The 10 worst moments in photography 2015

While 2015 was generally a fantastic year for photography, we also witnessed some sad, outrageous and cringeworthy moments that we’ll let you relive one more time before we leave them behind and enter the new year. In no particular order…

1. Photoshop boo boo
Photoshop is great, but ya gotta know how to use it – especially if you’re planning to deceive a nation. In a recent tweet, India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, had a clear view of the devastation caused by the recent floods in Tamil Nadu as he surveyed the damage in a helicopter.

But not many, and certainly no photographers, were fooled by the shoddy photoshop job that replaced a distant view the city of Chennai in Modi’s helicopter window with a close-up view of some flooded buildings. Modi’s press officers have since deleted the tweet, but not before it had been screen grabbed and gone viral.

SEE MORE: 10 Photoshop mistakes photographers make (and how to avoid them)

2. Poppygate
Modi is not the only prime minister to have been the centre of a dodgy Photoshop scandal in 2015; UK prime minister David Cameron recently came under fire after it was discovered that his Facebook profile picture had had a poppy photoshopped onto his jacket. Oops.

SEE MORE: 8 mistakes photographers make using Lightroom (and how to fix them)

Is it white and gold or blue and black?

3. The dress that broke the internet
Was it white and gold or blue and black? Nobody could agree on the colour of #TheDress until experts revealed that it was a bad photograph; well, actually, the experts said that your perception of the colour of the dress depends on how whether your eyes are wired to gauge the quality of the lighting in a given situation and recalibrate your perception of colours accordingly. But if only the photographer had sorted out their white balance before snapping, none of our lives would have been interrupted and put on hold for two days in February. Cheers for that!

4. North Korea blocked access to Instagram
Since social media was made accessible to foreign in North Korea in 2013, Instagram has been an outlet for visiting photographers wanting to share glimpses of life in the secretive state.

But not anymore. Eric Talmadge, Pyongyang Bureau Chief for AP, posted a screen grab in June showing what happened when he last tried to access the photo sharing app via the North Korean carrier Koryolink: A message popped up saying, “Warning! You can’t connect to this website because it’s in blacklist site.”

5. Selfies more dangerous than sharks
We’ve warned about this before, but stupidity in the name of selfies appears to be a trend that has come to stay. Earlier this year it was revealed that more people die of stupid selfie attempts than of shark attacks.

A group of people at Matlock Bath Station that included small children could have easily become part of that statistic as CCTV caught them sitting on the tracks, chatting and taking pictures eight times in one day.

SEE MORE: Best selfie stick: 4 reviewed and rated

6. A Schoolboy died while trying to take ‘extreme selfie’
In September, a 17-year old schoolboy named Andrey Retrovsky reportedly fell to his death after apparently trying to stage an extreme selfie from a ninth-floor rooftop in Russia’s Vologda Oblast region.

The boy’s Instagram feed is full of daring shots taken on steel girders and rooftops, including one where he hangs off the wall of a building using just one hand.

Unfortunately, the last time he lowered himself over the edge of a roof with his phone in his hand, the rope gave way. The boy plummeted nine floors down and died of his injuries.

7. Drone crackdown
Nothing stifles creativity of a drone photographer like a crackdown by the US Federal Aviation Authority, and that is exactly what happened to photography company SkyPan, which has been dealt a $1.9 million fine for flying over restricted airspace.

SkyPan produces 360 degree panoramic images that allow city planners and architects to see what view might be like from a planned building.

As drones are becoming more affordable, more and more photographers are setting up companies that specialise in drone photography.

But regulation is slow to catch up with the popular trend, and rules and guidelines are still complicated in the States (a bit less so in Europe). The FAA will supposedly have clarified the rules by mid-2016, so let’s hope next year will be a better year for drone photographers.

8. A swift rights grab
This summer it became known that if you’re a photographer who wants to cover a Taylor Swift world tour concert, you first have to sign a form granting Swift’s management free and unlimited use of your work. It’s interesting, coming from an artist who is known for speaking out against the repressive royalty deals streaming services give musicians.

Photographer Jason Sheldon wrote an open letter to Swift complaining about this double standard, and received this response from Swift’s management: “The standard photography agreement has been misrepresented in that it clearly states that any photographer shooting The 1989 World Tour has the opportunity for further use of said photographs with management’s approval.”

Not good enough, Swift. Not good enough.

SEE MORE: Photographers Rights: the ultimate guide

9. Something for Notting
In a move that would impress Taylor Swift’s management, the Notting Hill Carnival now charges £100 for photographers wanting press accreditation – and accredited photographers have to share their coverage of the event with the organisers.

John Toner, freelance organiser of the National Union of Journalists, told the News Media Association, “It is not acceptable that the media are expected to pay a fee to cover what is a genuine news event. It is equally unacceptable that the organisers expect pictures and video to be supplied free for their commercial purposes. For an individual freelance, this could mean working at a loss.”

10. The wedding photo fight
This was supposed to be a heartwarming, life-confirming story. In September, photographer Delia D. Blackburn captured a very special moment at a wedding, when the father of the bride went to get the bride’s stepdad so they could both walk the bride down the aisle.

Blackburn’s image went viral and appeared in news reports around the world, but then things turned sour. Blackburn allegedly claims that the bride’s father threatened to sue her for making money off the photos, and that family members and friends of Peck have been slamming her on social media sites.

Blackburn broke down in tears when interviewed by Fox 8, saying “They’re trying to ruin me.”

The bride denied any ill will towards Blackburn, but said stress was building in her family because they hadn’t received the wedding album several weeks after the deadline. “Just hand us our pictures and we’ll go our separate ways,” she said.

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