Photography Archives - This Week in Blogging

Should Bloggers Use AI? When (and When Not) to Use AI Tools

December 20, 2022December 19, 2022

Artificial Intelligence seems to be taking the content creation world by storm these days, with new tools coming on the market every month for creating text, images, graphics, and more.

While some of these tools do appear to be fascinating and, dare we say, possibly quite useful for bloggers at large, we have to take a step back and think about an ethics question that is on everyone's minds: “Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should.”

Wait, no, that is Jurassic Park. But we'll run with it because the same ethics concern applies. Just because it is there, should we use it?

Let's dive into that one today looking at three broad AI uses that may be of interest to bloggers.

Note: We used AI for some elements of this article purely to illustrate points. These will be clearly noted. Otherwise the content featured herein is 100% original.

Does Upscaling AI for Images Work? Testing Popular Services

November 2, 2022October 20, 2022

When I went on safari in Africa, I got a wealth of amazing photos with my rather expensive mirrorless camera and telephoto lens.

But perhaps the best photo of the ~10,000 shots my wife and I took was not on my professional camera, but rather on my cell phone. This shot could only have been taken on my phone as the subject of the shot, a lion standing on a rock a la the Lion King, was so close to our vehicle that my 150-600mm camera lens was far too tight to do the full scene justice (even the 50mm lens on my wife's camera was not wide enough as well).

But there was one problem- my phone's camera wasn't in the best mode when I got this shot.

Instead of being on the 104 MP camera mode, I was set on a ~9 MP camera setting as I played around with other modes before coming into this quick scene. The photo looks great even at this lower resolution, don't get me wrong, but when it comes to blowing up the image to larger file size for print, it wasn't perfect the way a 104 MP shot would've been.

So I wondered, can upscaling AI help me get a better photo after the fact, ultimately to print a larger photo for my house? This seemed like a great opportunity to test out several services!

Note: Side-by-side images used within the article may not be perfect overlaps. That being said, visible improvements (or lack thereof) are reflective of the final results even if the exact level of zoom is not perfect.

The Risks of Using 3rd Party Images on Your Blog (And Best Practices)

February 28, 2022February 28, 2022

If you've spent any amount of time on blogging social media groups, you've likely seen a couple of topics come up time and time again.

The first, and more common post, is “[website] stole my photos without credit!” and the second is “I was just sent an invoice for copyright infringement for a 3rd party photo I used on my blog”.

While you have many avenues for recourse if your own content has been stolen (including invoicing for damages or sending a DMCA notice), if you are the perpetrator of an infringement you may have fewer options at your disposal. Stealing is bad, and we have little more to say on that.

That being said, the advice of “don't steal” only goes so far. To be blunt, many scams exist online to screw over website operators, and if you use 3rd party content in any capacity, there may be scenarios where you can become a victim despite doing everything “right”.

So in this one, we thought we'd talk a bit more about how you can go about using 3rd party content, namely stock images, and keep yourself safe from possible lawsuits later on. While we cannot say these tips are 100% foolproof, especially as we are not lawyers and copyright laws also vary by country, these tips should give you an added layer of protection all the same.

Leveraging Your Photography as a Blogger with Laurence Noah

February 1, 2021February 1, 2021

Photography and blogging go hand-in-hand as a single image can illustrate a scene better than a thousand words (not to mention, the vast majority of social media runs on images).

As photography is an integral component in blogging, in this interview we reached out to our friend Laurence Noah of Finding the Universe to talk more about why photography is so important, how to leverage it on social media, and, perhaps most important of all, keeping your site blazing fast while sharing beautiful images.

So with that, we'll jump straight to it!

RYDE Review – Protecting Our Image Copyrights With Ease

December 18, 2022January 18, 2021

Update: RYDE was recently acquired and rebranded as VAAAM. Since then the service has switched to a model that requires a monthly fee for image tracking. While we would have liked to try this new service despite the high fee, the team at VAAAM has been unresponsive to our questions and therefore we have not been able to test the new set up. As such, please consider the below review out of date.

In the past, we have talked about protecting your image copyright with monitor tracking services like Copytrack. Unfortunately, as we have had some less than ideal experiences with that service we looked to others to help fill our needs.

RYDE (formerly KODAKOne) is one such entity that offers an image monitoring service using proprietary technology to catch when your photo copyrights are being violated on the internet. Then they reach out to infringers to invoice for damages and help you monetize your stolen work.

But perhaps the best part about this service is its ease of use- it is quite hands-off!

Disclaimer: We are affiliates of RYDE. By signing up for their service, we may receive a commission.

Best Practices for Using Stock Photos on Your Blog (Plus Sources)

July 29, 2022August 10, 2020

In our photography tips for bloggers interview with Kevin Wagar, we briefly touched on the practice of using stock photography on your blogs.

This practice almost always starts robust debates online between those who are open to using stock photos and those who share content exclusively created by themselves. For over a decade I was purely in the latter, but have recently started using stock photos on my blogs to illustrate points where I do not have a relevant image of my own (this is especially true on This Week in Blogging).

Unfortunately, using photography that you did not take yourself opens up a number of issues that must be considered, and before you use stock photography online there are some things you need to know.

*This article is written based on my understanding of US Copyright law. Other countries may have variations, especially around privacy rules. We are not lawyers and the below should not be considered legal advice.

Photography Tips for Bloggers with Kevin Wagar

July 29, 2022August 10, 2020

Kevin-Wagar-photography-tips-for-bloggers

When we were debating who might want to wax lyrical on photography tips for bloggers, the name Kevin Wagar immediately came to mind.

For those who don't know, Kevin Wagar is a professional photographer, videographer, and travel writer based out of Brampton, Ontario. He got his career started in digital marketing and advertising where he photographed commercial and brand shoots for corporate clients including Microsoft, Google, Apple, and more.

Kevin now works full-time as a travel content creator and has partnered with companies such as the Lonely Planet, Matador Network, Movenpick, and more. Kevin’s primary outlets are his website Wandering Wagars – Adventure Family Travel, and Ultimate Ontario.

We'd recommend that if you'd like to see his work, you head on over to Instagram and follow @wanderingwagars. We humbly thank Kevin again for his time, and for offering some fabulous advice below that we know will be invaluable to our readers and subscribers.