Northampton University Website screenshot
Images on websites
Northampton University are using some of my pictures on the front page of their website. In this instance, to promote the clearing process for next year’s cohort of students. The images being used were part of a commission to provide good quality pictures of the Library and its users.
Flickr images can get you noticed
My Flickr account has been contacted on several occasions with people asking to use images. Some I have allowed and some I haven’t. Most of the requests don’t involve any money being offered. Because someone may recognise your genius, does not mean that they are willing to pay for it, especially as there are another thousand genii (that’s the plural I looked it up) on the next Flickr page. Having said that, my friend got a couple of quid from Pizza Hut for the use of this image, which was taken on a little point and shoot, so there is some money to be made.
Babble.com liked the cut of my jib
website screenshot
It was via this serendipitous Flickr path that Babble.com were sourcing images for their website. Lauren, an intern, contacted me to ask, very politely, if they could use this image. Now I like this image – it’s my son doing Kung Fu, leaping off the sofa. I have good memories of taking it, as we were playing a game which involved me being stationary while he rained down the pain and I just managed to sneak in a little camera gear testing at the same time. So the picture has sentimental value to me. But what’s the market value? Well, It was already on show to the public on Flickr for free so, after reading the proposed article, I agreed to let them use it for nothing. It was a win-win situation as far as I was concerned. They illustrated their article, my son thought he was known as a famous Kung Fu expert in America and told everyone at his school, and I got a little kick from seeing it in “print”, a blog entry, and good Karma out of it.
You can still see the article on the babble website.
Creative Commons
There is a alternative solution for image rights called Creative Commons (CC) that you can use to distribute your work into the public domain. It’s an alternative to “all rights reserved” copyright, sometimes referred to as “some rights reserved” or “copyleft“. Flickr organises this for you and CC comes in a few flavours on their site. You can specify commercial, non commercial, attribution, derivative or distribute restricted licenses to users. If you have images that you might want to distribute in this way you too may find yourself in “print” on the web.