WOW - Thank you very much for your reply, and especially for the provided link.

As first, my apology for assuming wrongly, and I'm really glad to hear that you care about these things and doing your best to stay on the safe side as well as taking care to be fair while using someone else's work.

But there is some funny story behind these apples that you discovered to me with provided link.
Of course, it doesn't have anything to do with you, and it's certainly not your fault, but it's still quite interesting finding.

lol 😆 - It seems that apples are true trouble, however we turn them around, since Biblical times.

The thing is that by following the link that you provided I've got even more intrigued, thinking how it's possible that the same photo on one site (Shutterstock) is charged and requires attribution while on the other site it's entirely free and without a single attribution needed.

Therefore I became even more curious to find out who the real author is. Beside finding the photo being used on many different sites and blogs out there, I also discovered it on several other free photo sites (similar to the three ones that I listed in my previous comment). One of them is Pixabay too.

According to my current findings, seems like that the first ever (on the Internet) published file with the photo has been uploaded in 2016 on Flickr by Freestocks.org (allegedly from their private portfolio) who published it also on their own site (which site is, btw, as well a free photo providing website).

I also found out that Freestocks.org is a privately owned site ran by three photographers, as it seems from Poland "(with occasional contribution from two other friends)".

On their page it's stated that the author of the photo is Joana Malinowska (from Poland).

On the other side, the same photo on Shutterstock (which is not free of charge) has been uploaded there about a year later (in 2017) by person with nickname quangmooo, a photographer from Vietnam.

So, it seems like we have to different authors from entirely two different parts of the world for the exact same photo. 🤔

Another discrepancy is the description about the camera being used for taking the photo, as well as some camera settings.

While the Polish photographer took the photo with Canon EOS 6D and 240 dpi, Vietnamese photographer took it with Canon EOS 60D and 300 dpi.
(Canon 6D and 60D are similar but not the same cameras.)

I know that all of it doesn't have anything to do with you, but as I already assumed wrongly your usage of the photo I wanted you to know what else I found about it afterwards.

Besides, and as I also use earlier mentioned (listed) sites for my articles, I started to be a bit worried about how much I can truly rely on them or should I every time take a deeper investigation for each photo I'm planning to use (with what I certainly wouldn't be happy).

However, something is strange with this photo and now I'm even more curious who the real author is. Will see what would come up of all these, but if I should place a bet, my inner feeling tells me to place it on Polish lady photographer.

As I already said, apples seems to be a trouble since Biblical times. 😉😄