WANA Commons–Beautiful Blog Images without the Worry

The Money Shot by Lisa Hall-Wilson

First of all, I want you guys to know that I MISSED YOU! July was a whirlwind month for sure and reminded me of the days when I used to be on the road for sales. Wandering out of bed in the night to go to the bathroom, yet suddenly realizing you’re in a coat closet. Fun stuff!

We will talk about LA another day, because I have a GIFT for you guys. I KNOW! Another one? Hey, y’all are like my kids, and I’m a terrible mother because I dig spoiling every last one of you. Here, have some cake.

Thank you lovely August McLaughlin for the image.

Most of you guys know I am all about writers blogging. Blogging plays to our strengths. Blogs are far less volatile than other types of social media. Twitter might be gone in a couple years, and Facebook could implode, but blogs will likely remain. This makes them one of our most POWERFUL tools for branding. Blogs afford us an opportunity to share our art, to permit people to fall in love with our writing voice. Blogs give us a chance to create those “thousand fans” even before we are finished with our first book.

***Kevin Kelly estimated that all an artist needed to make a really good living was to cultivate a thousand true fans.***

Blogs with pictures look better, rank higher with search engines and improve our overall SEO. Of course the problem with using pictures these days is, unless we take the photograph ourselves, we can be in danger of violating copyright. Many of you have already heard what happened to poor Roni Loren and how she was sued for using a picture on her blog.

We live in a very different world and the very nature of copyright is changing. I am not here to debate this or discuss it. I will say that you guys are free to use anything you find on this blog. If you have a sick day and can’t blog, reblog one of my blogs. As long as you aren’t claiming you wrote my content, share, share, share like the wind!

I believe in giving and giving generously. I know that YouTube (which is free) has been largely responsible for most of my music purchases. I hear a song. I dig it. I download it. And yes there are pirates and people who refuse to pay for anything, but we call those people thieves. We can never lose a sale with those people because thieves weren’t going to pay money for our stuff anyway. But again, let’s remain focused.

WANA is an acronym for We Are Not Alone. I live my life by this motto. I believe fundamentally in service above self. Does it get me hurt sometimes? YES! Sometimes I get hurt, brutally hurt. But you know what? The pain I endure for a jerk who can’t recognize a blessing is worth it a million-fold for the lives I am fortunate enough to change.

So here is the thing. Through adversity we find strength. Whenever I see a problem, I know the WANAs can come together and turn a tragedy into a triumph. When I heard Roni’s story, I was so hurt for her. Roni is absolutely one of the kindest, sweetest people I know and there isn’t a malicious bone in her body. I wanted something good to come from her pain.

I also know that we author-bloggers are already short on time and hunting around to check copyright or go through the legal motions of gaining a letter of permission is just too much work. Many of us have day jobs and families and then writing books and blogs and social media and on and on and on and we are already to the point of breaking.

So I came up with a solution. I know you guys are more than writers. You are creative people and creative people often can’t help being creative. How could we solve the photo/copyright dilemma AND have yet another opportunity to promote each other and serve each other. The answer? WANA Commons.

Photo courtesy of RAS Jacobson

WANA Commons already has 117 members as of this blog, and we have collectively uploaded over 1,400 images. If you check out this group, you will see what I mean about creative people having more than one outlet. So many of the pictures are just breathtaking, and the best part is they are a gift. The WANAs have come together to share their images and you guys are free to use any of the images in WANA Commons. All we ask is you give attribution.

That’s it!

Beautiful image from Shannon Esposito. TALENT!

I hope more of you will join and contribute your images. I have several photographer friends who will be uploading images. We live in a world where people throw away the phone book and ignore advertising. Consumers go to who they know. Bloggers, particularly popular bloggers are the new taste-makers. In a world with the power of the four arrows (fast-forwarding through commercials) product placement is going to be one of the best ways to get business.

Authors all need head shots and we need images for promotion stuff and book covers, and we are going to go to photographers we know so I encourage the photographers out there to contribute. Not your best images. We know you need to make a living, and we want to help get your work out there. WANAs aren’t just writers. WANAs believe that we can work together to solve the toughest issues of life. Discoverability is a nightmare for ALL of us, so let’s work together. Transmedia helps ALL of us.

Seeing free images didn’t stop me from paying almost a thousand dollars for author shots. In fact, free images closed the sale for me. I knew this photographer’s work and I liked it and that’s why I sought her out.

