Reto Riesen wrote:

>Just a caveat - how many times do pictures get copied the wrong way
>round? Or even on purpose, as it fits the overall layout better?

I think it happens a lot, both by mistake and on purpose. I've seen many,
many examples of this phenomenon, which photo-layout editors don't seem to
consider a sin in any way. Perhaps the only thing that prevents it from
happening is when there is writing on the photo!

Even more disturbing (or amusing, depending on your point of view at that
moment), I've seen a fair number of images that were printed at right
angles to the original or upside down. Basically the people who work on
these projects often know nothing at all about the subject matter, which
doesn't help much.

I suspect many of the misidentified photos in field guides stem from the
fact that the person who submitted the photo had it mislabeled, and no one
along the production path had the knowledge to say otherwise. I have been
involved in choosing photos for several books, and I was at least slightly
appalled at the number of misidentified ones.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416