Back in My Day......

Do you remember when you were a kid, how someone saying back in my day was so annoying? When it's yourself saying it, it doesn't seem quite as annoying.

Back in my day, when I went on vacation I took a 110 camera, (still have it somewhere at my house, probably it's worth money to someone!) film and flash bulbs. For those of you who don't even know what any of those are, a 110 the size film of point and shoot non-digital camera. You added flash bulbs to the top of the camera if you were taking pictures inside because built-in flash wasn't available on these magificent devices. They were easy to use. I was 11 years old traveling across the USA from NY to CA with my family. I've still got the photos of my mother and her cousin setting up the tents at campgrounds, Wild Bill's grave, and much more.  When we got back to NY, I had all the photos developed at Wegman's photo center and put them in a photo album.

No one has a copy of these precious photos. No one, except me. Not my mother, my brother, or the family members we traveled with. If my house were damaged, all these precious photographic memories would be lost. I am the owner of these photos. No one has access to them.

What about your precious memories? Who has access to them? Maybe you've loaded them to Picasa, Facebook, or another online service. If so, then they are out there and can be copied by anyone. Unless you've copyrighted your photos and set your permissions pretty tight, people you don't know may have access to them. If they are not copyrighted, you are giving them away! If you are a crappy photographer like me, it's no problem, but if you are of the caliber of my coworker Alyssia, then you need to be very careful about your photo permissions.  My coworker Alyssia is an amazing photographer and she certainly could make money off her photos! The downside is: so could someone else!

Many years ago, when I was teaching computers, I entered one of my self-written computer curriculums into a contest. I didn't win. It wasn't two years later, when my teaching assistant showed me an advertisement for a curriculum that was similar content to mine and asked "Isn't that yours?" Even they hadn't changed the name! I had no legal recourse.

Any time you upload a photo to the Internet, consider the permissions you want to set for the photo. Lock them down right away. We're not back in my day now. Be careful with your photos online.