Hypothetical Question...

greenpea

So I have a buddy who is working on the new Washington State Tourism web site http://www.experiencewashington.com/. I was talking to him about the photography that is used in the site (some of it is very nice), and he told me that there is a large amount of photos that come from Flikr customers (you can see the information about the photographer by clicking on the little camera icon on most of the images). My buddy didn't tell me all the details, but what he described to me sounded like Flikr and the Washington State Tourism board set up some sort of deal to allow Flikr customers offer their images for use on the experiencewashington.com site. I don't know if the Flikr customers get paid for the image or if they allow their images to be used on the site and just get credit (I'm thinking it’s the later).

So my question is, do you think Smugmug would ever do something like this (i.e. set up an opportunity for its users to volunteer images for use on something like a non-profit web site or a government tourism web site or a national parks web site)?

And (not to say that Smugmug ever would do this) but if they were to offer up such an opportunity, would you volunteer your image to be used if you were to get nothing more than credit for the image and a link to your Smugmug site?

Just wanted to get peoples opinion on this one.

Awais Yaqub

I think it is not Flickr who advertise their customers or members. Flickr is very popular and people search it for images and defiantly contact people for photos which are cool.As it allow free accounts so a lot people join it so a lot photos from around the world <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p> </o:p>
Like recently US Embassy in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1:place>Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> searched Flickr for Pakistani photos and asked a photographer to give presentation about different cities in Embassy
<o:p> </o:p>
Well I am not sure if they advertise or not

greenpea

Awais Yaqub wrote:

I think it is not Flickr who advertise their customers or members. Flickr is very popular and people search it for images and defiantly contact people for photos which are cool.As it allow free accounts so a lot people join it so a lot photos from around the world <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif&quot; border="0" alt="" >
<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
Like recently US Embassy in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region><st1:place>Pakistan</st1:place></st1:country-region> searched Flickr for Pakistani photos and asked a photographer to give presentation about different cities in Embassy
<o:p></o:p>
Well I am not sure if they advertise or not

Hi Awais, you could be correct. It might have been the Washington State Tourism board that went directly to Flikr customers and asked them to donate images (I don't know).

Would you be willing to offer images to be used for something like a tourism web site (say a web site to promote tourism in Pakistan), if you got nothing more than credit for taking the image and a link back to your smugmug site?

Awais Yaqub

greenpea wrote:

Hi Awais, you could be correct. It might have been the Washington State Tourism board that went directly to Flikr customers and asked them to donate images (I don't know).

Would you be willing to offer images to be used for something like a tourism web site (say a web site to promote tourism in Pakistan), if you got nothing more than credit for taking the image and a link back to your smugmug site?

Well if they dont make money directly from my images then credit is enough for me

rjpat

I would be happy with just the credit if it was for a non-profit use.

gluwater

Smugmug has already done this. They supply the sample images for PhotoVu. Smugmug also does "Call for Photos" for it to use itself. There have been many people that have offered their images for Smugmug to use. I think a lot of us here on dgrin are fine with it because Smugmug treats us so well.

greenpea

gluwater wrote:

Smugmug has already done this. They supply the sample images for PhotoVu. Smugmug also does "Call for Photos" for it to use itself. There have been many people that have offered their images for Smugmug to use. I think a lot of us here on dgrin are fine with it because Smugmug treats us so well.

Actually I've donated photos for use in a theme, and I seem to have just forgotten about the PhotoVu thing (or it was before my dgrin days).

I suppose it was just the thought of something like a tourism web site that got me going. It is a site that potentially gets a lot of volume and is very image heavy. The State of Washington might have plenty of money to pay for pics, but they aren't necessarily making a profit off of your pics.

So if you were asked would you be willing to donate images for something like a state tourism website in exchange for nothing more than your name and a link back to your site?

gluwater

greenpea wrote:

Actually I've donated photos for use in a theme, and I seem to have just forgotten about the PhotoVu thing (or it was before my dgrin days).

I suppose it was just the thought of something like a tourism web site that got me going. It is a site that potentially gets a lot of volume and is very image heavy. The State of Washington might have plenty of money to pay for pics, but they aren't necessarily making a profit off of your pics.

So if you were asked would you be willing to donate images for something like a state tourism website in exchange for nothing more than your name and a link back to your site?

I would not donate to a company or agency that I am not directly involved with. Even charities have marketing budgets.

greenpea wrote:

The State of Washington might have plenty of money to pay for pics, but they aren't necessarily making a profit off of your pics.

It depends on how you view making money. Why do you go to national or state parks? Because you have seen images of them and how beautiful they are. Those images have directly affected your choice to go there and by doing that have brought money to the state or location. If the images weren't necesary to get people to visit than they wouldn't be there. Take for instance Bosque del Apache. I had heard of it before but until I saw images of the thousands of birds and beautiful sunrises and sunsets I had no want to go there. Check out this search of smugmug for Bosque del Apache, wow that is a spectacular place.