I get frequent inquiries about potential use of my photos, from those wanting basic prints, to kids wanting to use photos for a project, to college professors wanting them for lectures, to commercial enterprises wanting to use them. For any educational or non-profit conservation activity, I gladly provide the photos for free. I love, for example, a middle schooler asking for a photo for her project, and then having her send me a photo of the finished work. Priceless.

When people want to sell a product to make money, and want to use my photo for that product, I charge a fee. The fee depends upon usage, so when I was contacted by a Norwegian author recently, I gave some thought to my fee. She was writing a children’s book, “Bird Facts and Stories from Around the World”, and wanted to use a handful of photos for image sources for the book’s artwork. My price? I just wanted a copy of the book! It sounded like such a cool idea, and frankly, when artists use my work for “inspiration”, I usually am quite low in any fee I charge.

I just received a copy of the finished book…it’s gorgeous. I love the style of the artwork, and it was cool to see things like the pheasant painting here that was based on my photo. It’s got a really diverse selection of birds that she chose, with facts and figures about each. I’ve translated a few pages to English just so I got a feel for the book, and think it’s something that could spark a child’s interest in birds.

I’m getting a nice collection of printed materials that have used my photos, but I think this one may be my favorite!  The book is by Line Renslebraten…don’t see it online anywhere yet in case you 1) wanted to pick up a copy, and 2) read Norwegian. 🙂