Autumn Abound, with its textures, colors, and patterns. Delicately decorating the landscape with the waning of the season. Going out in brilliant color and grace. Providing food and shelter for wildlife. Reminding us of the beauty of life, regardless of age.
The summer-flower has run to seed,
And yellow is the woodland bough;
And every leaf of bush and weed
Is tipt with autumn’s pencil now.
Autumn by John Clare
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And now time for some housekeeping. This week I discovered a fellow blogger, who will be unnamed, had taken several of my images, cropped my watermark out and added his to the photo. He also managed to block out the metadata on one of the images prior to posting.
I’ve always preferred to have my watermark on the side of my images to that you can enjoy them to the fullest. Today’s post is a sample of what I could possibly do. Placing a new watermark in the center of the image.
To tell you the truth, I’m not a fan of this placement. Lightroom’s WM placement choices are either on the edges on dead center. I’m not able to put them kitty corner, and have no desire to do one at a time in Photoshop.
It’s a shame that I feel that I need to go on the defensive to protect my images. The particular posts that these images were taken from are very popular and several images are repeatedly downloaded to who knows where. So I’ve had to make those posts private, which is such a shame, as they are beautiful and well presented posts. One of them was even Fresh-Pressed.
Let me know what you think about this issue. Should I just continue as I have done and place the watermark on the edges and hope for the best? Should I now protect my images? I’m not interested in the whole resizing, png stuff. Too complicated for me, and I’d rather have just one copy of an image on my hard drive rather than multiple ones.
I do like my new watermark though – what do you think of this one? Thanks for the follows, the dedicated comments and readers, and your feedback. Emily aka Bella
Categories: 2013 Project 365, All about Hoofbeats & Footprints, Nature
Emily Carter ~ Nature as Art 
I like your watermark, the calligraphy like B is pretty but if I may? I think a tiny bit faded white transparent might work best, this way the colors of your photo still see through and should the issue of your photo stolen ever arise again it will be obvious 🙂
I think that is a good idea, but overall the consensus is that a centered watermark is less desirable and distracting. Think I’ll use the new watermark but on top of bottom instead.
mmm! that works too, I’m actually going to go to self hosting soon with java protection, so there’s no way to right click and stuff so no way to save photos. 🙂
You would think WordPress would recognize this as an issue and just blanket a non-right click across the board. Either that or allow us to select that protection option.
No kidding, I guess they are just happy with however it is they make money through marketing etc
Wow what a bastard 😦 Love your shots how did you find out? I sold a print yesterday of the sea no to stop thieves 😦
It was kind of funny as he was stupid enough to comment on my blog this week. I browsed his blog and discovered what he had done. He was quite responsive though and removed everything immediately.
WOW good thing most of who I follow are writers, poets, cooks 🙂
Your photos are always so good, it’s no wonder that some would attempt to steal them, since every one seems to think that anything on the net is free for the taking.
I hope that you reported the offending blogger to WordPress, if not, you should to protect us all.
Copyrighting your photos is about worthless, your only recourse it to file a civil suit in Federal Court against some one violating your copyright.
Your new watermark is fine, you may want to consult with an intellectual property lawyer to see about trademarking it. The laws against trademark infringement are more strict, but I don’t know if that would be feasible or helpful.
I don’t mean disrespect when I comment within a comment but I’ve had the same happen to me, wordpress though has done nothing. They are perfectly content with people coming and going, Great idea on the trademark though!
No problem, comments are for discussions. I wasn’t sure what if anything WordPress would do, it may depend on the number of complaints that they get.
I’m not sure that the trademark idea would be helpful, but it is a path worth investigating.
I didn’t think to as this person was very responsive and cordial about the whole thing. He immediately removed the stolen images and deeply apologized. It’s going to happen as we all know. I don’t mind sharing my images with others, I deserve the credit though. That’s where he went wrong.
To me, it doesn’t matter how polite a thief is after he’s been caught, there’s no way that some one can post another person’s photo by accident. He stole your work just as if he had broken into the manor and stolen your wallet.
We’ve been trained by the criminal element in this country that it’s wrong to rat out a rat, but since I don’t stick to my training very well, I’ll rat out any rat I find.
Oh you do make me laugh! Glad you’re angry for me. So let’s just say I’m being polite and don’t want to seem petty. 🙂
For sure! I’ve actually seen a number of companies registering their photos like Getty images but not sure, on the end user side.
Emily I personally find large center placed watermarks very distracting. Could be just me.
I’m totally with you. I just can’t do it. I tried but hate it. Great feedback too Phil.
The black and white shot is gorgeous Emily. I do like the new watermark, but not in the centre – its a tricky one though. If people are determined to steal your images they will.
I’m with you too Mark. Center is rather yucky. I’ll place it elsewhere and hope for the best.
