Comments on: Social Media & Photography: Observations Part 4 – Blogging & Tumblr

By: boyghost

boyghost — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 04:25:00 +0000

Some of my favorite photographers on tumblr are Patrick Joust (http://patrickjoust.tumblr.com), Lauren Lyon (http://laurenlyon.tumblr.com) and Bryan Vana (http://badgerdash.tumblr.com). And now I will do the absolutely web 2.0 thing and self-promote my own tumblr (http://www.boyghost.com).

By: Bryan Formhals

Bryan Formhals — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 16:04:00 +0000

Thanks Elizabeth. FYI, Photographs on the Brain is the Tumblr outpost of this blog

By: elizabethcatherine

elizabethcatherine — Thu, 02 Dec 2010 14:49:00 +0000

I think photographers are a bit fearful with the direction the medium is taking given the unpredictable nature of the internet, the proliferation of amateurs, and a growing lack of regard for personal privacy and intellectual property.

And while those fears are sound and worth acknowledging, I think it would be incredibly harmful to ignore the potential for sites like Tumblr and Flickr. I read a brilliant quote recently from Photographs on the Brian via Tumblr and it basically pointed out that the work you see online is not the actual work but a reproduction of it, often a poor one at that. Anyone who shifts from RAW files to web-friendly jpegs quietly sighs at the tragic loss of information, the fuzzy edges, and flat colours. Web-friendly jpegs are not the final result. They are not the fine art print. The advertisement. The gallery space. They are a nod and an intention and a flag for the artist to wave to market themselves and their work. There is no greater compliment than a reblog or a follow.

You could watermark your work too (though I think that’s kind of ugly) but honestly the throwaway nature of a jpeg and its rapid degradation is protection enough in my mind.

As an aside, I think it’s more tasteful to copyright in the metadata. I don’t know, I really have a thing against watermarks.

By: Weekly Photography Links: 09/11/2010

Weekly Photography Links: 09/11/2010 — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:34:24 +0000

[...] we’re all new media photographers. La Pura Vida is making some observations on social media and photography that are worth a look. It’s never too late to get your social media awesomeness in [...]

By: Weekly Photography Links: 09/11/2010 | Your Photo Tips

Weekly Photography Links: 09/11/2010 | Your Photo Tips — Sun, 12 Sep 2010 15:19:45 +0000

By: erik

erik — Thu, 09 Sep 2010 01:27:00 +0000

I have a blog, but I use it mostly as a repository for personal images, daily snaps, and other memories. It’s a scrapbook, a smorgasborg of photographs, and when put in context of what I like to shoot, not necessarily representative. But I think there is some value in sharing these images, though every day I think my certainty in this value fades. Is it better to tightly control what you publish on the web, or does the more is better rule apply? I’m not sure.

Thanks for sharing Emily Shur. Her blog is excellent and she has a lot of very good things to say.

By: K. Praslowicz

K. Praslowicz — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 21:28:00 +0000

Amen. I just started using Tumblr less than a month ago and I want nothing more then 1000s of reblogs of any of my images I post. Anyone can see the same image on my website, so what if they see it elsewhere for the same price of free? Tumblr users seem to be pretty good at attributing the source and preserving the click-though url, so I’m not worried at all.

By: Bryan Formhals

Bryan Formhals — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:48:00 +0000

Do you think it’d be in Tumblr’s best interest to exploit and screw over photographers? This is social media. They depend on transparency. Basically the terms of service are for when they make recommendations and suggestions.

What exactly are they going to do with photographs online? Use them in ads? It’s just not worth it for them to screw over their members. That’s not their game, that’s not their business model.

Photographers get way too bent out of shape about protecting their work online and completely over estimate it’s value. The only time it becomes a problem is if a large newspaper or magazine grabs photos and doesn’t pay for them. Or if some company tried to do it, but stock photography is so cheap these days, it’s simple not worth the trouble to screw people over.

In terms of reblogging, why wouldn’t you want people spreading your work? There are so many photographs and photographers on the web, for anyone to get really bent out of shape of protecting their work seems a bit foolish.

If attribution is an issue, then just put a small watermark with the copyright in the lower right corner, like Clayton Cubitt does. He and Noah Kalina both post work on Tumblr and Flickr and don’t seem overly concerned about protecting their work that much…and both are incredibly successful pros.

http://claytoncubitt.tumblr.com/

By: Guest

Guest — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:37:00 +0000

I’d like to hear your thoughts on Tumblr’s Terms of Service. You basically give them a royalty free license to use your work, modify it, create derivative works, etc. As well, if someone has reblogged your work, Tumblr does not necessarily delete the content. It doesn’t strike me as a particularily healthy environment for photographers who post their own work.