Anyway, I hope you guys will come and join WANA Commons. No we aren’t Ansel Adams, but there are some really stunning photographs on there. To those who have contributed, you are beautiful wonderful awesome souls and you remind me each and every day why I LOVE my job. Thank you for sharing.

Just go to Flikr and sign up for an account if you don’t already have one. Also, please make sure to tag your images with what the image IS. This will help us sort through the images faster. Make sure to put YOUR NAME and WANA Commons on all of the images you tag. This will help us AND will help your SEO. Thank you ahead of time for being so awesome.

Also check out Shannon Esposito, August McLaughlin, Renee Jacobson and Lisa Hall-Wilson and maybe thank them for the beautiful images in today’s post. These ladies are WANA personified!

What are your thoughts? What other forms of art do you like to do? What are your favorite things to take pictures of? What kind of pictures do you need? Maybe we can all be on the lookout, our iPhones at the ready to help a WANA peep in need.

I love hearing from you!

To prove it and show my love, for the month of August, everyone who leaves a comment I will put your name in a hat. If you comment and link back to my blog on your blog, you get your name in the hat twice. If you leave a comment, and link back to my blog, and mention my book We Are Not Alone in your blog…you get your name in the hat THREE times. What do you win? The unvarnished truth from yours truly.

***Changing the contest.

It is a lot of work to pick the winners each week. Not that you guys aren’t totally worth it, but with the launch of WANA International and WANATribe I need to streamline. So I will pick a winner once a month and it will be a critique of the first 20 pages of your novelor your query letter, or your synopsis (5 pages or less).

And also, winners will now have a limited time to claim the prize, because what’s happening is there are actually quite a few people who never claim the critique, so I never know if the spam folder ate it or to look for it and then people miss out. I will also give my corporate e-mail to insure we connect and I will only have a week to return the 20 page edit.

At the end of August I will pick a winner for the monthly prize. Good luck! Also, I will announce July’s winner probably on Friday. I need time to tally everything and I am not even fully unpacked yet.

I also hope you pick up copies of my best-selling books We Are Not Alone–The Writer’s Guide to Social Media and Are You There, Blog? It’s Me, Writer And both are recommended by the hottest agents and biggest authors in the biz. My methods teach you how to make building your author platform FUN. Build a platform and still have time left to write great books.

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  1. FANTASTIC idea, Kristen. Kudos for finding a solution to a thorny problem. I think this is a fantastic idea!

  2. Just genius! Really hate all the legal nastiness of late, but totally get why folks want to be paid for their work. Super excited to see you rallying the troops. Hope lots of photog-blogger-writers (?) jump into this with both feet. It’s a real service to those of us who suck with a camera but want our blogs to be pretty. 🙂

  3. I want to say thank you for setting up this group. This whole image drama has really put a damper on a lot of us authors and bloggers. I joined the group and look forward to contributing stuff of my own to share. I’m a huge fan of your blogs and thank you for all the amazing advice you post.

  4. Thanks for this! I have some photos I can add to the group. I’ll add them ASAP.

  5. I think this is a great idea. Signed up for WANA Commons earlier today. Thanks so much for doing this!

  6. Bring in the umpire cause I’m diving right into this group! Will upload today!

  7. This is awesome, Kristen. I’ll learn to add my pics as soon as I’m able.

    Folks should keep in mind, too, that pics from government offices are also public domain so if they should need maps, the gov has some awesome ones online.

    Thank you!

  8. Wow. I just checked it out, and there are SO MANY gorgeous images in there. Thank you for putting it together, and HUGE thanks to all the members for contributing. What a wonderful gift.

  9. What a great idea! Now I just have to buy a camera 😛

  10. Yay, Kristen! Now I have to go back to my 100+ pics and add WANA Commons to them. Took me forever to figure out the diff between #tag and #description and what shows up where, LOL.

  11. Thanks for the photo love 🙂 Lots of great photos on there and last time I checked there were like… 1,500 images. Not a lot of faces, but great images.

    1. I am going to help solve that problem. A photographer friend, Clair is going to get us images and she has all the model-release business taken care of.

      1. And Clair is a ROCKIN’ photographer!!

        http://clairlickfeld.wix.com/portfolio

    • Jessica Burde on August 1, 2012 at 1:52 pm
    • Reply

    Great idea – I’ve done well enough finding pics on Wikimedia Commons, but this looks like a great resource! Just joined and uploaded a few pics.

