FREE Photos For Blogs And Websites

Published on 12/31/2009

Starting in 2010 I’m going to be offering my collection of images to other bloggers. I’ve currently uploaded 8,795 images, taken from over 60 countries around the world, and am adding more images all the time. Basically, I am allowing any image that I host on my travel photography site to be used by other bloggers for free.

My images are not in the Creative Commons, but I’ll be offering them for basically the same terms. Here is what you have to do to use my images:

Send me an email (gary@everything-everywhere.com) letting me know what image you want to use and how wide you need the image to be.
Use the image which is hosted on my photo hosting site on Smugmug.com. Don’t copy the image and put it on your own server. If you need, I can provide you with the HTML you can cut and paste that that will give you the image with the exact width you need. This lets people know the original source of the image and also removes any bandwidth hosting cost for you.
Permission only extends to use online. It does not extend to use in print or for the creation of physical copies.
Put an attribution link under the image or at the end of the article linking back to my blog. The link cannot have a nofollow attribute. Example: <a href="http://everything-everywhere.com">Image courtesy of Everything Everywhere Travel Blog</a>

That’s it.

Why am I doing it? To be a contributing member of the blogging community and to help raise awareness of my photography and my blog.

There are several advantages and disadvantages to using one of my photos compared to getting Creative Commons photos from Flickr that everyone should be aware of:

Pros:

You exactly know who you are working with. You have no clue who most people are on Flickr. You don’t know if they might change the terms of their copyright or remove the images completely from Flickr. If you have any questions, I am around to answer them. If anyone ever questions you where you got an image from, you can just send them to me. If you work with a corporate site, I can give you a personal level of assurance you just can’t get from an anonymous Flickr account.

I can serve up images of any width because I host on Smugmug. If you want an image which is exactly 267 pixels wide, not 240 or 250, I can do that.

I can do requests. If I am going to be somewhere and you can notify me in advance, I can try to get a particular image. The same terms as above apply and there are no guarantees I will get the photo.

Cons :

Many of my images are not tagged. If you are looking for an image of a backpack, searching my photos for “backpack” isn’t going to give you much.

Smaller selection. Despite the name of my site, I haven’t taken photos of everything. Flickr obviously has a much larger selection.

Why don’t I just put my images in the Creative Commons? Because I’ve found most people just don’t understand how the Creative Commons works. They think it is the same as the public domain so they just steal them. Also, each image can have different Creative Commons restrictions and most people don’t understand how to navigate through all the differences.

By using my images I make it really simple. I own the copyright (just like Creative Commons) and I’ll give you explicit permission via an email you can archive. Many creative Creative Commons licenses do not permit commercial use and it is very ambiguous if sites with advertising are considered commercial. I have no problem with it.

12 Comments... What's your take?

Emily @ Maiden Voyage says:

January 15, 2010 at 1:01 pm

Very cool idea, Gary! That’s very generous of you, and I (and I’m sure all the other travel bloggers) really appreciate this offer. You’re right — many people don’t realize that Creative Commons photos need to be credited like any others. Thanks for being willing to share your incredible photos with us.

Mel says:

January 13, 2010 at 5:45 am

This is a nice offer. I, too, use Smugmug for my photo hosting (been doing so for 3+ yrs now), I think it’s by far one of the best to use. Personally, I can’t stand Flickr.

Anyhow, this is my first visit to your site, courtesy of browsing the “shorty awards” for travel nominees, and I like what I see so far. =)

Luray va accomodations says:

January 11, 2010 at 8:10 am

These are all the beautiful pictures and all the fun-loving portraits are all beautiful and interesting travel photography.

Kitty Miller says:

January 11, 2010 at 4:19 am

That’s a wonderful idea. I looked your photos all are great. So i think i will buy in future. Thanks for your post.

jen laceda says:

January 9, 2010 at 3:49 pm

Gary, what a fabulous idea!!! I, for sure, will be asking you for some photos, as I’ve travelled extensively before digital cameras came, but I was so bad organizing my film back then. So, I have many ideas for posts but have no decent digital photos. It is, indeed, very generous of you to do this!