Photographer at Large
Yesterday I got an message from someone representing HGTV.com, requesting permission to use one of my photos in a slide show they are creating for that site. I’ve made all of my photos available under the Creative Commons Attribution license so anyone is free to use them however they like, so long as I’m credited. Still, it’s always nice to receive some notice.
Unless I’m contacted, I usually won’t find out that one of my photos is being used somewhere unless I happen to notice an unusual spike in the number of views a photo is getting. That’s what happened when Skype used one of my photos in a blog post last summer.
Of course, now that I’ve completed my Project 365, I’m no longer watching my photo statistics very closely. Nor am I uploading many photos (although I think about dusting of my D40 more and more often). Anyway, I started to wonder where else my photos might be showing up on the interwebs. Here’s a sample of what I found:
- eHow is using my chocolate covered strawberries pic
- They’re also using a picture of my lawn mower.
- Here’s an article about using Craigslist to find a job and a picture of me staring at you through a magnifying glass.
- Andrew Jackson’s tomb in an article about an archaeologist suing The Hermitage.
- My iPhone and a friends Osbourne Executive accompanying an article about checking email.
- Another eHow article and another chocolate covered strawberries pic. eHow loves me. And strawberries.
- My globe pic in an article about lease negotiation.
- A picture of some of my books in an article about Garner, NC.
- Here’s that pic of me and my magnifying glass again. This time in the LA Times. That was a bit of a surprise.
- My emoticon fridge magnets in a bit about gchat emoticons.
- A pic of one of my fortunes in an article on Plagiarism Today (I think it’s kind of funny these guys don’t use their own photos).
- Legacy.com uses my picture of a Predators / Red Wings game for their NHL section. That’s pretty cool.
- This one just turned up yesterday. A picture I took of Jonathan Rentzsch at C4 last year showed up on the Apple Blog with the whole C4 cancellation business.
- A picture of my wife and her new computer in an article about dermatology patients (I’m sure she’ll be thrilled) on Stanford Medicine’s blog.
- A picture of my washer and dryer on examiner.com.
There’s a bunch more, but you get the idea. It’s pretty cool that people like my photos enough to use them like this. If you want to use one of photos, be my guest, I love it! And if you want to let me know you’ll be using one of my photos, that’s even better!
First off, thanks for the link to my site, I’m glad you liked the use of your work in it.
I’m against plagiarism but I am a VERY strong supporter of Creative Commons and enjoy using CC-licensed work whenever possible. I use the PhotoDropper plugin for WordPress to make that process easy and ensure that the license is complete.
I support CC because it encourages proper attribution and healthy sharing, not plagiarism or infringement. So I try to both license my content under CC licenses and use it when possible to complete the loop.
So, is it funny, somewhat. But I think it actually fits in well with the overall message of the site. Definitely check it out and feel free to ask any questions you have!
I used yours for the LaVergne site once a long time ago… but I asked permission!
@Jonathan I hope I didn’t give offense, it just struck me as funny. I do appreciate the credit and the work you’re doing.
@Kathy Yes, I recall! It was Superman versus Jojo
No offense taken at all. It is odd I admit. Just wanted to clarify. Nothing more. Thanks for the praise and definitely let me me know if I can help.
Speaking of which, I may do a short blurb on PT about this post. I find it fascinating the way you tracked down those using your work legitimately….
Sure thing. I just googled for a links to http://www.flickr.com/photos/somegeekintn/
Good stuff. Congrats on so many photos being used.
I license mine with Creative Commons non-commercial license. I get used a little less often, but I get asked for permission a lot more often (I waive the commercial restriction regularly).
Fun to see your stuff used around, isn’t it?
@Paul It really is. I thought about a more restrictive license, but in the end decided that acknowledgement was more than adequate compensation…. and less hassle
I remember discovering that Skype used my Icons picture from WWDC, I was wondering what in the world was going on, that I was getting 100 views a day. I’m lucky if I get half that in a year. And that one was especially nice since it was *my* photo of *my* icon!
[...] schemes.Casey Fleser, on the other hand, did cover this issue recently on his site and did so by highlighting just some of the sites that had legitimately used his photographs, including Plagiarism Today.His method was brain-dead simple, though somewhat incomplete, and is [...]
Hello “Some Geek” My name is Beth and my Grandfather was Franklin Jackson Tate. Son of George and Amanda Tate. I have hundred of pages on the Tates including some wills. My brother Rob sent me your site and I found George and Amanda. Who are you related to? I can’t find anything on Amanda….Parents…Sibs…etc. Have you contacted Sonny Tate? Looking forward to hearing from you.