Eastern White-tailed Deer Buck Portrait (Odocoileus virginianus, Cerf de Virginie) ©Christopher Dodds www.chrisdoddsphoto.com Canon EOS 1Ds Mark III, 500mm F4, Gitzo 1325 Tripod and Wimberley Head II. ISO 250, F5 1/400s Manual mode.
As a passionate nature photographer, I often post images to this Blog, my website and various on-line nature photography forums like NatureScapes.net (where I happen to be a moderator for the bird photography forum). I regret any image that I have posted on the Internet without a very bold and obvious watermark. Let me explain: I have recently received two very different phone calls, from two very different people, in very different places. Both callers referred to a video that they had seen on YouTube.
Caller number one described the video and paid huge compliments to my images. She informed me that her son, Lee, had recently achieved the honor of becoming an Eagle Scout, and that he had asked his mother if she thought it would be all right for him to project the slideshow video to his Scout Troop during the evening of his Eagle Scout Court of Honor. She told me that there were only two images with copyright information visible, that both images were identified as mine, and that she was pretty sure they were used without permission. I granted permission for the viewing and thanked her for calling, her honesty and for raising her boy to achieve that honor (I was a Boy Scout myself). Congratulations Lee!
Caller number two called me and pointed me to that very same video, but this was a very different call. Long story short, he was calling to place an order for 16 large, signed prints for the golf course the he runs.
Despite the video producer stealing the images, he left my copyright watermarks intact and I doubt he made any financial gain, or caused me any financial loss, so a lawsuit would only cost me money. By leaving the video as is (not that I could have done anything about a video that I didn’t know about) I made a very substantial sale.
So, what's the moral of the story?
You are a brand: Identify your brand, market your brand and protect your images; do it boldly and do it consistently. The next time you consider making a small, transparent watermark, think of the Nature Photography Blog and the video below:
In closing, if they really want an image without a watermark, they most likely will find a way to remove it, or simply find another picture. If they really just want a picture for a slideshow like this one, then it becomes a great sales aid for you.
This video clip was produced and posted to YouTube without my knowledge. Ten of the Bald Eagle images it contains are "stolen" from me, Christopher Dodds. Images in question can be viewed at the following times: 1:33, 1:41, 1:49, 1:54, 2:01, 2:35, 2:43, 3:02, 3:06.
Comments welcome & appreciated.