Accordion Abusers

[Lefty Ray]

Here's Mike again

[Lefty Ray]

Here's Michael, a friend of Mike's. Both gentleman are at the top of the Tejano music scene.

[johnstoy]

Both are excellent photos...What city do these guys frequent?

[Lefty Ray]

on just about any weekend you can find them playing in San Antonio, Corpus, DFW, Houston, TX. Their websites are below.

http://www.losdesperadoz.com/Home.html

http://www.michaelsalgado.com/

[taygull]

Very nice shots, the blurring in the first looks a touch unnatural. It is good to see someone else getting some nice shots here in Texas. I think I'm the only one posting shots of cowboy hats.

Much better use of the watermark as well!

[DwightMcCann]

I like these. I have a few accordian musician shots from a couple little bands. They are certainly beautiful instruments.

[Lefty Ray]

Sadly I am no longer using that simple watermark. I found that people were cropping it off. The best example is an image in this month's State Fair of Texas. I co-share some images that I took for a museum. This museum had an exhibit at the state fair. One image was printed with the watermark cropped off. This was located at the top left of the image. In doing so the accordionist' head was chopped off which rather ruined the image. Of course the by line was left off until I corrected them. Sadly it is cases like this where I have to watermark across the entire image like you saw in the other post.

[DwightMcCann]

Well, that sucks, Lefty. If I had gone to the trouble of getting model releases and releases from venues so that I could publish and sell images of performers in particular venues and then had someone obviously "steal" by cropping off my name I would be pissed ... I would consult a lawyer and attempt to get some compensation. Was someone at this museum involved in this scandal? They ought to be fired, too. Had you been paid for this usage?

[taygull]

I agree.....if someone cuts off the watermark and uses the image they should be held accountable.....

Maybe you could get lucky and they will compensate you with a lifetime supply of Fletchers Corny Dogs!:lol: Man would I go for that!!!!!!

..for you non-Texans the Fletcher Corny Dog is as famous as GW here in Texas.;)

[Miniflash]

very nice

[Lefty Ray]

The museum and I did a tradeoff in the original deal, but for the exibit, they violated our agreement. Like I mentioned in my other post, I have a very large Tejano music email list and they know if they spot a possible unauthorized usuage, they might be rewarded, so I have many eyes out there looking for stuff like this. In fact it was one of them who spotted it on the state fair of texas website. It was the same picture I mentioned above with the copyright tag cut off and no by line. While the state fair of texas people corrected the situation and added my by line to the image, shortly thereafter the business entity who set up the exhibit at the fair replaced my image with another one.

Needless to say I will not be doing business with the museum anymore. Their big gala is next week and I will not be there. I hope they enjoy their 4MP, blurry, point and shoot camera images which I am sure someone will try to fill the void with.

[taygull]

why not do the opposite?

Use this "abuse" of your work as an opportunity to get more work from them..."they owe you". One of greatest pieces of leverage in sales is when the client "owes" you something.

More than likely the picture was hacked by someone who probably did not know better. This would be a great way for you to educate them and suggest to them the way to "make it right" is to hire you for several good paying gigs.

[johnstoy]

You're onto a good lead Taygull...there is no harm in working on a potential prospect...however, remember to keep you cool Lefty Ray, if they don't go along with the offers you make...having read your postings, I trust you would handle the propositions professionally, and not bring up the stolen photo issue...I'd frame it as a "borrowed" photo...

This could be a situation that is sensitive enough that might get personal...I would keep it strictly, positive and see if they are smart enough to work with you...After all, they liked your work enough to swipe it...