Hey Y’all-
I’m sure you’ve heard this crazy story by now, but if you haven’t, here is an excerpt from the blog Extraordinary Mommy:
“So, this is the price we pay for indulging in social media, I guess.
I am thrilled to have reconnected with so many friends on Facebook. One of them sent me this message yesterday:
Alright, so how’s this for random: I’m in the car, taking my wife for a check up, pass by a new grocery store and notice that they have a picture of you, your husband and two kids on the store front window. Life size. I kid you not. Will take a photo of it later today and send….
What you don’t know from this message: this college friend lives in the CZECH REPUBLIC.
Clearly, my family did NOT take a picture for any advertisements – either here or abroad. And, clearly, whoever hijacked the picture assumed no one would recognize us so far away. Hmmmm…wrong.”
You can check out more details of Danielle’s story on her blog, but the reason I’m writing about this, is that I’m probably making the same mistakes with my images. Details that probably should have been completely obvious to me have escaped my usually fine mind.
I’ve seen watermarks on photos and thought, “Wow, that looks great…” and briefly thought about creating my own. A fleeting thought soon pushed out of my brain by other, more pressing things. And I never knew that using high resolution images would attract poaching of said images. Just seems crazy to me, but there’s a lot of crazy people out there anyway, yes?
To defeat the crazies, click here for a thorough tutorial on how to watermark your own images. And below is a new design I’ve created for a Summer line (to be added v. soon) with my new watermark.
I struggle with the balance of sharing enough personal information to keep things interesting with enough privacy to make my family and myself comfortable and protected. It’s great to reach out and make connections with people that are scattered all over the world… But the core of who you are, whether it’s just yourself, or a family you’ve created, is the most important thing to keep safe, happy and as carefree as possible.
I feel for Danielle at Extraordinary Mommy. It’s an experience that could have easily happened to me and from reading the aftermath of her story, it’s been an interesting and sometimes difficult journey. I thank her for getting me thinking about what I’m creating and sharing on-line. Hope it helps you too!
