Oh hey, looky what I caught tonight while watching the 5 o’clock news:
I usually don’t watch the news so much as I turn it on and listen to it as I wash dishes, cook supper, or browse the net. So you can imagine my shock when I looked up to see the above video. That’s when my eye caught the picture on the left hand of the postcard. I turned to my husband and said, “Hey…that looks like my photo. Wait…a…second…OMG, it is!”
That picture look familiar? It should. I took it in 2007.
That’s when my fingers flew at lightning speed to my Flickr gallery and I pulled up the photo for my husband who didn’t remember me taking it at all. For a moment I tried to think back to any Twitter or Facebook conversations I may or may not have had with any of the news staff regarding the photo. Did I give them permission and it just slipped my memory? I really dig the crew at WSAV and I didn’t want to come off as a raging photographer to folks who have been nothing but nice to me online. I forget things often and I frequently tell my husband that I think I’m losing my mind. So I very well may have given them permission to use it and it just slid off my brain and out my ear. That’s normal for me.
So I Tweeted about it and that’s when I get another Tweet telling me the same photo is being used in a Facebook group. Popular photo, no? I’m ashamed to say that I reacted in a very unladylike way at this news. I rushed over to the Facebook group demanding the photo be taken down, only to find that one of my Twitter followers…a very sweet lady I might add, is one of the admins. After much apologizing for acting like a crazed lunatic, it was all sorted out. And thankfully I didn’t lose any followers for it.
I think it’s pretty damn cool to see one of my photos on television, I just wish I had been informed of it earlier so I could’ve kept an eye out for it…or at least called my mother so she could brag about it to her girlfriends. So please people, ask next time you want to use one of my photos. It’s just common courtesy. Also, I almost never say no, so there’s a very good chance I’ll let you use the photos you want. Like any egotistical artist, I like to see my work out there for the masses, I just like to be made aware of it.:0)
That said, I’m very proud that WSAV chose to use the photo. It makes me feel good to know that someone out there liked it as much as I did. It really is a good photo. And I love WSAV. They’re such good folks, every single one of them, so if you’re one of my WSAV pals and you’re reading this, just know that I’m not mad. It was just a surprise. :)
Recommended Reading: Understanding Copyright on Flickr
I think the thing that irritates me is that if you never gave permission, who decided to go ahead and use it for the TV spot? That was disrespectful of your rights to the photo. You didn’t CC license the photo.
I’m like you – I’m usually cool with allowing photos to be used, but let me know and ask me first. And don’t cheat me out of my compensation, be it money, a copy of the book, or just the plain credit, even if the credit is private. You were robbed of that credit.
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I agree with you 100% and I don’t think you even need to apologize. Unfortunately that’s the problem with Flickr. The “Average Joe” assumes everything on the internet is free if he doesn’t have to enter a password or credit card #, and is there for the taking. They wouldn’t scroll around to see the licensing that’s low to the right, nor understand it if they did.
Keep taking awesome pics!
I agree with what you, Marc. The average person doesn’t understand or just doesn’t care about photo copyrights. I expect a little more about of other entities though, especially media.
As it stands, I’m not angry over the photo being a part of the series. I’m honored by it. I just wish I had been asked or notified first. Meh.