winjeel

I'm a photographer not a web designer, and so my website http://japanesephotos.asia was designed to be simple and easy for me to maintain (that is, I made it myself). My skills are no where near as good as yours, and that means that I have no idea how to make cookies (but I do know what they are). However, when I discovered how to add a name and keywords to the meta data of the page I was surprised to find that when I went to confirm that it all looks right in my Firefox browser, that it also tells me that there are also cookies from my site. 1. Could you confirm if there are cookies associated with my site? 2. If so, how? 3. If so, are the cookies related to a legitimate site I'm linked to or as a result of my server getting infected? 4. If infected (gulp), then what? Contact the host company? Thanks in advance for your help.

Which major image sellers? To use an analogy, what's wrong with hiring patent lawyers to go out hunting for other companies that use your patented technology without your permission and no royalties? Another way to look at it is if I put a banana in my pocket, is that illegal? What if I were in a supermarket, I haven't paid for the banana, and I put it in my pocket, is that illegal? Now, if I put an unpaid-for banana in my pocket, and then walk out of the supermarket, is that illegal? RobertG suggests that if you don't use the image, then it's ok. So, if I've walked out of the supermarket with an unpaid-for banana in my pocket, is it only illegal if I use... err... eat the banana? I'm starting to worry that adult colleges and universities in the UK aren't teaching their graduates about copyright and avoiding trouble, but more importantly, doing the right and respectful thing. Let's turn this around, is it ok for me to use your webdesigns without your permission and without paying? What if it's just for a company intranet, and it's not public, as someone seems to suggest that it's ok because it cannot be publicly found. I've taken photos that have cost a considerable amount of money to accomplish, but no where near the cost that some photographers might spend for a contracted shoot (which can cost upto and possibly over USD$10,000). How much does it cost you guys to make a web design? It's just colours and graphics, right? I don't intend to start any heated debates (and I will ignore them anyway). But please think a bit more about showing respect to owners of photos, and I'm sure you expect the same respect from the general public for your work, too. One more thing, I have "free stock images" here, and please note the second last point in the FAQ at the bottom of the page.

Does anyone here give away free websites? (rhetorical question)

I hope not. Here are my 'free' images. Note the second last point of the FAQ at the bottom of the page.

You should be worried, as I would seek loss of income and damages, if the owner refused to admit the images were stolen. It is possible that the owner may say that that cheap website designer stole them and verbally assured the website owner that all is legal. In other words, get evidence that the images were there before you started your task, and replace them unless the owner can prove the images were licensed.

Me: http://japanesephotos.asia/blog/2010/09/free-photos/

Good point

Just to let you know. They've come back online in the last few hours, but so far no announcement from them on what happened, nor why.

Oh dear... The signs weren't good. Some of my (legitimate) e-mails were treated as spam, and more recently, my students got a spammer warning, instead of my e-mail about their homework (homework isn't spam, is it?). Now, both of my websites are down, and cyberultra.net is down, too! How can I find out what's happened to my host? I haven't Admittedly, one of my first instincts was to search for news reports in the Singapore news websites (where Cyberultra is headquartered), but nothing (yet). Sorry for the pessimistic tone, but I hope you can understand.

Thanks.

Sorry for not replying sooner. What attracted me to them was the price. As suggested, I did so some research and found nothing bad, only one thing good (can't remember where that was, it took me ages to find something). So far, things are fine. However, what's annoying is, when I send e-mail via the webmail access, Hotmail, Yahoo, Gmail, and Comcast automatically either reject it or shuffle it into the junkmail box. Website updates can be a little slow, but not an issue. Also, adding the favicon took a while for it to appear live (a few minutes, hours? overnight?). The only annoying thing really, is that because I use *erhm, FrontPage (I'm not a webdesigner, please forgive me ) the FrontPage menus don't work properly. The menu appears as broken image links. Everything is there, it's all uploaded, I've checked in the file manager, and have tried, and retried, but it doesn't work. So, I have to use simple html style menu. Previously, I was with Aplus.Net. They updated their systems and that screwed over my forums SQL databases, and nothing I could do would work in restoring them, and they were simply not helpful in providing help in fixing, either. And, after migrating to Cyberultra, APlus still charged me regular monthly fees. Grrr (still have to get my money back from them). At Cyberultra, setting up SQL databases, forums, subdomains and a new domain & website (within my 10Gb package), so far, has been really quick and easy. Otherwise, with Cyberultra, so far all's well (except FrontPage made menus).