  12. This is such a great resource for writers you’re providing! At least some good is coming from Roni’s pain (And she told me got troll attacks as well–just for being kind enough to share her experience–there are some unwell, nasty people out here in Cyberia, Sorry to hear you’re dealing with them too.)

    I’ll make sure to list WANA Commons in the next update of How to Be a Writer in the E-Age. I’ll mention it in a coming blogpost too.

    Piper Bayard–Thanks much for the tip about govt. maps!

    1. Having a troll actually means you’re doing something right. It is important not to give them any attention. Eventually they will find someone else’s site to crap on.

  13. I know that photos can be a sticky point if you don’t take the pictures yourself so that’s why with me I take a lot of photos (actually, I love it) and use them for my blog. I thought about getting pictures off the web but never knew who the picture was from so just decided that having my own pictures would be the safest. Plus, I really enjoy my photography and feel like it’s another piece of me to share through my blog. I might just contribute to the WANA too.

  14. Awesome way to help bloggers who do not otherwise have easy access to great photos. Kudos to you!! 😀 (As a side note, copyright infringement is serious business. You really can get sued for thousands of dollars if you use a photo without adequate permission from the photographer.)

  15. This is exactly why I have come to love you, Kristen…not only do you talk about sharing & supporting but actually do it…I’m sure I have a few photos I can contribute. Thank you for being you and a incredible inspiration to a lot of people.

    • prudencemacleod on August 1, 2012 at 2:02 pm
    • Reply

    I’ve been looking through a few of the pics. Just awesome. I do have a question though. I see that most are marked as All rights reserved. Don’t we have to change that to common license so anybody can use them?

  16. WANA Commons is a BRILLIANT idea. Thanks for putting it together, Kristen, and for the super sweet mention—even sweeter than my blueberry-nana cake. 😉

    It warms my heart when writers band together to overcome challenges. You and all of WANA rock.

  17. Oh Kristen this is such a godsend! Thank you! After reading what Roni went through, I immediately scoured my blog, taking down pics I thought might be questionable. My blog feels bare! But I shall not despair, for I have WANA Commons to avoid pulling out my hair! (sorry, a bit giddy at moment. Husband’s been traveling for three long days and my kids are holding me captive in the closet …)

    1. Seriously put in requests. I have a photographer friend helping me out and if we know what images y’all need we can target those topics. I am SO HAPPY that this idea can bless you *hugs*.

        • becca puglisi on August 2, 2012 at 5:47 am
        • Reply

        Kristen, Angela and I can always use some pictures that depict certain emotions. So if your photographer friend could get some good shots of angry, sad, frustrated–any emotion–we would appreciate it!

        1. Becca, I’ll try to keep that in mind. I added one emotion the other day. I’ll have to be sneaky in getting some more. 🙂

  18. GENIUS. Thank you SO SO much!

  19. You are too awesome, Kristen. What a great idea. Your selflessness and generosity is leaking out all over the place. Now, where did I put my camera. . .

    1. Love begets love :D. Thanks!

  20. What a wonderful idea, Kristen. There are already so many gorgeous pictures in the group. Bless your generous heart and all the WANAs participating.

  21. Crazy cool, awesome! And not just this idea, but the whole entire WANA package. Looking forward to being a contributor and a borrower.

  22. Just did a quick skim through the images . . . they’re exquisite! WTG shutterbugs.

  23. Just want you to know that I bought your ebook about blogging last month when I was trying to create my blog “Living on the Edge of the Wild” and it really helped. I find I love bloggin and also finding just the right photos to go with the posts, although I have worried a bit about borrowing photos that I wasn’t sure were public. So this will be a great resource for me and I’ll be sure to add my photos to it.

    I’ve also used photos of artwork I’ve loved, with the artist’s permission, on my blog posts and I really like the idea of helping to promote the works of artists as well as photographers. So you might invite artists to upload photos of their works to be part of the “commons”. If it’s linked to the artist’s website, they may be able to sell some.

    BTW–I’ve listed your blog on my sidebar. Thanks for all you’re doing here.

  24. This is a fantastic idea – thanks for all you do! I will sign up and add some photos, if I can find some good ones.

  25. FABULOUS idea!! Thanks, Kristen and WANAs!!

    • Courtney Crow Wyrtzen on August 1, 2012 at 2:28 pm
    • Reply

    This is probably the coolest thing (freebie, community involvement, swap, gift) I have ever seen. I could cry~ The true meaning of WANA~

  26. This is just beyond words. Kristen once again you see a problem and rise to the occasion to find a fix for it. You and ALL the WANA folks here who help out are just incredible. Thanks for all that you do for the creative world.

