Saturday Snapshot: The Flower Garden
Instead of birds, this week I have some flowers from my garden.
I’m also trying a new way of watermarking my photos. Instead of placing the watermark at the top or bottom, I’m making it transparent but placing it in the photo. I’m not sure if I like it, but it is the only way to deter unauthorized use or outright theft of my photos. Disabling right-click or copy doesn’t stop the thieves; it’s very easy to defeat.
What happened now you are wondering? In the past I’ve had photos used without permission by other blogs or websites, and when it happens I ask them to credit my blog or delete them. Recently someone stooped to a new low and stole several of my bird photos, cropped out the watermark and claimed they owned these birds and were trying to sell them. I received an email from the individual they were attempting to defraud with copies of my altered photos attached.
Anyway, on to the flowers and let me know what you think of the new watermarks. I’ll be playing around with fonts and colors until I come up with something I like so any suggestions or comments are appreciated.
Shade flowers: Begonia, coleus, impatients. This barrel didn’t receive much hail damage during the storm a few weeks ago as it was protected by the fence and my garden shed.
The verbena is in a hanging basket which I took down before the storm.
The tall yellow coneflower is starting to bloom this week.
The pink spider flower is one of my favorites. I grow them from seed and most are white or pale pink, but a few will be a vibrant pink like this one. Seeds from a pink flower won’t necessarily produce pink plants next year; about one in ten are hot pink.
A couple of sunflowers opened up this week.
Have a great Saturday everyone. I’m out on a bird walk this morning and will be visiting your photos later in the day.
Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce at At Home With Books. Visit her blog to see more great photos or add your own.
© 2012 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Under My Apple Tree 
Beautiful photos of one of my favorite subjects, Leslie!
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Thanks. It’s been a tough year for the flowers. With our drought I’ve had to water them every day.
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I love the sunflower with the pattern of its seeds, but it’s shocking that people should try and sell your photos – I never even thought of watermarking anything, but my pictures are nowhere near as good as your’s, and I’m not sure I would know how to do it.
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Not sell the photo… sell the birds! They were using my photo to “prove” they had possession of the birds.
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Gorgeous! I do love the summer gardens … all the colors are so vibrant! Watermark is there, that’s for sure! I understand the need, but always hate to be distracted by them! Just sayin’ …
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I don’t like the watermark either. I’m just testing them out on the garden photos.
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Your flowers are lovely Leslie. Do you know, I couldn’t help but look for a hidden bird among them:)
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I didn’t think about that. I should have hidden a bird!
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Your photos are always lovely! I’m sorry you’re having to deal with someone trying to steal your work.
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Sadly it happens a lot. And they are difficult to deter.
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I was a bit sad to miss out on the birds this week, although of course the flower photos are beautiful.That pink spider flower is gorgeous I can see why it would be a favourite. It looks like some sort of pea. The watermark thing is an interesting issue, I can’t believe someone tried to fraudulently use your photos like that. That’s terrible. It’s a shame that they become a necessary evil. I’ve never thought about them for my site either.
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I don’t mind if people want to use my photos, but like to be asked though. And if it’s for personal or non-commercial use I almost always say yes, just give me credit and a link.
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I’m sorry you are having issues with people trying to steal your photos, i guess you can take it as a compliment that they thought you photos were such great quality.
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I guess that’s one way to look at it!
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Are you serious?! How do you find out if your photos are stolen? Oh, gawd. Now I’m freaked out. I love your shots, by the way, and I think the watermark directly in it is totally fine, so keep it! 🙂
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A man pretending to sell hand-raised baby starlings sent one of my photos to a woman as proof he had possession of the birds. He wanted her to send $800 and then he would ship the birds. She googled the photo and instead found me. I verified it was indeed stolen.
Google is one way to find them. Another is TinEye, reverse image search engine.
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So pretty! I never get tired of pictures of flowers. You’ve got a great variety!
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Great shots, and how horrible that someone tried to sell your photos. When I see photos that are watermarked, that is a clear message not to copy. Sometimes I use my son’s shots and link to his website, but I’d only do it because he’s my son and I asked his permission.
Good luck dealing with this!
Here’s MY SATURDAY SNAPSHOT POST
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Of course you have permission, so there is nothing wrong with that. And I have let people who ask use my photos for personal use.
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I love the green and red leaves in that first photo–very striking.
I can’t believe people…stealing your photos to sell??? (Well, actually, I can believe it…but geez.)
Here’s my Snapshot.
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It was a case of fraud. They weren’t selling my photo, they were using the photo to sell birds that they didn’t possess.
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Your photos, including these, are always spectacular, so it’s no surprise, unfortunately, that people want to profit from them. I do prefer the watermarks out of the way of the images; I wish there were a good way to make them thief-proof!
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Sadly the only way to make them theft-proof is not to post them.
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Beautiful flowers! Which area are you in that produce flowers so vibrant? Yes, the pink one looks great, so’s the sunflower.
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I’m in a suburb of Chicago. The flowers look good because I have been watering them throughout the drought. Plus I spend a lot of time tending them.
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Your photos are gorgeous as always! I think the watermark looks fine, and am sorry that people have been trying to steal your photos. I haven’t watermarked mine because I figure if people are really determined they are going to do it anyway.
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They can steal photos with a watermark too. The difference is with a watermark they can’t claim it as their own or that they didn’t know any better.
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Lovely photos and beautiful flowers.
I’m sorry to hear that your photos got used in attempted fraud, that’s just too bad. I’m glad you found out at least. I must admit I find the watermarks distracting though.
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That last shot really shows why it’s called a SUNflower. Beautiful!
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Lovely flowers! They are all so pretty.
That’s sad about your photos being stolen. I like this watermark. It isn’t too intrusive and you have to do something. Right? I heard the other thing you can do is to upload low-res photos. That makes them virutally useless…well, except if you are trying to defraud someone you probably don’t care about the quality. But hey, what do I know, my photos aren’t nice enough to steal. 😉
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Great photos. You are brilliant with your watermark, I have no clue on how to even begin to do this.
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Wonderful shots of flowers!!
Here is my Saturday Snapshot post!
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Beautiful flowers!!
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lovely flowers. I always hide* a watermark very small somewhere in the photo has to be very small thou and fit in colour wise but this is why I don’t post photos online people steal good ones and try and sell them sometimes.
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I am sorry that you’ve had your photos stolen! The flowers are beautiful. Did you get the much needed rain Thursday like we did?
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Yes, we finally got rain! I have full rain barrels now too.
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The watermark isn’t so noticeable that it detracts from the beauty of the photos. (The photos and the flowers are beautiful!) I just recently learned about uploading photos to Google Images and searching for where they appear online. I have always wondered about bloggers posting photos that weren’t their own. So many people think anything that’s online should be free for the taking, unfortunately. That woman was smart not to fall for the $800 scam!
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I’m trying to get the watermark as light as possible and in a place where it can’t be cropped. That’s the only way to deter unauthorized use.
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