As you asked respectfully...

 St Patrick's Day Parade. Skibbereen 2013

VMCC Banbury Run 2013

- "You took some superb photos of the puppets made by the gaelscoil pupils for last year's St. Patricks Day parade.
I am currently updating the school's website and I would love to include a few of your photos, with your permission."

- "I was wondering if I could cheekily ask to use one of your photos of the vintage bikes on the A422 on the site. ( I will of course tag it with your name)"



As photographers, there is always the possibility of our images wanting to be used somewhere and nine times out of ten that is perfectly ok, and so I am usually more that delighted to agree on the appropriate arrangements on their usage.

So what a joy it was to be respectfully approached by two organisations recently, who wanted to use some of my images.
The first being the Gaelscoil in Skibbereen, who had spotted the post I had made following the St Patrick's Day Parade last year, and had passed comment on more than one occasion, on how much they liked the images. I have to say that in return, I was seriously impressed with their superb puppets, which in my view, stood out head and shoulders above the rest of the parade participants, in the true sense of the term!

The second being Ride the County an organisation in Oxfordshire who are planning a charity motorbike ride on the 17th May, around the county roads in aid of their local Air Ambulance. As regular blog readers will know, I have an indirect involvement with motorbikes, and in common with all motorcyclists, fully appreciate the work of all the Air Ambulance services. I was more than pleased for my image to be used in association with this event (albeit the website template doing an odd crop to the image!)

In both of these recent requests, the appropriate links and credits have been made, which is the minimum gesture that anyone would like to expect.
Sadly there is another face to our images being used, and that is when they are lifted straight from our websites or blogs without any form of polite request. We all know this can, and does happen and this is the risk we take when publicly 'advertising our product'. However, it is when we discover blatant usage without permissions, credits and payments, or at worst, wholly inappropriate usage, that the profession naturally becomes agitated.

The long and the short of it is, a simple bit of respect can go an awful long way.



Good luck to the Gael Scoil with your preparations for St Patrick's day this year - I'm just sorry I won't be around to see your stunning work.

Good luck to Ride the County in that you raise a splendid sum for the Air Ambulance - and thanks for asking if we would like to take part too. Sadly we have other arrangements on that day.