  27. Kristen, you rock, as usual! I love how you always think of others and are solution-based when it comes to all the issues you touch on with your blog. I’ve been loving how all the WANAs have come together on this subject and there are a lot of wonderful writer-photographers sharing with the WANA Commons flickr group. I’m also having a great time uploading all my strange object photos to the group, too. 😉 I hope they are useful for the WANAs. I actually posted a blog today about this subject with a lot of resources for free photos and your blog post showed up at the perfect time. I’ll link back to it so more author-bloggers can hear about your awesome idea!

    Hope you get some time to rest up from your whirlwind travels. 🙂

  28. This is such a unique solution, and I think a lot of people will get a huge amount of value from this. Well done

  29. I have WANA Commons bookmarked on my computer already, but I’m not going to get a Flickr account yet. Pictures are low-priority on my list, but it’s likely I’ll just put them onto DeviantART.

  30. I love this idea! Now I just have to get an account on Flickr and figure out how to tag things 🙂

    • jodenton445 on August 1, 2012 at 3:12 pm
    • Reply

    This is just incredibly awesome news! Kudos to you, Kristen! Thanks so much!I’ll be uploading some images too as soon as I’m able.

  31. Great idea. I have some international pictures I can post.

    BTW, do you have a recipe for that cake?

  32. This is the most fabulous idea, ever! Reading over it, I realized I have a friend who is a budding photographer and this would be a great way to get his name out there. I’ll give him a call to see if he’s interested. I really hope so because he does some fantastic stuff. It’s on my planner to start uploading my pics to flickr tomorrow. I’ve got thousands hiding on the computer.

    Thanks for being awesome.

  33. Just threw up a bunch of pictures. I don’t have a lot on Flickr but I’ll add some more if I can. And I’ll be bookmarking the site for future blog use 🙂

  34. GREAT move Kristen!! I joined and added a photo. I’ll add tons more soon.

  35. This is an amazing resource. Thank you for organizing it, Kristen. And thanks to all you wonderful photographers who have contributed. I will be keeping my digital camera handy and snapping shots of whatever strikes my fancy to upload here as well. See you all on Flickr!

  36. Fantastic idea! WANA Commons! I love how innovative you are, you recognise a gap or see a problem that has arisen for fellow writers/bloggers and you fix it, providing great solutions! Thank you!

  37. Reblogged this on The First Gates and commented:
    Quite a few writers I know follow Kristen Lamb’s blog. She writes extensively about blogging, publishing, and the nuts and bolts of being an indie author.

    Now, in response to the copyright lawsuit filed against Roni Loren (http://wp.me/pYql4-2fA), Kristen is using her organization, WANA (We are not alone) to create another source of copyright free images – the WANA Commons. Best of all, everyone is invited to contribute. Here’s a chance to give back to the blogging community, upload your own visual art to an appreciative audience, and strike (as the Jefferson Airplane put it a long time ago) blows against the empire! Please check out Kristen’s post – to me, this is a very exciting project!

  38. I posted a link to this post on AQ Connect. The more writers who know about this and get involved, the better for all of us.

  39. Just loaded up some to Wana Commons and will add more.

    • Yvette Carol on August 1, 2012 at 4:30 pm
    • Reply

    Wow how wonderful you could come up with a solution! Yeah I’ve read about this lady being sued elsewhere too. Everyone’s talking about it. You are amazingly creative. My question is where do you find all the energy?!!

  40. So happy you liked my photo! That is the ceiling in the Bellagio in Las Vegas, people. All yours for the taking! And honestly, I take a lot of photos, so if you are looking for something, chances are, I might have it! You can always Tweet this WANA at @rasjacobson and ask me if there is something you are looking for.

    • Undine on August 1, 2012 at 4:51 pm
    • Reply

    As everyone else on this thread has said, a wonderfully creative solution to a very difficult problem.

    I have a question I’ve never seen answered anywhere; perhaps someone here would know. When you are discussing a particular book on your blog, is posting images of the cover of said book OK?

  41. This is such a wonderful concept and so perfect for the WANA tribe. Thanks for always being so proactive and looking out for us. BTW, we met briefly at RWA and your presentation was every bit as informative and entertaining as I knew it would be. Off to retweet the news.

