Check out these free photo software images:
trickling stream
Image by vsz
I found this stream on a hike. This time I used the free photo editing software "the gimp" to blend a bw and colorized layer to improve this image (hopefully!). Two second exposure to create the effect in the water.
Please view large.
Going Off the Rails on a Crazy Train
Image by wbeem
Welcome to 2012, everyone!
Everyone seems to like a New Year. There’s fresh optimism about what’s to come, despite the news at the end of the previous year. Don’t year-end wrap up reports seem to be rather depressing? It always amazes me how quickly we forget that stuff to be happy for the New Year. Perhaps it’s just something we have to do.
The New Year is often a time of change. For instance, I know that parking at my gym is going to be packed for the next month or two as many people try to get over their holiday indulgences. In that respect, I’m no different – been packing away the cupcakes and ice cream lately and I’m feeling it. However, there’s something else that I’ve decided to change this year.
I’m Going Creative Commons
As of January 1, 2012, I’ve decided to adopt a Creative Commons license for the use of my photographs. It’s not something I decided lightly, but I finally got over the last hurdle. You see, I don’t mind non-commercial use of my photos. When someone asks me if they can have a photo for a background or some other use, I’m good with it. However, I’ve never been appreciative of commercial use of my photos. That’s one of the big issues I had with Creative Commons – it doesn’t adequately describe “Commercial Use.” So, I quietly allowed people to use my photos and went after commercial entities who used them without a license.
What I lacked, however, was the benefit of attribution from those who shared my photos. While I still would like Creative Commons licenses to have a bit more definition about the terms of Commercial Use, I find that no longer outweighs the benefits of sharing and attribution. Over the past couple of years, I’ve observed other photographers on each side of this issue. What is eminently clear to me is that there is greater benefit – to everyone – when your usage intentions are identified in a way that people can understand. Not surprisingly, sharing with attribution really does provide its own rewards.
I know the old argument – in fact, I’ve made it in the past – that you pay your bills with money, not attention. That’s true, but the bigger truth is that you aren’t going to get much money if you won’t let anyone pay attention to your work. As I said, I’ve watch photographers on both sides of this issues. Those who are sharing their work via Creative Commons are coming out ahead of those who are filing DMCA notices left & right.
My photos are still registered with the U.S. Copyright office, so I’m not giving up ownership of my photos or copyrights. Rather, I’m simply providing a usage license. Although I’ve found some unauthorized commercial uses of my images in the past, I don’t see that it is a very common problem worthy of overriding the benefit of sharing with a Creative Commons license.
With that in mind, I’m adopting the following license:
Attribution-NonCommercial CC BY-NC
This license lets others remix, tweak, and build upon your work non-commercially, and although their new works must also acknowledge you and be non-commercial, they don’t have to license their derivative works on the same terms.
How Does it Work?
It’s very simple. You’re free to use my images on your blog, for personal use – basically anything that isn’t a commercial business use – as long as you do the following:
* Link back to williambeem.com
* Give credit to William Beem
If you want to use one of my images for a commercial use or for a print, please contact me to discuss a licensing agreement. Larger versions of most images are available on my Flickr account, and I’ll work to upload larger versions of images that aren’t full size.
Please see my Licensing page on my blog for more details - williambeem.com/Licensing
Carthay Circle
Image by Justin in SD
I was pretty excited to get the e-mail from Nik Software today explaining that I can now download the full suite of plug-ins for free. I've been using Nik Color Efex for awhile but I'm excited to give Silver Efex and Sharpener Pro a try.
If you've never used a plugin from Nik, I definitely recommend trying it out, and at only 0 for the full suite, it's an incredible deal. I paid more than that just to get Color Efex Pro.
In this photo of the Carthay Circle I used a few of my favorite filters, Pro Contrast, Detail Extractor and Tonal Contrast.
