I don't think the environmental value of `settings.MEDIA_URL` should affect the functionality  - it's just checking to see if `settings.MEDIA_URL` (whatever it happens to be in that environment) is already at the beginning of the passed in `url` string...right?

I added some simple tests against the updated `media` helper with differing values for `settings.MEDIA_URL` - more to illustrate how I think things are working than anything else.

Maybe I'm missing something obvious here?

That `media` helper is used all over the site, which does make this a risky/high-impact update. I think moving the conditional inside each image helper makes sense in that regard, but I want to make sure the logic is sound first.