    1. Hey Cindy! THANKS! *hugs*

  42. I love this. I’m getting ready to start up a brand new blog, so I will definitely keep this in mind. Thanks for organizing it, Kristen! 😀

  43. Definitely keeping this in mind. I use wikimedia commons when I don’t have my own pix, but sharing our own photos sounds great!

  44. Hi Kristen!

    Thank you so much for creating WANA Commons! Between WANA tribe and WANA commons, you truly are an advocate for the bloggers and writers out there, and in case you probably haven’t heard it enough: YOU ARE AWESOME! THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH! 🙂

    • Frume Sarah on August 1, 2012 at 7:20 pm
    • Reply

    Wow — a brilliant idea!!! I’ll see what I can upload that will be of interest to anyone other than my mother.

  45. This is a great idea. Thank you for starting up the WANA photograph pool. I’ll add some photos to it when I’m back from holiday and have access to my archives again. I’ve posted a link to this post from my blog.

  46. Wow, thank you so much for creating this! What an excellent idea.

  47. I LOVE WANA commons!!! So glad you thought of it, and so glad it’s accessible to all!
    Thank you, Kristen, for ALL you do for us.
    You’re the best 🙂
    Tamara

  48. Love this. Really a truly great idea. I have posted this on my blog at jacquehopkins.blogspot.com, tweeted and will be signing up to post my pictures (from all over, most recent will probably be from Alaska where I had been living for the past ten years. Thank you.

  49. You know I adore this idea. Thanks for rallying the troops and coming up with a fun solution. And you’re right on the talent. There are some gorgeous photos in the Commons already. *hugs*

    • Tamara LeBlanc on August 1, 2012 at 9:28 pm
    • Reply

    Woops, was gaping at the men’s 200 breastroke race and didn’t completely finish my comment. In answer to your questions, other art forms I dig are painting (Im a mural artist and love molding things out of polymer clay in my spare time) and my favorite pictures to snap are of people in lovely locals. And the types of pics I need, since I’m a romance author are of handsome men and beautiful women with sexy smiles and adoring looks in their eyes 🙂
    Thanks again, Kristen!

  50. Yo, Kristen. This is awesome! I’ve been hearing about the WANA Commons, but finally went over there with this post, and the range of pictures is fantastic, as is the quality. I searched for some specific terms, got ideas, and I’ll have a bunch to upload soon. THanks so much for this!

    Jennifer (WANA1011)

  51. Kristen, you are the best. Reading about Roni’s troubles scared the stuffing out of me and made me look closely at my own blog. Thank you for everything you do for us!

  52. Hi Kristen,

    This is a great idea, but there are some good places online where you can get royalty-free stock to use in blogs. The best one I have found so far is http://www.sxc.hu and I recommend everyone to try it. The way to use it is, register for free, search, and only use images with a white ball, grey or black means that they are restricted. Most are open for free use.

    Peter

    1. I agree. WANA Commons makes it possible for us to promote WANAs to help each other’s SEO rankings. Images can be powerful but thank you! All the resources we can get are a huge help!

      1. Fair call Kristen 🙂

        I will check out what WANA has to offer.

        Peter

        1. p.s. I actually have a TON of images that I could upload to help everyone out… will see what I can do to contribute.

          1. Well, every time we use your image, that image is linked to you, so therefore it is another chance for people to find you. Helps the SEO A LOT. Also it is a way for us to give you a shout out and I DO bet you have some amazing images!

          2. That’s interesting 😉 They would only be linked to me if they were hosted on my blog though, right? I mean, if I upload them somewhere else, or direct to WANA Commons, they won’t link back to me?

  53. I am a photographer. I commented on Roni’s blog about how to avoid copyright problems. I’ve duplicated part of my comment here for you:

    Here are four of the largest online microstock websites (there are many others) where you can search for high quality, professional pictures and legally purchase licenses to use them on your blog for as little as $1.00. No, I haven’t misplaced the decimal point.
    http://www.shutterstock.com
    http://www.istockphoto.com
    http://www.dreamstime.com
    http://www.fotolia.com
    You only need to purchase the smallest size in order to get something suited to use on a blog. Make sure you take the time to read the license BEFORE you purchase to make sure you understand it. If you don’t understand it, email or phone the company, tell them what you want to do with the picture and they will gladly help you. All these companies are well respected in the stock photo industry and none have a reputation for ripping off buyers. They want you to keep coming back for more.

    I contribute photos to some of those sites as well as others.

