I received an email today from the managing editor of schmap guides letting me know that my picture of the KOIN building has been accepted as part of their application for their new iPhone app showing information about Portland. You can see the picture I took right here.
How did this all come about? This is actually a picture I took last May after Jen and I completed the Cinco De Mayo run in downtown Portland. You may recall this picture of me enjoying a beer after the run.
When I uploaded these pictures to flickr I also did so under a creative commons license, stating that the picture may be used by anyone so long as they a) attribute the picture to me b) don't use it in a commercial manner and c) share the picture or any work resulting from the use of this picture under the same license. By using creative commons one effectively says "hey, I've got some work here and I don't have any problem with others using it".
In this instance, the folks at schmap then contacted me to let me know that they would like to use this work in a commercial product, and asked if I would be interested in submitting the picture for them to do so. If I had wanted to I could have said "sorry, I want you to pay me $50 too." This would have been my prerogative. I didn't however, and I gave them permission to use the photo if they wished. Thus, voila. They have a free picture and I have a blog post. The system worked just as intended.
If you don't already share your work using creative commons I'd encourage you to give it a thought. Similarly, if you have need to use photography, music, or videos, I'd encourage you to seek work provided by creative commons license, and to follow the protocol for attributing per the license. It's a great resource and many sites have built-in options for searching for creative commons content.
