South Dakota Birds - Photos and more

South Dakota Birds and Birding

Personal Photo Usage

I receive many, many requests for free photos.  However, while this is not my primary occupation, nature photography IS the primary occupation of a lucky (and extremely talented) group of photographers.  Allowing use of my photos for commercial use, without payment, devalues the work of all nature photographers (including myself) and directly threatens the livelihood of some of my photographer friends.  Therefore, I DO NOT allow my photography to used for ANY commercial purpose (publication, print sales, poster, advertisement, web site, etc.) without payment.  Note that I am also extremely diligent about registering all of my images with the U.S. Copyright office.

I do allow limited usage of my photos for educational or research purposes, or for limited personal usage.  Given the volume of free photo requests I receive, please examine the list below to see if your particular usage is shown.   Note that for these free photo usages, I simply do not have time to help everybody personally.  I cannot provide any higher resolution photos than what are on my website.  Also note that I ask that photos used for these purposes not be distributed in any form to a third party, or be used for any other purpose.

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KIDS' SCHOOL PROJECTS - Do you have a child who needs a photo for a school project?  I WELCOME the use of my photos for such a purpose!!

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TEACHERS (K through 12) - Are you a teacher in need of a photo for presentation to your class?  Go ahead!  A photo credit would be nice, but isn't completely necessary.

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COMPUTER BACKGROUND - Feel free to use a photo for your computer background image.

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UNDERGRAD or GRADUATE STUDENT - College students...you may use my photos for miscellaneous class reports, powerpoint presentations, etc.  All I ask is that you provide a photo credit (something similar to "Photo provided by Terry Sohl").  Note this does NOT apply to published materials.  Please contact me if you require photos for any published usage, educational or otherwise.  Note that "published usage" includes ANY online, web-based publication.

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PROFESSORS/HIGHER EDUCATION - I allow usage of my photos by college professors and educators for use in their classrooms, in the form of powerpoints or other presentations.   All I ask is that you provide a photo credit (something similar to "Photo provided by Terry Sohl").  Note this does NOT apply to published materials.  Please contact me if you require photos for any published usage, educational or otherwise.  Note that "published usage" includes ANY online, web-based publication.

If you see your usage above, feel free to use a photo from my website without the need to personally contact me.  While I do occasionally provide photos for select other uses, chances are that if your usage isn't shown on the list above, I will not provide a photo without a charge.   Generally, I deny free photo usage for two reasons:

  1. It's a thinly disguised commercial venture.  Easy rule of thumb...if there's ANY money involved in your usage of a photo, I won't provide it for free.  Are you an ad or printing agency working for a non-profit?  While I may support the non-profit's cause, if your agency is getting paid, then I won't provide photos for free for you, as your company is profiting off of the work.  Are you an artist needing base material on which to base a work of art?  If you're selling that work of art, it's a commercial venture and I won't provide my photos for free.  The most common plea..."Our budget is limited, but...".    Again...if it's a commercial venture of any kind, if money and profit is involved in any way on your end, I will not provide my photos for free.
  2. It's too much work on my end.   As I said, I get MANY, MANY free photo requests.  Even if I support a particular cause, I simply do not have the time to deal with the massive quantity of free photo requests I get.  It would consume my life if I tried.

If you wish to license a photo for commercial use, please visit the commercial sale page.  If you wish to purchase a fine art print of a photo, please visit the print sales page.

 

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