Commentary by blog and social media consultant Josh Hallett on the use of blogs for public relations, media, marketing, communication & branding and from time-to-time the unsolicited opinion.
A few days ago, in response to my post about Dell using one of my photos for some promotional purposes, a professional photographer e-mailed me. He was courteous, but wanted to know why I felt compelled to give my photos away for free, when other folks are trying to make a living at photography.
This isn't the first time I've been asked about this. I've talked to quite a few photographers on this subject, some of them are close friends. In the end, photography is a hobby so I don't look to derive any major income from it. If that upsets existing business models, then I'm sorry, but it's a reality...and it will only continue to get worse.
In the end I go back and forth on the subject. I understand how some folks feel threatened by the glut of free images out there, but a few friends are somewhat glad. Why? Well either they've used their free images on Flickr to transition to a paying career, or it's forced them to up their game and in the end get more work from clients that are willing to pay and understand/realize the value/quality of the work they do.
What are your thoughts?
Checking out Facebook on Saturday afternoon I noticed a photo/ad on the right side of the page that looked rather familiar. It was a small ad for Dell's new Facebook fan page dedicated to social media:
Clicking through the ad you'll see the larger photo which is used as the cover-shot of the intro video.
The photo is of Bob Pearson from Dell and I took it at last year's WOMM-U event in Miami, FL. Here's the original shot:
Photo geeks will notice that I have a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike license on the photo.
How can Dell use the photo in this way? Well, last year Lionel Menchaca asked if he could have a number of shots I had taken of Dell staff at conferences for their use....I said no problem.
It's kinda cool to see my shot used like that.
For the third year in a row, I'll be heading to Atlanta for SoCon09. This year's theme is "In Search of the Southeast’s Social Media Niche."
I'll be leading a session in the afternoon about measurement and ROI of social media programs. Look for a bit of this, this and this to be discussed :-)
Here are some photos from year's past.
Will you be there?
