bmattock
Veteran
Much has been said about Flickr lately on RFF, much of it negative (no pun intended). If people don't like it, I have no objection - to each their own, after all. But I like it very much, and here is one of the reasons why.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/cg/BSL-CG-AR2008_262688_7.pdf
Several of these photos are mine. I wasn't paid for this, but I was happy to donate the use of my photos, and it appealed (yes) to my vanity that I maybe take a decent photo now and again. I have also sold images on Flickr, enough to buy a Sigma SD14 body recently.
And I have never had to do any 'advertising' or 'selling' of my photos. I just put them online, and try to include GPS geocoodinates, descriptions, and descriptive tags so that people doing searches will find mine, like you would with a stock photo agency. I use a Creative Commons copyright notice, giving people to use my photos for non-commercial use free of charge as long as I am credited and the photos are not altered.
Just an FYI - for those who would like to someday sell their work but can't be bothered to become their own best salesperson, this is about the laziest way into it I can think of - but after about two years doing this - it works! Doesn't pay much, but you never know.
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/cg/BSL-CG-AR2008_262688_7.pdf
Several of these photos are mine. I wasn't paid for this, but I was happy to donate the use of my photos, and it appealed (yes) to my vanity that I maybe take a decent photo now and again. I have also sold images on Flickr, enough to buy a Sigma SD14 body recently.
And I have never had to do any 'advertising' or 'selling' of my photos. I just put them online, and try to include GPS geocoodinates, descriptions, and descriptive tags so that people doing searches will find mine, like you would with a stock photo agency. I use a Creative Commons copyright notice, giving people to use my photos for non-commercial use free of charge as long as I am credited and the photos are not altered.
Just an FYI - for those who would like to someday sell their work but can't be bothered to become their own best salesperson, this is about the laziest way into it I can think of - but after about two years doing this - it works! Doesn't pay much, but you never know.
Tuolumne
Veteran
Nice. Which of the images are yours?
/T
/T
bmattock
Veteran
Thank you! I put boxes around them if you click on the photo and go to Flickr, but basically, the hockey photo, the pow-wow, the wild geese taking flight, and the jeep with veterans in it. The girl with the microscope, the girls with cardboard boxes, and the kitten are not mine.
morback
Martin N. Hinze
Flickr can't be that bad if the Library of Congress has an account...
Sparrow
Veteran
I’d assumed the kitten had been jailed 
bmattock
Veteran
I’d assumed the kitten had been jailed
teh bad kitteh nom'd the wrong nom, perhaps?
http://icanhascheezburger.com/
rogue_designer
Reciprocity Failure
Nice Bill! I'm bidding right now on shooting for an Annual report - the contact stumbled on my chicago street work on flickr and decided that the documentary feel might be right for their project.
All user driven websites have their flaws, but with Flickr at least you can opt out of the worst of them if you wish.
All user driven websites have their flaws, but with Flickr at least you can opt out of the worst of them if you wish.
bmattock
Veteran
Nice Bill! I'm bidding right now on shooting for an Annual report - the contact stumbled on my chicago street work on flickr and decided that the documentary feel might be right for their project.
All user driven websites have their flaws, but with Flickr at least you can opt out of the worst of them if you wish.
I take the Amtrak down to Chicago from time to time (used to live in Kenosha and worked in Northbrook). The hockey photo was taken in Naperville, as I recall. I was born in Illinois, raised in the cornfields. My dad used to take me up to Chicago to watch the Cubs whup up on the Cardinals every summer. Chicago rules.
Andrew Sowerby
Well-known
LOLZ
I agree with the initial post. Flickr is what you make of it. I find it to be a great source of entertainment and information. Kudos on donating the use of your photos to non-profits and on selling some too!
Migracer
"MigRacer&amp ;qu ot; AKA Miguel
I was vey Flattered
I was vey Flattered
Planting Fields Aboretum on Long Island requested permission to use one of my Images taken in the late 70's for their site. I was glad to provide it. My wife children and I spent many wonderful hours and years on this fantastic estate turned into a State Park.
