Call for Photographers

By Vince Migliore

A good picture that is never viewed is like a beautiful song that no one ever sings. Now,

with the help of the internet, your photographic skills can be admired by a wide

audience, and you can have a lot of fun in the process.

Here we describe three methods of posting your photographs on line where they will be

useful to the public and appreciated by a broad spectrum of viewers. These outlets are:

1. Waymarking.com

2. Panoramio.com, and

3. Photo-hosting sites, such as Flickr.com.

The sharing venues described below are a perfect fit for aspiring photographers because

they mesh so nicely with the way most of us take photos: that is, your stockpile of

pictures offer a wide variety of interesting subjects captured and described from your

own unique perspective. For example, maybe you have a collection of photographs of

painted mailboxes. Guess what? There is a category for that in Waymarking.com. You

might live in a small town and you have images of every tall building and intersection for

five miles around. Well, Panoramio will get those images posted to Google Earth, so that

anyone searching your location can see first-hand what your town looks like. Or perhaps

you like documenting street art and graffiti. There is a Flickr.com group that is eager to

see what you have found. Below we describe how these sites work. You can determine if

any or all of them are a match for your personality.

Waymarking

Waymarking is a game that you play in the real world and you record your results on

line. Waymarks are interesting locations identified by GPS coordinates. You play by

posting a picture to prove that you visited the site. You can post your own pictures to

accumulate “visits” in different subject categories, or more interestingly, you can post

new waymarks yourself by uploading your photos and describing the site so that others

will want to visit.

As the Waymarking.com website describes it:

“Waymarking is a way to mark unique locations on the planet and give them a

voice. While GPS technology allows us to pinpoint any location on the planet,

mark the location, and share it with others, Waymarking is the toolset for

categorizing and adding unique information for that location. Groundspeak's

slogan is "The Language of Location" and our goal is to give people the tools to

help others share and discover unique and interesting locations on the planet. We

invite you to share your part of the world with us through Waymarking.com.”

Waymarking grew out of the hobby of geocaching (see http://www.geocaching.com ) .

Geocaching is a game where small containers are hidden at GPS coordinates and you

have to find the container. One category of geocaching was called “virtuals,” where there

is no container, but rather you just take a picture of the location. Virtuals became so

pervasive that the parent group, Groundspeak, broke off that category into its own game

called waymarking.

You don’t really need a GPS device to participate in waymarking. If you want to create a

waymark for a photo that you have, you can capture the GPS coordinates with mapping

websites, such as http://maps.google.com/. You simply right-click on the location and

select What’s Here, and the coordinates show up.

The fun part of waymarking is selecting some of your favorite snapshots and seeing

which categories they might fit into. If you find a good match, you can fill out a form and

post a new waymark in that category. This is where your unique knowledge and

experience come in handy, as you are asked to describe the location and provide some

history or insight that will attract players. You will have to sign up for a free membership

to post your own waymarks.

View waymark categories at:

http://www.waymarking.com/cat/categorydirectory.aspx?f=1.

Panoramio

Panoramio is an excellent photo-hosting website in its own right, but the advantage

here is that the enormously popular Google Maps and Google Earth use photos from

Panoramio to fill their hunger for images from every corner of the planet.

Since most people use Google Maps and Google Earth to get a grasp of what a locality

looks like, they would not be interested in seeing your uncle Freddie in a gorilla

costume, so personal photos are generally not selected. Rather, your depictions of

streets, buildings, and landscapes have a better chance of making it into the Google

database. Most of the outdoor photos you upload to Panoramio are selected to flesh out

the Google Earth documentation, These bear a blue-and-white circle in the lower left

corner of your postings to Panoramio.

Any of your pictures that are selected will provide reference to your username, so you do

get credit and exposure for your contributions. When someone uses Google Earth and

they zoom in on a neighborhood, they will see a scattering of tiny blue boxes indicating

someone has posted a picture for that location. See Figure 1. When they click on the

icon, your photograph pops up along with the title and a link to your Panoramio web

page. This can be a powerful marketing tool for those looking for name recognition. If

your library of photos includes rare or unusual locations there is a good chance yours

will be the only postings for that locality.

Figure 1. Google Earth image: Each tiny blue square links to a user uploaded

photograph.

Flickr

There are plenty of free internet sites where you can upload and share your photo

collection with family, friends, or the world. You simply sign up, upload your digital

images, and adjust your settings to the level of privacy you desire.

Flickr.com stands out for two reasons. First, they have Groups. Flickr Groups cater to

every conceivable taste and special interest. Do you like street art and graffiti? There’s a

special group for that. Garden gnomes? You’ll find at least six groups. You can even

make up your own group if you can’t find the exact category you want. Groups let you

sort your images into categories where you can link up with other members who hold

the same interests. You can showcase your specialties and exchange ideas with like-

minded people. Flickr Groups are particularly useful for unique or odd occupations and

hobbies. If you are a bee keeper, for instance, there are many researchers, scientists, and

writers who turn to Flickr for both the images and the expertise found in these groups.

You can make a real contribution to the world by sharing your photographs.

The second advantage of Flickr is that they have a Creative Commons section. Here you

can download millions of images donated by other people and institutions. You can use

these pictures by simply attributing the source in your documentation. For instance, if

you use one of my photos you would add the words “Photo by FolsomNatural at

Flickr.com.” Likewise, you can set any or all of your own uploads to varying degrees of

attribution. For more details on the different license levels see

http://www.flickr.com/creativecommons/.

Many other photo sharing websites offer similar services to photographers. Some of the

more popular sites are:

Picasa: http://picasa.google.com/

Photobucket: http://photobucket.com/

Shutterfly: http://www.shutterfly.com/

SmugMug: http://www.smugmug.com/

Fotki: http://www.fotki.com/

Snapfish: http://www.snapfish.com/

Conclusion

With digital cameras, cell phones, and all sorts of image capturing devices in our hands,

our society is able to record and preserve photographs on a scale undreamed of just a

decade ago. Many of us own an extensive library of powerful and creative pictures. What

a waste it would be if these treasures go unnoticed or underappreciated!

Here we have touched upon three arenas for displaying and sharing your photographic

expertise. If you tend towards an altruistic or generous mind set, what a gracious way to

leave your mark on the world by sharing your photographs. Choose any one or all the

methods described here to share the wealth – Waymarking, Panoramio, or Flickr. You’ll

be glad you did.

~ ~ ~

Vince Migliore is an author and researcher.

Contact: FolsomNatural@aol.com.