A benefit of putting photos in a photo-sharing service

A benefit of placing photos in a photo-sharing service is that people use them (with the correct permissions). Sometimes those uses can be pretty cool. For example, last year Schmap ask to use my photo of the National Museum of the American Indian in one of its online tour book. I gladly said "yes." Yesterday NowPublic emailed to ask if they could use three photos of Seattle manhole covers I'd taken to help illustrate a story they had done on stolen manhole covers in Ottawa. I said "yes." Because of those requests, my photos are being seen by a very different audience. Cool!

In both cases, the organization said they would give me proper attribution. In both cases, there was no exchange of money. More importantly, in both cases, I retain rights to the photos. Best of all, I benefit because more people get to see my photos (and then might be curious about what other photos I've taken...and then maybe curious about who I am). The other organization benefits because they get great photos and they get someone (me) who is going to talk about the interaction. A win-win situation, eh?!

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Technorati tags: Flickr, photo sharing, NowPublic