    This is an alternative to Kristin’s proposal and it does have a minor cost but it will keep you safe. It also gives you access to over 50 million high quality professional photos with written permission to use them.

    1. THANK YOU LES!!!!! *hugs* I know we can’t find everything we need at WANA Commons so this is a real help. Thanks so much!

    • rodger on August 2, 2012 at 12:11 am
    • Reply

    Great idea Kristen. Actually it’s more than that, but the accolades from the ‘wanas’ are positively running out the bottom of my monitor atm, I couldn’t possibly add anything better.

    I’d only read into the first couple of para’s and thought ‘blow that for a joke, i’ll post any pics i’ve taken which are passable out to you and ‘your’ community’, but then read on to your Wana Commons plan. That just makes everything SO much smoother.

    … (sounds more like a ‘wana common SENSE’ plan!)

    Les’s suggestion about using online services is a good one too. I have spent entirely too many dollars in the ‘Dreamstime’ site over the years, but it’s worth it, both from the legal point of view, and that there are literally thousands of fantastic and well tagged images to use.

    Take care.

  54. Loved meeting you at RWA. Will be happy to jump into WANA Commons and contribute pics. (When I get over my conference virtual hangover, that is).

    1. RIGHT???? I have been flattened all week and my body is so screwed up from being on LA time and now TX time :P. Wonderful meeting you too!

  55. My computers are choking with photos. Sunsets, landscapes, flowers, horses, dogs, dog shows and lots of guys playing cowboy. I’ll need to look at what I need to upload.

  56. Hi, Kristen, this is a brilliant idea. I’ve created the flickr account and joined the group. When I upload photos do I upload to my own flick account or to the group site?

    1. Both. And make sure you add your name and WANA Commons to the tags. Also add any book titles you have. It helps your SEO a lot.

      1. Ah, so this is how it helps our SEO. How do you add tags to photos?

  57. Kristin, just about everyone else has said it, but I will too: brilliant idea. I haven’t gotten the courage/time to start blogging yet, but when I do I now know what to do and/or not do for pics. Yay WANA Commons! And thanks, Les Howard for the info on where to go for millions more. 🙂

    1. Hey, you guys are always welcome to call me brilliant, LOL. I may not respond to all the comments (because that might get annoying for you guys) but I do read them and I have a fantastic memory for names.

  58. Another fantastic idea, Kristen! I’m gonna jump in and upload some pics today! At least now if I use any of the pics improperly, I’ll be sued by people I like 😉
    Cheers!

    1. LOL. Yeah, suing not the WANA way, but we do have bounce house parties, :D.

  59. I really want to redo some of my covers, but the image issue has had me stumped. This is the PERFECT solution.

    I’ll spend some time over the weekend posting some of my photos (mostly sunrises and ocean scenes). I need some river photos and people photos.

    I join the chorus of thankful WANAs.

  60. What a wonderful idea! I’m having a hard time deciding what images to put on my blog to beautify it. I am attracted to art of all varieties so I know it would be advantageous to have beautiful pictures up, and I think this is truly a fabulous idea. Being as I’m new to blogging and to writing, I appreciate any help at all. Thank you for sharing this with us!

  61. I like using photos of people, esp for my romances. I use them to give me an idea in my mind of what they look like when I write about them. Also, places/buildings or items they might have in the story. Eg a cameo brooch to promote my short story on a website.

  62. Kristen, such a great idea, thank you. I’ve signed up for my Flickr account, and the photos are gorgeous =)

  63. What a fabulous idea! Image copyright is one of the most daunting things I’ve found so far out blogging. I’ll definitely be adding my pics as soon as I can – it bothers me that they mostly just sit there unseen and unused, so why not share? Thanks a million-fold, Kristen 🙂

  64. What goes around, comes around. I took a ‘build your brand’ class while on vacation last year and the guy that did the class is an amazing photographer with an eye for the ‘not so obvious’. I didn’t hook up with him for branding (I found you), but I really liked him and would love to see him benefit. I sent him a link to this blog and I’m hoping he takes advantage of it. And who knows – maybe his photog friends will too. What a great idea Kristen 🙂

  65. Kristen,
    This is a fabulous idea. I will take photos of New Orleans and begin posting them. I need photos of Victorian clothing, furniture, food, carriages (1885-1890) to illustrate “Step Back in Time” on my website, ursulalecoeur.com. My historical romance set in New Orleans (What a Widow Wants) is going out to editors from agent Claudia Cross very soon. I’m all for sharing–writers, photographers, artists, everyone.

