diff --git a/app/controllers/people_controller.rb b/app/controllers/people_controller.rb
index 25fb5d0e4..e8af2f337 100644
--- a/app/controllers/people_controller.rb
+++ b/app/controllers/people_controller.rb
@@ -73,12 +73,12 @@ class PeopleController < ApplicationController
   private
   def prep_image_url(params)
     if params[:profile] && params[:profile][:image_url]
-      url = APP_CONFIG[:pod_url].dup
-      url.chop! if APP_CONFIG[:pod_url][-1,1] == '/'
       if params[:profile][:image_url].empty?
         params[:profile].delete(:image_url)
       else
-        if /^http:\/\// =~ params[:profile][:image_url]
+        url = APP_CONFIG[:pod_url].dup
+        url.chop! if APP_CONFIG[:pod_url][-1,1] == '/'
+        if params[:profile][:image_url].match(/^https?:\/\//)
           params[:profile][:image_url] = params[:profile][:image_url]
         else
           params[:profile][:image_url] = url + params[:profile][:image_url]
diff --git a/spec/controllers/people_controller_spec.rb b/spec/controllers/people_controller_spec.rb
index 64e10b94e..7ed3ffbff 100644
--- a/spec/controllers/people_controller_spec.rb
+++ b/spec/controllers/people_controller_spec.rb
@@ -46,8 +46,23 @@ describe PeopleController do
         image_url = user.person.profile.image_url
         put("update", :id => user.person.id, "person" => params)
 
+        user.person.reload
         user.person.profile.image_url.should == image_url
       end
+
+      it "doesn't prepend (https?://) if already present in image_url" do
+        params = {:profile=> 
+                   {:image_url  => "https://google.com/image.png",
+                    :last_name  => user.person.profile.last_name,
+                    :first_name => user.person.profile.first_name}}
+
+        put("update", :id => user.person.id, "person" => params)
+
+        user.person.reload
+        user.person.profile.image_url.should == params[:profile][:image_url]
+      end
+
     end
   end
+
 end