Famous Wildlife Photographer Busted For Using Stock Images

Nobody knows better than Award-winning wildlife photographer Terje Helleso how hard it can be to get that perfect shot in an out-of-the-way location. That's why he used stock photos. The 47-year-old photographer passed off hundreds of stock photos as his own over the course of several years. From the article: "On Wednesday, a deeply regretful Helleso spoke to local radio. He gave economic problems as a reason, but mostly it was about his own unreasonably high demands on himself to be successful, he said. 'I was under pressure, mostly from myself, and I gave in to temptation. Looking back, I’m surprised that I got away with it for so long, and that I managed to keep up appearances to my wife and everyone else,' he said."

Comments

An obvious reminder

[hardtofindanick]

On Wednesday, a deeply regretful Helleso spoke to local radio

Regretful because he was caught. If he wasn't caught, probably he would have been quite happy.

Re:An obvious reminder

[MacTO]

I realise that it is trendy to be cynical of anyone who has gained any form of celebrity, but I think that it is also appropriate to remind people that the person behind the spotlight is as human as anyone else that you meet. Just like us, the make mistakes. Just like us, sometimes they are regretful because they were caught. And just like us, sometimes the regret that they express is sincere.

I don't know this photographer, so I don't know how sincere that regret is. On the other hand, I'm not willing to let cynicism overwhelm me by simply assuming that he is insincere.

Re:An obvious reminder

[mwvdlee]

Indeed. "Regretful" is when you confess BEFORE anybody finds out the truth.

Re:An obvious reminder

[Hazel Bergeron]

Everyone deserves empathy. That's how empathy works. If you're applying some formula to decide whether someone's worthy then you're not really demonstrating empathy at all.

Re:An obvious reminder

[Teancum]

Rule One of Life -- Never Get Caught
There is no appeal, no reprieve, no forgiveness, no redemption, and no hope. Once you are caught, you can never be uncaught.

The problem here is the concept that anything is ethical and proper until you are caught. The real "truth" is that he shouldn't have been doing this in the first place, regardless of if he was caught or not.

Yes, I know human nature is that you act impulsively and ignore ethics and principles. That is why we try to pound them into kids at an early age with the remote hope that eventually some of that is going to sink into their skulls that unethical and immoral behavior eventually leads to ruin and it is better for everybody including yourself if you don't even start down that path.

Sadly, some adults either never learned those lessons or have deliberately chosen to ignore them.

BTW, I do think you can have "forgiveness" after a fashion. Those who you've wronged can have restitution, you can admit what you did was wrong, and you can "do the time" if you have broken criminal law. Somebody who can fess up, admit they have done something wrong, try to make things right and not do it again is to me somebody much more worthy of my sympathy and mercy than somebody who acts like a jerk and pretends like it never happened in spite of being caught red handed. You might not be able to be "uncaught", but you can be forgiven for what is human weakness if you try to be better next time. That is for me what is hope that humanity can become better in the future, however you define "better".

Re:An obvious reminder

[hey!]

Aside from any question of another human being *deserving* our empathy, our empathy doesn't perform any useful function for *us* unless we're willing to extend it to people who are unsympathetic. For example, consider the following part of the article summary:

He gave economic problems as a reason, but mostly it was about his own unreasonably high demands on himself to be successful,

The reason that this man is a fit object for *empathy* is that unreasonable demands on ourselves to be successful is something we all feel now and then. The reason he is not a fit object for *sympathy* is we don't necessarily do something foolish or unethical because of it. Unrestrained ambition for undeserved position is what did Macbeth in. Combine that with a little hubris and you have the most common formula for stupid, self-destructive behavior there is.

Empathy guides are sympathy to those who deserve it, and enables us to learn from the examples of those who don't.

Re:An obvious reminder

[ricosalomar]

That's not really what empathy is. Think of empathy as an automatic response, like when you wince when you see someone get a paper cut, or get kicked it the nuts.
Sympathy is more intellectual, you consider the circumstances, and cognitively place yourself in the situation.
Then you weigh whether the person deserves your sympathy. This is where your ethical beliefs may come in to play.
Or you could think of it this way: A person without sympathy is a hard-ass, while a person without empathy is a sociopath.

And crappy at Photoshop too. No suprise here.

[Qbertino]

In my opinion a good Photoshopped picture that looks awesome is worth just as much as a good snapshot someone took. A friend of mine is a Photographer and a fairly decent semi-professional PS guy too, and his Photoshops are at least as neat as his originals. They sometimes take days of hard work to composite. Photoshopping is a skill at least as high up as photographing, and if the guy managed to make some neat wildlife composites - stock material or not - I couldn't care less. I might even hang one up on my wall if it looks cool and I like it.

However, the example they show is a typical, über-shitty I-have-no-clue-what-I'm-doing PS job that takes about 1,5 seconds to be recognised as a bad PS job by a digital imaging expert. Old school photographers who can't handle digital imaging at aren't willing to go back to school to learn it but still think they can reap the benefits of digital imaging deserve all the flak they get. Like this guy. Still to many of those around. I have no pitty for him. That is one crappily PSed image on the level of an intern and people should demand their money back from him. ... Then again, if they didn't notice, maybe it's their own fault? ...

My 2 cents.