Have you ever heard of Cyberultra.net? If so, what have you heard about them? I've had a host of problems from my current webhosting site (since they've done their upgrades), and so I'm considering moving to this lot.

The best thing to do is to get a lawyer. They can demand that you pay up, as it really is copyright infringement. A photographer can upload and make available for sale an image via a number of portals, so it is possible for Company A to think that the image came from them, when it might have come via Company B. As a photographer, having an image stolen is exactly like having a car stolen; it costs me money to set up and shoot, maintain my photography, and so forth. In anycase, go looking for receipts, contracts, and all details of the origin of the image. If it is indeed stolen...

Are you talking about photography or web design?

I assume Linux. What program do you use for web design on Linux. I've got Linux on my computer, though I don't use it too often (damn Adobe PhotoShop doesn't work there, even on Wine; and damn iTunes... extreme vendor lock-in!!!)

I notice you've got Corby listed twice, and Acclaim spelt wrong. You could add Gekko Images, PhotoShelter, Asia Photo Connection, and is there any chance that my Photos of Japan page could be added?

I'd rather pay for my stuff, as it helps the people who created the stuff, afford to live (even if it is Adobe). And, I hope that good spirit is returned to me, by photo editors and the like being prepared to buy my stuff, than steal it.

Interesting the ranges. As a photographer, we have heavy investments, the lenses (second hand beginning at the 200 pound mark, and topping at about 2,000 pounds), then camera bodies (digitals need to be replaced every few years), flashes, computer, software, website and promo... so to start up, I guess you'd better throw something like at least five to ten thousand pounds at it... for starters. What are things like for you guys?

Just wondering, out of general interest (I'm not interested in purchasing any), but how much can a client expect to pay for "a website"? I suppose there'd be various definitions on that, too. I got interested in this from looking at this link: http://www.dreamtemplate.com/index.php?action=viewall from leaaa's post.

If you're preparing for Stock, then consider Photographers Direct, If Images, Alamy, PhotoShelter and such. But to answer your question, Photo.Net, Digital Dynax, APUG (if you use film) are my favourites. You'll find that the PhotoShelter community is quite knowledgable and adept. One more resource you should find useful, is the Stock Photographers Index industry price averages. Hope this helps.

There's some web applications that you can use for creating galleries (I'm assuming that that is what you're really doing). Wikipedia has a list of them for you: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of...allery_software I use Coppermine, but it removes exif information, which is important for showing things like copyright details (and for me, the camera settings). Adobe LightRoom also creates a gallery, but I don't think it does thumbnails. You can get a 30 day free trial and see if it does. There's also a podcast (via iTunes) to help you understand and learn stuff about LightRoom (and there are others for PhotoShop, too).

For web use, with microstock sites like iStock et al, the photographer might get anywhere between 20 cents to 50 cents per sale. It's got to be classified as exploitation. With iStock et al, photographers and graphic designers cannot set their own prices, so they cannot follow their own business plan, they must fit within iStock's own business plan, which is designed for investors and for improving share prices; not for supporting photographers. Here's a quote from Editorial Photographer: Unfortunately, many photographers are desperate for any kind of sale, so they go to where they can get something. A more reasonable price for web use sales should be about $50 according to Gekko Images. Anyway, just to confirm your inkling, it isn't fair for the photographer, as the photographer cannot earn enough to replace any equipment annually.

I think you'll find that micro stock sites have a lot of cliche and over-metaphorical pictures. The photographers don't get paid much, and can't even earn enough to update their cameras at anytime in a three year period, so I'd say avoid microstock, and please support regular photography.

Sorry, a little bit not related, but still about free resources. Are there free website templates around?

The best images you'll find at PhotoShelter.Com, Gekko Images, Alamy, IfImages, and so on. For backgrounds, I know of web designers who take their own images, including things like old paper, sandpaper, textures and things, but be careful as you need good lighting.