laravel image validation sometimes works

I have a simple validation rule, to just require a photo being uploaded yet, some images go through no problem, and some of them tell me, 'image required'.

Am I missing something in my code? what would let some get through and some not?

// getting all of the post data
$file = array('image' => Input::file('image'));

// setting up rules
rules = array('image' => 'required',); 

via Chebli Mohamed