In recent days, I’ve begun paying more attention to photos in the media: who shot them, how the scenes were lit, the composition, and so on. Oh yeah, one more thing: when they were taken.

This would seem to be a non-starter. Photos published in daily and weekly newspapers about current events are taken within the previous few days, right? Not necessarily.

The first time I noticed this was in an article about Betty’s Pies that was published in the Star Tribune last summer (sorry, can’t find the link) . It was the typical fawning piece of prose, singing the praises of pie on the North Shore. OK, whatever — Betty’s Pies makes decent pie. The thing that got my attention wasn’t the article, it was the photo that went with it. A large, color view of… the Betty’s Pies building that was torn down in 2002. The new building is nothing like the old one; it isn’t even in the same spot. Way to go, guys.

I noticed the same sort of thing this evening while searching for images of the basketball game to compare to my own. A local paper ran an article about the game, so I took a closer look. Look at the photo, read the caption, and then compare the photos to the AP gallery. That’s right: the jerseys are different! Either the team quickly switched uniforms for that one shot or the photo is quite old.

I don’t have a problem with newspapers using file photos, but perhaps they should at least be certain that the photos match present reality.