American Redstart
The answer was a most emphatic “yes”. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is one of our favorite organizations as it propagates hundreds of conservation projects and is a leading source of information about birds. The chance to have our photos included in print (with credit to our site) was exciting and humbling.
But, an even bigger topic arose out of this. Ever since we signed up for Flickr, we decided to allow anyone to use our photos freely, as long as they credited our website. The reason behind this is pretty straightforward but we thought we’d tackle a few points on why we do this (and how it has helped us out too).
Wilson’s Warbler
Our cost
There is a substantial cost involved with bird photography: digital SLR, 100-400mm lens, memory cards, hard drives, batteries, etc. Of course, digital photography has its big benefit in the fact that once the photos are captured, they are essentially free to do with them what you want (unless you print them out).
Professionals
There are many wildlife photographers who make a living from their amazing skills. We are but amateurs and perhaps some day as time and money allows, we will try to profit off our photography. But that day has not come yet. So our intentions now are not to take away from the pros, but to provide bird (and other nature) photos to clubs and organizations all over the globe.
Red-headed Woodpecker
Yes, they are ALL free
Any organization, bird club, website, etc. is freely and fully allowed to use any of our photos from our Flickr photo stream. [http://flickr.com/photos/birdfreak] The best way to find a photo is to search the stream for a specific bird or family of birds. We currently have around 240 species of birds. Some are pretty darn good looking while others are a one time capture, and not the highest of quality.
So far we’ve had our photos featured in the Rockford Register Star, used to promote Horicon Marsh, and used from several of our Flickr contacts in bird-related projects.
We also have several butterfly shots like this Giant Swallowtail
Our goal is to promote the beauty of birds (and all wildlife) and it would be a shame to have a conservation project fall short due to the lack of procuring a photo for it. We’ve benefitted greatly from the traffic generated from allowing our photos to be used.
So if you are in need of a bird photo or other nature photo, check out our photo stream and give us a buzz. All we ask is for a link back to our site or a plug for birdfreak.com if it is in print.
Pileated Woodpecker
{ 7 comments… read them below or add one }
Not a bad approach. I’m practically in the same boat. I decide however on a case by case basis. While I grant most requests, I’d like to have some control on where my pictures are shown and what they are used for.
Cheers, Klaus
Very generous of you to allow others to use your lovely images. How cool that Cornell contacted you! Nice swallowtail there, too.
Keep up the good work.
Hey Eddie, Congrats on Cornell using your photos! They know something good when they see it and so do we.
Very beautiful birds. Nice photos.
))
This is really awesome of you. There have been several instances where I wanted to write a blog post on an avian topic but didn’t because a blog post without a photo seems sort of lame. I’m not a photographer in any real sense of the word so your generosity is really appreciated. Thank you!
I’m looking for a photograph of a Bicknell’s thrush. I’m a reporter at a weekly newspaper in northern N. H. who covers the story of a proposed wind farm on high-elevation ridges. State wildlife biologists believe that the proposed project could hurt habitat used by the Bicknell’s thrush and the 3-toed woodpecker. A local birder has let the Coös County Democrat use his image of the woodpecker, but I have not been able to local a Bicknell’s. Could you help, please. Edith Tucker, reporter, Coös County Democrat, Lancaster NH
Edith Tucker – we will see what we can come up with but currently we do not have any Bicknell’s Thrush photos. A good place to start would be to contact some of the Flickr Users who have photos of this thrush: http://flickr.com/search/?q=bicknell%27s+thrush – Many bird photographers on Flickr are pretty willing so long as it is for a good cause.