Valentine's Day Aftermath

Valentine's Day was supposed to be filled with small, special surprises for my husband.

And it was. I purchased a bottle of wine with a custom label, a box of chocolate covered strawberries and a cute card. I made a tasty dinner of Steak Diane with roasted potatoes and salad. My husband was happy as a clam at high tide; that is, until, he uncorked the wine, sipped a glass, gazed at the wine label and said "That's my photograph on the wine bottle!"

Now, I had purchased this bottle of Valpocella from a client who owns a franchised custom wine shoppe called Vintner's Cellar Winery. She purchases her wine from a winery in Canada and creates some of her wine labels as custom labels. This particular label was called "1st Iron Bridge Red Wine" and had a wonderful graphic depiction of an iron trestle bridge. As unlikely as it seems. it was my husband's photo. A photo he had taken and posted on Flickr. We both examined it and there was no doubt in our minds it was his photo.

He was incensed. He is not opposed to anyone using his work, but it is copyrighted and he wants permission. He would give it for the referral on the label or, in this case, a nice case of the wine.

So here I am, wondering what happened to my Valentine gifts: a delicious bottle of wine with a label that reminds me of one of his photos (who knew?), a gift of chocolate covered strawberries and a steak dinner. I felt like an idiot. This was Valentine's Day gone askew.

He has composed an email to her, asking where she obtained the label art. She is my client so I will be dealing with this on that level. As much as I don't want to deal with it at all, he is right to pursue this. Ahhhh, so much for that good deed going unpunished...