit either, I own all of my photographs and no one I’ve shot, not Dylan, not Miles, not Cash, has ever complained about how my pictures of them have been used.”

Later in the book is my favorite quote from Marshall that he said when talking about Thelonious Monk:

“I pretty much have every roll of film I shot… I looked after my negatives and now they look after me.”

I have fought hard to own all or most of my images that I have produced over the past 20 plus years. The older I get the more and more I grow to appreciate Marshall and what he stood for. This man fought hard for everything he had, and no way in Hell was he ever going to let anyone fuck with him or his pictures.

This is the great man I called Zagaris about when I heard the news from Mantoani yesterday afternoon. Zagaris answered his cell phone immediately and I could hear the sadness in his voice. He was at Marshall’s house with Marshall’s assistant Amelia going through his things, answering phone calls and discussing plans for a memorial service. Before long Zagaris was telling stories about Marshall and laughing hysterically as only the Z-Man can.

One of Marshall’s closest friends in San Francisco was long-time Associated Press staff photographer Eric Risberg. Marshall had shot portraits of Risberg and his wife Elizabeth when they were married almost 19 years ago. Risberg kept in contact with Marshall over the years and last saw him in February at Zagaris’s 65th birthday party in San Francisco. “I am so glad I had one last chance to see him.” Risberg told me last night as he was on his way to meet a friend for a drink. “I am going to toast Jim with a glass of John Powers,’ he said.

There will be an upcoming event in San Francisco to honor and toast the great Jim Marshall. I will be there- and so will many others. He meant so much to all of us. Knowing Jim he will be pissed that he can’t attend.

Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire pose for a picture as the Bash Brothers in Oakland, California on July 25, 1987. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

If you are reading this story that means you have found my latest website. This new site is the latest evolution of my freelance photography business that has it’s roots way back in 1986 when I was a photojournalism major at San Jose State University. Over the last 23 years I have shot countless great athletes performing in numerous exciting ballgames. I started out shooting color slide film and am now shooting all digital. I have been through many changes over the past 20 plus years, but the biggest evolution that has changed and improved my business has been the Internet.

I started using the Internet in 1994 when I signed up for an AOL account. Websites were very basic as the decade progressed and it was a big deal for a photographer to have a website of any kind. Just being on the web was a big deal, allowing possible clients to see a basic online portfolio. My leap onto the web was facilitated by my good friend Joe Gosen who built my first site in 1999 with Adobe PageMill. Thanks to Joe my site was very successful as it did a great job of housing my online portfolio. This site served me well for many years until technology began to change for the better and the business became more competitive.

My orignal website, built with Adobe PageMill by Joe Gosen started out with a splash page (left) and suited me quite well with it's clean design when it went live in 1999.

By 2006 I had a shiny new website by liveBooks that did a beautiful job of showing off my portfolio, but I needed more to grow my business. Like many other photographers out there I was sitting on a huge volume of images, both analog and digital, that I owned. Sure, some of my stuff was scattered across many different stock agencies, but the arrival of new Internet companies like PhotoShelter opened up a world of new possibilities. Should a website do more than show off a portfolio like on online dig me tray? The answer that I learned rather quickly, with some prodding of my good friend Grover Sanschagrin was a resounding YES!

It was now possible for me to add a searchable online archive of my stock images to my own website, allowing me to license images to editorial clients who were seeking unique content they could not get from the usual agencies. Luckily I owned most of everything I had ever shot, so I had thousands of images that I needed to get online. I spent one awful winter editing and captioning over 240 baseball games shot over a three year period. I needed to come up with a new workflow so I would stay up to date and edit and caption each game immediately so I would not fall behind.

Jerry Rice of the San Francisco 49ers kneels on the sidelines during a game against the St. Louis Cardinals at Candlestick Park in San Francisco, California in 1986. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

After I got all caught up with my digital files the next thing I needed to do was dive into my chrome library and get a bunch of those images scanned, captioned and uploaded into my ever-growing archive. In the past few years I have had over 5,000 chromes and a few hundred negatives scanned into 50 megabyte TIFF files for my online archive. The more stuff I put up on my archive the cooler it gets! As of now I have over 33,000 images seachable from my site and that number grows almost every day.

Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants hits career home run #756 passing Hank Aaron on the all-time career list during the game against the Washington Nationals at AT&T Park in San Francisco, California on August 7, 2007. (Photo by Brad Mangin)

Being an independent photographer with a powerful stock library online is a very liberating thing. These are my pictures. No one can ever take them away from me. More and more clients are coming to me for unique images as they start moving away from the larger stock agencies.

If you are a freelance photographer who owns their copyright and you do not license images through an online archive built into your website you are a moron, plain and simple. The business really sucks out there now. You need to do everything you can to separate yourself from the pack. In the future more and more image buyers will be coming to independent photographers who are easy to deal with and have a searchable online stock library. As this change comes I will be ready for them. Will you?