Sunrise Spectators

Thursday was just another day in the MR MARK photography world and all of a sudden an email arrives from the Photo Department of TravelandLeisure.com (a subsidiary of American Express). They requested the use of “Sunrise Spectators” from my recent Savannah, GA vacation.

Where did they find my photo? Through my Flickr account.

How significant is that? Well, in my opinion, it wasn’t by accident.

What do you mean? When I post photos on Flickr, I do it to share photos with my friends, family and anyone else in the world. How I do it is another story. I learned pretty early that with a little care, you can make your photos rise to the top of similar subject photos. Appropriately naming your photo, providing the location and listing relevant tags (i.e. keywords) will give your photos a better opportunity to be “found” on Flickr.

What’s the benefit of having a photo ‘found’ on Flickr? Flickr, as the largest photo sharing website, is a place that many companies search for great photos. This is not the first time a company or individual has found a photo of mine and requested permission to use it. Sometimes its an individual blogger, other times it has been magazines and several times it has been businesses. Each of them have contacted me for permission or purchased rights to use an image on their website or in their printed materials.

TravelandLeisure.com will provide credit and a link back to this website. And for that, any budding photographer is thrilled! I’ll let you know when its on their website.