I was vey Flattered
Planting Fields Aboretum on Long Island requested permission to use one of my Images taken in the late 70's for their site. I was glad to provide it. My wife children and I spent many wonderful hours and years on this fantastic estate turned into a State Park.
Yammerman
Well-known
I've had a couple pics picked up from flickr with zero effort of any kind. Pleased me no end to help promote the uses of concrete and they sent me the CD gatefold my image had been used on. I keep thinking I ought get a bit more organised but I hate the database management that all digital seems to force upon us.
RayPA
Ignore It (It'll go away)
very cool, Bill. congrats. i'm one of those that likes Flickr a lot. It's a love/hate relationship.
/
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Chriscrawfordphoto
Real Men Shoot Film.
Bill,
That is a commercial use and you should have been paid for it. Government regularly pays for such uses if they can't find someone to give it to them. I know you're not a professional photographer, but you're not rich either so I'm sure you could use the money if you sold a photo. State lotteries aren't charities, they could and should have paid you.
That is a commercial use and you should have been paid for it. Government regularly pays for such uses if they can't find someone to give it to them. I know you're not a professional photographer, but you're not rich either so I'm sure you could use the money if you sold a photo. State lotteries aren't charities, they could and should have paid you.
dfoo
Well-known
... and you wonder why stock photography is in the toilet.
bmattock
Veteran
I'm sure you're right, but on the other hand, they clearly wanted photos they could use for free. If I had demanded payment, they'd just have chosen somebody else's photos. I decided that my ego could use a boost and said yes. I've been paid for other things too, so I'm cool with it either way. A little something for my 'I love me' scrapbook.
bmattock
Veteran
Well, I don't wonder about it. Times change. Video killed the radio star. Got to go with the flow, you know?
morback
Martin N. Hinze
That's a demand-side, not supply-side issue.
dfoo
Well-known
Of course, what I said was overly simplistic, but I think accurate. I don't want to write a treatise on this subject, but internet based distribution, wide-spread use of high quality digital cameras, and the general willingness of photographers to give away what was once a high value item certainly didn't do much good to the stock photography business.
photogdave
Shops local
Gotta agree with you here. Although many "amateur" photographers are just happy to be published and often give away their photos for little or no money, I don't think they realize how this affects their hard-working professional brothers who are trying to make a living at it.
This is also evident in commercial and event photography, like weddings and corporate portfolios etc.
Not saying this is necessarily the case with what BM had published though.
bmattock
Veteran
I hear what both of you are saying. And I have no desire to harm professional photographers who make a living from stock photography.
On the other hand, I don't see the quid pro quo. In practical terms, if I turn down the request, they just ask the next amateur in line. In philosophical terms, if I (and all amateurs) turn down all such requests, then perhaps those who are currently getting photos for free will have to buy from stock agencies - and my end of that is what? The everlasting gratitude of my 'brothers'? Forgive me, but I've never been on the receiving end of that particular warm & fuzzy.
I suspect that educating the buyers to buy from established markets would be more useful than encouraging amateurs to forgo the occasional feel-good by allowing buyers to make use of a photo of ours gratis.
There is an established business relationship between buyers of photographs and professional photographers. There is no such relationship between professional and amateur photographers. Not to be rude, but I owe you nothing. If you want me to give something up, you must offer something in return. That's how professionals operate, is it not?
On the other hand, I don't see the quid pro quo. In practical terms, if I turn down the request, they just ask the next amateur in line. In philosophical terms, if I (and all amateurs) turn down all such requests, then perhaps those who are currently getting photos for free will have to buy from stock agencies - and my end of that is what? The everlasting gratitude of my 'brothers'? Forgive me, but I've never been on the receiving end of that particular warm & fuzzy.
I suspect that educating the buyers to buy from established markets would be more useful than encouraging amateurs to forgo the occasional feel-good by allowing buyers to make use of a photo of ours gratis.
There is an established business relationship between buyers of photographs and professional photographers. There is no such relationship between professional and amateur photographers. Not to be rude, but I owe you nothing. If you want me to give something up, you must offer something in return. That's how professionals operate, is it not?