copyright by mwarv

Day 41 is Here! — UPDATED —

Photography looks easy but it isn’t. It’s not just about picking up a camera one day and becoming a pro the next. It takes weeks, months and even years of learning, making mistakes, being blasted by clients, picking yourself up, dusting yourself and mustering the courage to continue shooting.

At times, you need to get in harms way to get the shot. In others, smaller sacrifices like sleepless night while editing or having to wake up early get to a location on time need to be made. After the shoot, you get back to your work station, select, edit and post the photos. It’s a routine that takes its toll on you as a photographer, and your equipment.

If this seems as too much work, don’t worry, there’s a shortcut!

Pete

Meet Pète Devour, a brilliant guy who has proven being a photographer is easier than we’ve always thought. According to him, all you need is to learn how to take a screenshot, crop it and post the image as your own. ‘Isn’t that illegal?’ you ask. Well, according to Pète, no! Not when you’ve worked so hard to look for good photos and master the use of the cropping tool. ‘That is harder than simply pressing the shutter button.’

Nairobi_Dusk-1
Canon 7D. 17mm, 30sec at f/22, ISO 200. 7:06:17PM, 9th March 2011.

Why brace the chilly winds on the KICC helipad to take this?

Nairobi_Dusk-1-stolen

See how easy cropping is? And the likes you get? Guess what? You can even comment like you took it!

Morning traffic on Kenyatta Avenue, Nairobi.
Canon 7D. 17mm 1.6sec at f/22, ISO 200. 6:45:24AM, 6th March 2013.

Too lazy to leave your warm bed before sunrise on a rainy day? Don’t have a tripod? Don’t have the patience to wait for a perfect shot while your fingers freeze? No problem!

Bus

Pète has the solution!

Nairobi_Sunrise-1
Canon 60D. 17mm, 30.0sec at f/13, ISO 100. 6:15:50AM, 4th March 2013.

To shoot a sunrise over Nairobi, you don’t have to be at the Uhuru Park lookout before the sun rises. That is working hard, not working smart!

sunrise2See!

Canon 7D. 12mm, 10.0sec at f/22. ISO 250. 7:00:53PM, 7th March 2013.
Canon 7D. 12mm, 10.0sec at f/22. ISO 250. 7:00:53PM, 7th March 2013.

Mwarv, you had to wait for almost 30 minutes and dodge traffic to shoot this? Pole sana my guy. Thank God you didn’t get knocked down. What would I have posted?

KenyattaAve2

Pète, thank you for showing us we have been wasting our time mastering photography. I’ll however skip on the offer to be a screen shooter and keep working hard to become a pro shooter. Maybe one day we’ll meet at the top but until then, my mighty warring angels will be coming for you.

————————————————-

UPDATE Tuesday 29th April 2014

Well, seems my mighty warring angels moved hastily.

After the story above, Instagram posts by Mutua Matheka, Steve Kitoto and more from Joe Were on Facebook, Pète’s account has been shut down by Instagram!

PDSHut

That’s what I get on my phone…

PDShutMac

…and on my computer.

Thank you Instagram for showing zero tolerance to plagiarists.

29 thoughts on “Day 41 is Here! — UPDATED —”

  1. Plagiarism at its best, yaani this Pete guy should be confronted and shamed for who he is. As you’ve rightly put it, the might warring angels will sort him out vipoa.

  4. Well the likes of him don’t really go nowhere except for rounds and rounds and with time get known for their mischievous activities.. He should be tracked down and be sued.. Hii ni kukulia mahali hafai.. does he even know how t handle a simple digital camera ama ya Simu.. Shame on him for riding on other peoples hard work!!! NKT!!!

  5. How sad does one get to be this dumb. How would the owner, let alone others not know when their stuff is being pinched?

  6. Woh, this guy is a good copy cat! Taking others pix and making them as yours is just a huge crime. Twarudishwa nyuma sana na watu kama hawa! Sorry Mwarv.

  7. A Thief is a thief just because he gave a fresh coat of paint to what he stole doesn’t make him any less of a thief

  9. All I have to say in this matter is “Twanga yeye” “Chapa kama burrkenge”. Very silly Kenyan.

  11. what a ….. I know I cant cuss here but @#$%^&!!!!!!! I guess you cant watermark your beautiful pictures. start a hash tag we blast him #KOT style

  12. This sucks. I’ve contacted people I know at Instagram and Facebook about it. Let’s see what they will do.

  13. I know it’s highly unlikely, but is it possible he was standing beside you each time, taking the exact same shot, and editing it exactly the same way? 😀

    1. Wow… Come to think of it… Wait… Nope! I can’t pick the dude from a crowd of two.

  14. There is a wave of plagiarism driven by the coming content war and empty content strategies. It must be fought before it becomes the norm and not the exception. It is everywhere, written content, photography, videos, scripts…but we are on to it. Curbing it will be an uphill task. Keep calling them out.

  15. This is absurd Mwarv knowing what you do and the professionalism you handle your work with. I wish that this gets unmasked and exposed! I will be the first to pinch his nose!

  17. Just seen one of my shots from the instagram grid above…. now I’m all manners of upset over this fella.

  19. What A shame, Hopefully his 41st day came and more than ever we will be on the look out for such screen shooters. #WHATASHAME.

  20. This kills it “Mwarv, you had to wait for almost 30 minutes and dodge traffic to shoot this? Pole sana my guy. Thank God you didn’t get knocked down. What would I have posted?”
    labda hajui kushare link!

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