diff --git a/image_publisher/include/image_publisher/image_publisher.hpp b/image_publisher/include/image_publisher/image_publisher.hpp
index 6c22b0199..758ad82d9 100644
--- a/image_publisher/include/image_publisher/image_publisher.hpp
+++ b/image_publisher/include/image_publisher/image_publisher.hpp
@@ -67,6 +67,7 @@ class ImagePublisher : public rclcpp::Node
   std::string filename_;
   bool flip_horizontal_;
   bool flip_vertical_;
+  bool image_flipped_;
   bool retry_;  // If enabled will retry loading image from the filename_
   int timeout_;  // Time after which retrying starts
 
diff --git a/image_publisher/src/image_publisher.cpp b/image_publisher/src/image_publisher.cpp
index 1f8068de4..25d6e5b52 100644
--- a/image_publisher/src/image_publisher.cpp
+++ b/image_publisher/src/image_publisher.cpp
@@ -144,9 +144,11 @@ void ImagePublisher::doWork()
       if (!cap_.read(image_)) {
         cap_.set(cv::CAP_PROP_POS_FRAMES, 0);
       }
+      image_flipped_ = false;
     }
-    if (flip_image_) {
+    if (flip_image_ && !image_flipped_) {
       cv::flip(image_, image_, flip_value_);
+      image_flipped_ = true;
     }
 
     sensor_msgs::msg::Image::SharedPtr out_img =
@@ -213,6 +215,7 @@ void ImagePublisher::onInit()
   } else {
     flip_image_ = false;
   }
+  image_flipped_ = false;  // Image newly read, needs to be flipped
 
   camera_info_.width = image_.cols;
   camera_info_.height = image_.rows;