So basically, I’m famous. Okay, I’m not, but yesterday, I did get a FlickrMail request from a very nice lady to use one of my katydid photos.

:: awesome katydid photo

I just love the photos you took of the Katydid (called Often heard, seldom seen). I work with Raleigh Parks and Recreation and am working on a project called the Walnut Creek Wetlands Center that will be built in Raleigh, NC. This urban nature education center will have indoor
classrooms and a beautiful deck overlooking our urban wetlands. It will be open to everyone with no admission charged. We are working on a limited budget, but have incorporated as many sustainable design features as possible. I am currently creating the educational exhibit
signage and I would love for permission to use the photo I mentioned above. We will have audio files of their song to go with the photo. It is my favorite sound of summer! The photo will only be used this one time for the exhibit sign. If you would be willing to let us publish your photo, please let me know what name you would like the photo credited to. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions about the specifics of the sign where I would like to use your photos. Please correspond via my email address rather than through flickrmail:
tiffany.frost@pissoffspambots.ci.raleigh.nc.us.
Many thanks and happy photography!

Of course, I replied and thanked her for the compliment, then told her that my little katydid and I would both be honoured to be a part of the exhibit. I also said that if I had any other shots that would be of use to her, please use them with my blessing. She said that she will try to remember to take a snapshot of the sign for me, and that would be pretty cool, actually; even if I don’t much care about credit (I’m about the educational purposes, not getting my name on something), my mother will be impressed, and will annoy her friends by telling them that her daughter is practically a famous photographer. I’m not, of course, but that won’t stop her. 😉

Anyway, that made my day because I’m always happy when someone finds a use for one of my photos, and this one was a triple-bonus; non-profit, educational and in the spirit of wildlife habitat preservation.

A few hours later, I got another FlickrMail, this one again from NC.

:: your great image

Hi,

I am the director of the NC State University Insect Museum, and I just wanted to let you know that we used your beautiful Carolina mantid image in a blog post:
http://blogs.lib.ncsu.edu/page/insects?entry=the_insects_of_north_carolina

I hope you don’t mind!
Andy Deans

I looked at the guy’s profile, and he’s a professor; I’ll assume a professor of entomology, since he lists his interest as “parasitic Hymenoptera”. Of course I’m flattered because even if it’s only a blog post, there’s still a chance that my little mantis nymph might inspire someone to become interested (or at least more interested) in the insect world, and that’s certainly one of my goals. I replied (and remembered that he’s “Professor Deans”, not “Mr. Deans”, even though I was half in the bag, since it was Friday night) and I was so flattered that I even took a screencap of the photo in place. 🙂

So, you see, I am basically famous. I don’t care about money, or having my name on something, but I do care very much about honest compliments, and having my stuff used for educational purposes. I’ve had my photos used probably a dozen times before, mostly in the US and Canada, but also in places as far away as a school district in Australia (crab larva photo, used on a CD that is distributed to teach kids about coastal marine life), the UK (photo of water primrose, used in a book about invasive species), and France (shots I took at the zoo that don’t look like “zoo photos”, used on an exotic wildlife site). I don’t know whether they finally decided to use it, but I’d also given permission for a butterfly chrysalis photo to be used in cover art for an indie band’s CD (they’re in CA–SF, I think). They did offer to pay, stating that they couldn’t afford much, but I said just go ahead and use it if you like. Still, it’s never happened twice in the same day, so I was pretty happy. 🙂