Dustin Diaz Photography

Erin and I headed up to Twin Peaks, San Francisco (at this exact location) with our good friend Sally Carson. She loves her bikes. Like, a lot. Especially this one. It's pretty rad actually. Here she is rockin out at the top of the hill.

strobist: 3 x SB-900 on a Lastolite TriFlash all @ 1/1 @ 17mm into Big Mama 3' away.

317/365. Park & Ride — and take 'er for a spin

Haven't brought out the stubby in a while, and I think it's been a few months since I shot a bike. So I was only due.

On the Twitter front, I've slowly been building up a decent Photography List that you can subscribe to.

Lastly, if you've been following my work this year; and you still sorta like my work, vote for me for Flickr Photographer of the year - it would mean a lot.

Other than that, let's get to the important stuffs...

setup, camera, strobist info: see here

This two-page full-spread photo was found today in the Virgin Blue in-flight magazine known as Voyeur. And as some of you know, this is my photo. This would have been a little more flattering had it not been stolen.

This photo has been available through Getty Images, however my statements show $0.00. I'm sure this happens frequently and it's hard to prevent. However, it happened,

So... a few things...

Who is Ebony Harrison? (as noted in the copyright on the photo). And who is Robert Zappulla? (also noted). Also, I've been ousted $300 for a magazine quality photo (as per Getty pricing for highest resolution images). Not only was I cheated out of the rewards of using Getty, credit was given to someone else. Who does that?!!


UPDATE: Text Pacific Publishing has appended a comment to this thread (a brand new Flickr account that was created just to comment on this photo). They publish Voyeur magazine on behalf of Virgin Blue. Please read that.

Nevertheless, the credits of the photo still remain in question (since it was credited to another photographer). Not to mention, the legitimacy of this reply also remains in question since I did not receive an official email response.

UPDATE 2:
Virgin Blue has responded! I received a very kind email from their Social Media Specialist regarding the situation and they are "onto it!" A conclusion still remains but this is good traction.

UPDATE 3: Getty and Text Pacific Publishing has responded.

Directly from Tom Wear of Getty:
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"Dustin (and all) --

The usage and sale is perfectly legitimate and licensed through us (Getty Images). The reason you do not see it on your statement is that your July statement (the latest one you received) shows June sales and the license was created more recently than that.

Regarding the photo credits, while we do prefer and request that images are credited to the photographer and Getty Images, it is not a requirement to credit that way, or at all.

If you have any other questions about this usage, or any future usages please contact us at Getty Images, as we are responsible for licensing and use of those images that you have placed with us."
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And Text Pacific

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"Just to clear up the attribution question. It’s the style of the magazine to credit every photographer used within a feature on the first page, in alphabetical order. Some photographers are credited by name as that was the usage rights agreed with them individually. I can understand how this may seem confusing to commenters new to the style of the magazine, so we may look at reviewing this down the line, but we’ve never had any problems with this method of crediting before. "
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To clear a few things up. My original suspicion was that this photo was stolen, and I now want to make this publicly clear. This was photo was NOT stolen as per the official responses. And yes, I am still flattered that my photo was used in a highly published and viewed magazine, and because of this I am grateful.

Nevertheless, I want to justify my original suspicions of why I took the "Guilty until proven Innocent" route.

Since the photo was credited to Getty, and assuming it was a legitimate transaction from my account, the reason for possible theft is the fact that a publishing company has time to purchase a photo, create an illustration around it, receive feedback for copy editing, print hundreds of magazines, and distribute them FASTER than the amount of time it takes for a transaction item to show up in my Getty statements is.... a bit shocking. Even my SmugMug account will send me email notifications for $2 prints the moment they happen.

This is an engineering failure on behalf of Getty. One shouldn't need be "surprised" to find their photo out in the wild and find zero transactions within their transaction history.

Furthermore, moving my attention to "Who was the photo credited to anyway?" — which naturally brought me to believe it "may" have been this "Ebony Harrison" - of which now I publicly apologize for the accusation unto his/her name as well as Robert Zappulla.

And at last, a final point, and of one that Text Pacific is looking to review; the attribution Guidelines. These still remain a bit awkward. Albeit attribution is not required, it "confusingly" looks as though attribution was simply given to someone else. For example, John Doe who appreciates the photography in Voyeur Magazine looks to see if he could potentially hire/buy/license photos from whomever took this photo. They see "Photography | Ebony Harrison | Getty Images | iStockPhoto"

Let's be honest, based on that attribution, who do you believe took the photo? This is UI bug. And to restate, is now under review by Text Pacific Publishing. (Thanks tons for looking into that).

My final word. Thanks to Virgin Blue, Text Pacific Publishing, and Getty Images for their prompt responses and sorting this out quickly, responsibly, and professionally.

105/365. Why should anyone steal a watch when he could steal a bicycle? ~ Flann O'Brien

This bicycle belongs to a friend of mine named Trent. He traveled down from Vancouver (by plane) with his bicycle because, yes, he is totally that hardcore.

This shot was taken near 21st & Mission, just underneath the big "Mission" sign.

Happy Wednesday Everyone. Nerdy folk read on:

strobist info: see here

{update} this photo has been featured on the Flickr Blog! Woot.

Again, as my 365 project approaches, here is my 2nd photo before the project officially begins on January first. This was shot in downtown San Francisco near Market and Powell as I waited for Erin and Stephanie to finish shopping in a nearby department store. There wasn't much outside aside from the thousands of people (which I mostly wanted to avoid). Instead there was this lonely red bicycle which begged to be shot. I only took one photo of it, then casually walked away — surprisingly it turned out to be the best of the night.

Oh, and one more thing, Happy Bokeh Wednesday Eve! (yes, it's still Tuesday in California)
Explorer'd!

Every morning after getting off the bus, this guy gets on his pirate bike and pedals away to his office.

These are the most unusual bike racks I've ever seen. For some reason it reminds of a European style — but they're in plenty places around the city. These ones here, of all places, are in Mountain View.

The Google Bikes have checkers now

Not my motorcycle (I don't have one), but I would imagine it would be a great time of year to go for a ride with all the winter leaves falling on the ground.
on a side note, i'm really pleased with how this photo came out - especially that tree in the background, i finally achieved the texture i wanted after quite a scramble.
ANYWAY! Happy Almost Friday Everyone