Some folks on the Internet are quite casual about where they get images. I always watermark mine so that even if someone swipes it, the url is still visible — unless someone crops it out. Here’s a case in point.
On April 25, 2012, I posted this photo (taken April 21, 2012) and several others on the L.A. Daily Mirror blog from an exhibit at the Los Angeles Police Historical Society on the Black Dahlia case. Note the watermark. I named the image elizabeth_short_nd_elvira_lapd.jpg
I took this photograph with my cellphone, shooting through the top of a glass case.
The picture was difficult to photograph because of all the glare and reflections. Notice the two lights reflected in the glass. These will be important.
I thought it would be fun to see who has swiped my picture (despite the watermark) since 2012.
Looks like it has gotten around. Here is the photo on Pinterest.
Notice that the watermark is still present.
And here it is on Monsterisland, dated January 2013
With the watermark intact.
Not so for The Horror Unlimited website in a post dated Feb. 28, 2013.
Notice the telltale reflection of the lights. Also that the watermark has been cropped out, but the name of the photo remains elizabeth_short_nd_elvira_lapd.jpg. Tacky, tacky!
We also find the image (minus the watermark) on Santa Fe Ghost and History Tours – and I must confess I can’t imagine how anybody connects Elizabeth Short to Santa Fe, N.M. Examining the image properties shows that it is dated Nov. 7, 2013, and has been renamed blackdahliaoldl_a.jpg
And finally, we find the photo I took, minus the watermark, at SteveHodel.com in a post dated April 26, 2013, named es elvira-thumb-400×290-3782.jpg. (There appears to be something wrong with the page, so I have used the Archive.org version of it). I hadn’t noticed until now because I never look at the website.
Again, notice the telltale reflection of the lights.
How can I be so sure?
Here’s how: What you see to the right of the image … is my reflection.
I will leave it to Steve Hodel to explain how my photo ended up on his website. But it is tacky.
