Some of you may recall that for quite a few years I have been contributing photographs to a British photo-mapping site called Geograph. In total, I have contributed over seventeen thousand five hundred pictures. The site itself has received 7.5 million images from 13,761 contributors. I am just a small fish in a large pond.
Now when you submit your photos to Geograph, you do so on the understanding that your images will be available for others to use as long as copyright is always acknowledged. Many organisations such as news services or publishers have come to view Geograph as an incredible free resource.
Let's say you need a picture of a particular village to illustrate a news report about a fire or a car accident. All you need to do is go to Geograph and press "Search". No need to send a photographer. Or maybe you are writing a book about English cathedrals and you need photo-illustrations. There's no need to drive up and down our motorways because you can find the pictures on Geograph. Free to use.
Several of my pictures have been used by others including the BBC News website. Though no payment is received, it gives me a bit of a buzz to find my images being used elsewhere. Here's just a small sample of my BBC pictures....
From January of this year, a picture I took of the island of Little Ross in South West Scotland - "Holiday homes plan for lighthouse murder island near Kirkcudbright":-
What a cool thing, and if your photos get snatched up and used, that's extra cool.
ReplyDeleteIt is indeed cool Bob. I am glad you understand.
DeleteGeograph and photo-mapping were terra incognito till I found your blog.
ReplyDeleteBut then I had never read a blog till lockdown.
Seventeen thousand five hundred photos of yours is quite an achievement.
South Yorkshire Prison : now there is the subject for a novel.
On a train up from London I once passed Carstairs where the criminally insane
are held, and I still shiver at the memory of that foggy winter night.
Boston Lincs. is a good place to arrive in the gloaming, a fish and chips dinner
with bread & butter & tea, and an early night in a chintzy hotel.
My thoughts turn to sleep these days. Slumberland.
Good job the train did not break down at Carstairs with train travellers being invited to shelter there. You may never have got out.
DeleteDecades ago a man escaped Carstairs, strangling two nurses.
DeleteA friend told me his father who worked there was off that day.
On a less terrifying note, philosopher Andy West has written
a haunting book :
*The Life Inside, A Memoir of Prison, Family & Learning to Be Free*
Picador paperback 2023.
Mr West teaches philosophy in prisons.
We need to rehabilitate men who are not dangerous.
Many women should not even be in jail.
This is especially true in America where the prison population is bigger than that of many small countries.
DeleteA friend observed that British yobs do not misbehave in Florida,
Deletethey know cops won't tolerate it.
We are too lenient with drunks on flights, they need a 10 year ban.
*United States Worst Prisons.* YouTube. Show Me the World.
*Inside Canada's Oldest Maximum Security Prison the Kingston
Penitentiary.* YouTube.
As the saying goes, there is no such thing as bad publicity!
ReplyDeleteWhat about campaigns for certain presidential candidates?
DeleteThere is a strong theme of death and mayhem but your photos are quite idyllic.
ReplyDeleteYou can't beat a bit of mayhem.
DeleteIt is a good thing to do but I am not sure that commercial news media should have access to photos for free. Naturally I think I should though.
ReplyDeleteOccasionally people contact me for permission which is nice. They don't have to.
DeleteCongratulations. Yes it would give you a buzz to see your photos used.
ReplyDeleteIt is the only way I will ever achieve any fame at all.
DeleteThat is rather impressive! I hope copyright is always acknowledged.
ReplyDelete99% of the time it has been.
DeleteThey obviously recognise good quality when they see it.
ReplyDeleteActually that IOM picture wasn't so good because of the IOM weather.
DeleteThat's quite an achievement, but I am not surprised. You always capture the true essence of a place.
ReplyDeleteSo kind of you to say so. Thanks.
DeleteGoodness, that's an awful lot of photos YP - well done! The first one is really rather spooky, not a place for scouts to get lost.
ReplyDeleteThe KInder Plateau is one of the strangest areas in all of England. If you are ever back in your homeland, I will take you up there for a merry jaunt.
DeleteBut more importantly, I believe I used one: Airmyn Clock.
ReplyDeleteThat is when I knew I had "arrived"!
DeleteSo anyone who uses one of your images has to credit it back to you? Seems fair.
ReplyDeleteYou have got it Elsie.
DeleteIt is nice to be acknowledged. Great photos.
ReplyDeleteYou are a naturally supportive guy Mr Penguin. That's a nice thing about you.
DeleteWell done Mr. Pudding.
ReplyDeleteI wish you got a little $$ when they use your photos. That's what a professional photographer would get, right? And your photos are so professionally done, Neil!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on having your photos picked up elsewhere! Publishers love free images, of course, but they're also really good pics.
ReplyDelete