If it's posted online, it's fair game, lol. Nice pic.
Not true. Images online are still copyrighted by their creators. They don't have to say they're copyrighted and you don't have to do anything to copyright them. They are copyright protected as soon as you create them. The only exception to this is "fair use". For an item to be used under "fair use" laws there are few exceptions.
Section 107 of the copyright law explains fair use.
the fair use of a copyrighted work, including such use by reproduction in copies or phonorecords or by any other means specified by that section, for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching (including multiple copies for classroom use), scholarship, or research, is not an infringement of copyright.
The biggest distinction judges use is "did you use it to make money" in the case of for profit magazines the answer would be yes.
Bottom line. They violated your copyright. You should be compensated. The purpose for which they took your image and used it is not covered under fair use and is a copyright violation. Tom1 is due compensation.
That is unless your buddy have his copyright permission to someone else by posting it on their site.
If he posted it on the magazines website for a contest odds are they had a clause such as this.
""While TheOhioOutdoors is not responsible for posts' content, authenticity or accuracy, libel, defimation, they retain copyright privileges to all user generated content. ""
This is so we can make things like harvest videos, posts on Facebook, etc and not be sued by a member for using their photo. Or so that if a person quits the site they can't demand that we delete thousands of posts of content.
If he posted it to their facebook or site etc they likely assumed copyright permission for use.