Congratulations with the new logo, but I am very sorry to hear about your problems with stealing, because there is no other word for it. And I don’t necessarily agree with not naming people who do this so obviously. People can do a mistake because they don’t know better. Then let them know. If they continue, why not name, and show what is happening. And it is also good to write about this problem, so we all can learn. By the way I make special copies from LR for the net, a bit bigger pictures than I would like, but it seems it is necessary for the presentation.
When you mention ‘special copies’ from LR, what do you mean? I’m interested in learning more.
I wouldn’t call this a mistake as the removal of my watermark was quite intentional. He just got caught at it. Thanks Bente!
Sorry if I wasn’t precise. What I do is to export originals that I “store” on my hard drive (in my system for “animals, flowers, cities etc), and some of these I upload on my webside. Then I export smaller copies ( 1024 px on the widest side, resolution 72) for the web, and these I put my watermark on, and there is also invisible copyright-info (on all). These are also stored on my hard drive in the same system, but don’t take that much space, and I upload them to blog or FB from there. You maybe go directly from LR to the web? It can probably be done easier or wiser than I do?
And for the thieves: I would link to and show, on the blog, if they know what they do and continue after warning… And YES, we should always protect, but can’t just keep all the pictures hidden at home. 😉
This helps me tremendously. Thanks Bente!
With digital it is so easy to steal anything – music, movies, photos, software – it is impossible to stop this, I shrink my photos to no bigger than 500k when I publish – it doesn’t stop anyone stealing but if they try to enlarge or print anything bigger than approx 8″ x 6″ it starts to fall apart. It won’t ever stop them but it means if they get stolen there is little they can do with them. We all just assume that everyone is as honest as ourselves…
It’s a great idea, but a lot of the theft is to be used on the internet anyway. At least I found out. Appreciate your support. 🙂
oh, and the photos are superb Emily…really brings out autumn!
🙂 Thank you so much ! Do you get this kind of scenery at home?
yes, fortunately we do…and it is really magnificent this time of year
Such gorgeous autumn images, Emily! As for the stealing, that’s just downright despicable! I wish I knew a way to prevent this but unfortunately I do not. Seems that if some people want something bad enough, they will find a way to take it. Maybe someone should start a new blog here on WP that lists the names of these crooks and their sites…”WP Most Wanted”. A little slap on the wrist won’t prevent them from doing it to someone else.
Several people think like you to have a “WP Most Wanted.” it’s true, once a thief – always a thief.
Appreciate your support Soonie.
Wonderful photos again! Such beautiful texture, isn’t that what autumn offers?! 😀
I thought there was something up when I saw your watermark (WM) in the center… I don’t mark mine in anyway, but have questioned doing it. I’m going to look for an app like a date post, that would work for me, a non professional. But either way, why should I have to?
This crap infuriates me!!! I’m like quietsolopursuits (who’s not so quiet on this topic! I’m w/ya!) My copyright page states, ‘It’s easier to ask for permission than to beg for my forgiveness’. This POS knew exactly what he was doing! AND a serious idiot for commenting on you’re post! Luckily, criminals are mostly dummies! I agree with what most say about prosecution and know the laws are a bit slack. Pretty much every thief gets one Mulligan, as long as they take the stolen item down(text, photo whatever) at the 1st request, they will avoid prosecution. This doesn’t sit well with me. I also WOULD NOT be as level-headed as you have been, or maybe you’re hiding your anger well 😉 My point? I would OUT the bastard! WP might do nothing, but you’ve got your community here to back your ass up! So, he took down your pix? Big whoop! Make him redesign a new blog and namesake. He should be more inconvenienced as a punishment since I can’t reach though my phone and punch the &%¥|¥££\π¤ ! I think Soonie2 has a great idea, The Copyright Infringement List. He could be our first post! Whadda think?
You really did make me laugh with your comments. I appreciate your fury for me, as I didn’t get my feathers overly ruffled about the case. I also have a clear copyright page, but it doesn’t stop people from pinning, downloading at a whim. I can see you get this little sucker and make him pay for his transgression. You and QuietSoloPursuits – Watch out !!
It’s a shame that WP doesn’t have a no-tolerance policy and boots members out who do copyright infringement. Sigh…
Thanks for enjoying the pics.
HI Emily: I’m sorry as to what happened. You have to do what you have to do to protect yourself. The watermark doesn’t bother me at all. I can see pass through it and enjoy the beauty of the photo.
I just posted today at WPC about thieving. I will add your post as a related link.
Perpetua.
Oh really !! I need to go and visit your blog. Visit is long overdue anyway. Welcome home and know that you have many memories that keep you sustained during the winter months.
Oh..and the owl pic on the other post. Yours is so much better!!
Emily, by the time I saw this, you had gone back to your original watermark, which is much nicer. I do resize my images, between 1024 and 2048 wide, depending, for this exact reason. I know it’s a pain, but what choices do we have?
I know..the whole resizing thing. But it wouldn’t have mattered in this case as it was just reposted on the internet.
For the watermark. Now back to the new one, but top center. So far I like it there.