  66. Thank you for the great info, Kristen.

  67. Thanks so much for coming up with this idea, Kristen. You continue to amaze me. (smile) I will sign up as soon as I can and post some pictures that I have taken. Not professional, but pretty good for an amateur. Will also pass a link to some of my writer friends who also take pictures.

    And thanks for the cake. Really hit the spot. (smile)

  68. Marvelous photos on WANA Commons. Beautiful variety and clarity. On a slightly different topic – that cake looks delicious. Wish I had that recipe!

    1. Talk to August McLaughlin. I hyperlinked to her blog. I bet she has the recipe because I believe she made the cake. She IS the cake AND the icing but that’s another topic, LOL.

  69. Ahhhhh, “share, share, share like the wind” my philosophy exactly! What a wonderful idea! Will upload as soon as I figure out how! I long ago decided to use all my own photos in all of my artwork and my blog because of this very issue — you’re solution of sharing with one another is sooooooo in keeping with open-hearted living. THANK YOU for giving us the place to put our intentions into action! BLessings to you!

  70. Because brilliant and generous cannot be written too often when it comes to you, Kristen, I offer those words, again. I was absolutely delighted when I saw the WANATribe announcement and added some photos immediately. Sometimes, our words reside in photos not yet imagined.

    In fact, this afternoon my beagle, Cooper James, and I are on our way out to take more photographs. I am no professional photographer but then WANA Commons is first and foremost about professional behavior for which you provide such a stellar example. You bring out the professionalism in all of us, and that is such a win-win for all artists.

    Once again, thank you, Kristen.

    Karen

    P.S. Cooper James is particularly grateful as it means going “bye-bye in the car,” his heart’s desire.

    1. I always love your comments. You keep me chipper even on the bad days and there are some of those for sure. I just love how people are so eager to come together and help. Really reminds me of what is great about humanity. We see so much of the negative. It is refreshing to see the positive.

  71. This is such a great resource! Thank you for creating it. I’m trying to get my dad to up load a bunch of his stuff to flicker 🙂 I’ll need to steal my daughters camera and go for some walks in the desert and snap away.

  72. Posted photos to the pool, posted this blog on my site, and I’m off to tweet now! Thanks for this terrific community!

  73. This is a brilliant idea! Thank you for creating it. I’m going to alert the writers who read my blog. Even though there are other free resources for this, this is such a lovely and supportive community you have here. And if I ever, ever, ever ( oops…I mean when ) learn to use my Diana Mini Lomography camera and get some good shots, I’ll contribute to the flickr page.

  74. I am soooo lucky to have a sister who is a professional photographer! She helps to make my blog beautiful.

  75. I’ve already said this was a brilliant idea, Kristen … in fact, several times … but I’m going to say it one more time. B.R.I.L.L.I.A.N.T.!
    I’m going to try adding some of my photos today and hope the technodork side of me can cope.
    Great photo info from Les Howard too.

  76. Hah! I knew there was a reason I’d not used Flicker in a while. They have restrictions on how many photos you have for the free account. Bah! Did manage to get some up there though with the right tags and whatnot. 😛

  77. Last week at RWA I started taking unusual photos to use on my site, the Lego Maleficent at Downtown Disney, for example, so I can use them on my blog. I love this idea! Thanks Kristen!

    1. THANK YOU!

  78. Hi Kirsten,
    This is a great ikdea and I am going to march over to WANA Commons and join in.
    Thanks.
    Ciao,
    Patricia

  79. I must be super emotional today, because seriously, this post made me teary eyed. Big thanks to the awesome artists out there. I will definitely be visiting the WANA commons for blog photos. I love the win/win attitude here…writers get to use free photos AND help spread the word about our awesome artist bloggy friends. Thanks so much!

  80. Love, love, love this! Thanks so much to the fabulous photographers willing to upload their pics. I am not the best camera gal myself, but I’ll do what I can when I get a good one. WANA people rock!

  81. I’ve traveled a lot, so as soon as I get a chance, I’ll be adding my images of National Parks and stuff to this collection. Fantastic idea, Kristen! *hugs*

    • T Fields on August 3, 2012 at 7:39 pm
    • Reply

    Thanks so much for doing this! You’re awesome!

  82. What a great idea!

  83. I’m sorry, I seem to be having some issues. I uploaded a few photos to flikr but I can’t seem to get things hooked to WANA commons. Can someone help me out here?

    1. Figured it out. Persistence does pay off, at least occasionally. I only uploaded a few pictures to make sure I had the process down. As soon as I clear a few things off my “desk” I’ll see what I can do to contribute further. No sense in having all this stuff hiding in my computer when other people can have fun with it!

  84. I’m going over there now and download some photos. There is also a free photo site at stock xchng
    http://sxc.hu/

    • Becca on August 4, 2012 at 6:38 pm
    • Reply

    Awesome! Can’t wait to add some of my photos!!

  85. Later today my time I will upload a few shots of a Victorian era (1870-1900) building in Melbourne Australia that was used for trade fairs late 1800s and the opening of the Australian Parliament in 1901. (some NON-COMMONS photos can be found at http://museumvictoria.com.au/reb/. )

    Also the Victorian State Parliament building (same era) which could be a parliament, a very big court, or whatever you want it to look like. Anyone who needs a big, impressive Victorian- era building that wouldn’t be recognisable in America send me a line and I’ll find one and take a shot.
    best wishes.

    1. Apologies for this, but I can’t do this at present. Flickr and yahoo have locked my accounts because I created two filckr accounts using the same yahoo ID and email address, which their computer says I’m not supposed to be able to have done. So, until they decide to unlock me… Kristen, if you’re reading this, you may was well delete my post. Is there an emoticon for “hitting self on head from frustration?”

  86. This was one of the most brilliant ideas ever. It was a nice surprise coming back from vacation and seeing my pic on your blog, thank you for the mention! There are so many great photos on there already, I’m in awe!

  87. Kristin, this is a great idea. I take mostly food shots for my day job, but have others from just playing with my camera. I’ll join the group and upload them. Would love to have more use for them.

  88. That’s such a great idea I’m going to Tweet it. Hope you don’t mind!

    • marsharwest on August 6, 2012 at 6:10 pm
    • Reply

    Great idea, Kristen. Problem solving at work. Now if I can figure out how to get on flicker. 🙂

  89. What an incredible idea. Thank you Kristen and thank you contributors!
    I was so distraught when I heard about what happened to Roni, it’s beyond scary. I’ve spent the last week going through my blog and changing all the pictures and I’m not done yet. This sort of thing is just what we need to look out for each other.
    I’m no amazing photographer, writing is my love – though I do draw on occasion – but I’ll be contributing photos too. It’s a small thing, but it’s something I can do to pay it forward, an idea that’s very important to me. 🙂

  90. Oh, this is brilliant! Roni’s story has had me scrambling back through well over 100 posts stripping out pictures, double checking use violations. In many cases, the pictures serve as my punchline, I NEED them but they are not worth a lawsuit. I’m in on this, and have a fledgling photographer I shall hit up to see if she would be interested in sharing her images with us. She is young, but takes GREAT pictures, I think she’s be happy to have her work shared. Thanks again for looking for ways to help us!

  91. RAS Jacobson mentioned your blog to me and I’d seen this post a few days earlier too, so here I am. However, apart from blogging, I’m an artist not a writer and I’ve been blogging on various platforms for many years. (My current blog is new but already has a good size readership from people who already knew me from my previous blog. More never hurts!)

    My own blog is ‘for’ this sort of thing that you’re writing about in that all the images in the posts (but not the background, header or my userpic) are available for people to use – free – in their own blog posts in exchange for a linkback. Will I join #WANA commons? Maybe. 🙂

    Two things you should know about using other people’s photos even when they have given permission: Put the link to them on or near the actual photo not further down the post, because a lot of people never even get that far, also if people are reading you in a feed, that part of your post doesn’t always show. You can also, on WordPress, make an image link directly to the author of the image (if they have a website or blog). This will help them and – particularly if you link to their blog – will help you too.

    The other thing is that on Flickr, it’s part of their community rules that you give a link to them: http://www.flickr.com/help/guidelines/

  92. Are there instructions somewhere as to how this all works. I joined WANA Commons. I set up a flickr account. I uploaded two photos. But they showed up on a private page, not in that WANA Commons list. What am I doing wrong?

    Barb

  93. Thanks it’s nice to have another worry!

  94. Oops I meant NOT to have another worry, sorry. I am uploading lots of my pictures on flckr for common use!! Thanks for WANA!!

  1. […] social media guru Kristen Lamb to come up with a great idea to help writer-bloggers! She started WANA Commons photo sharing group on Flickr. Flickr also offers Flickr Commons where the Library of Congress, Smithsonian and other institutes […]

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