A while back I saw a post on Facebook from a school and the kids at the school were trying to see how far they could get an image to travel online. After perusing the comments, it was obvious the image had traveled far and wide. I’m sure you’ve often heard about the perils of posting images online that you may one day regret. Once an image or video is posted online, it takes on a life of its own and can spread to far off places, even if the original content is deleted from the internet. This got me thinking, ‘How far has my work traveled?’ To answer my question, I researched some of my images and videos. For images, you can do a reverse image search to see where the image is posted on the internet. My crystal ball image is, by far, my most ‘popular’ image on the internet. On some of the shares of this image, my watermark is still intact and there is some sort of credit back to my original post. However, this is also probably my most stolen image as well with most versions cropped to eliminate the watermark or edited out completely. This image has been used on everything from generic web page banners to pornography sites. It used to bother me that my image was being used on other pages without the watermark or consent. After a while however, I found it more entertaining than upsetting. In fact, I have since stopped watermarking my work. I’m still intrigued how this image is seen as erotic enough to be used on porn sites, but hey, to each their own. A lot of light painting sites use this image to link to tutorials about light painting in general without ever using the image in the tutorial itself. I guess it could be considered a click-bait image. In addition to the use of the exact image itself, a reverse image search also yields images that are similar in composition. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised as the YouTube tutorial for this image is one of my most watched videos. A few individuals have also contacted me about images and tutorials (here and here) they created as a result. Although it is far from being a ‘viral’ image, I still think the attention it gets is cool and I love it when others contact me to share their results, most of which are absolutely stunning! Click on images to be directed to artist's site, if available.A lot of my food and unique portrait photography seems to wind up on Pinterest quite a bit in ‘idea’ type folders. The levitating hamburger and fruit drops images appear to be the most shared images on Pinterest boards. The nice thing about Pinterest is that the images are usually added to Pinterest boards from one of the original source images so the link back to the original post is usually intact. Several of my Halloween images wound up on scary Pinterest and Hiveminer pages as well. I am currently working on a series of images related to diabetes that I’m hoping finds a wide audience for awareness purposes. Videos are a completely different beast. Although I upload my videos exclusively to YouTube and Facebook, I have discovered that there are numerous other video sharing sites that have picked up my videos. My three most watched videos are the steel wool and fire light painting video, the how to make colored powder video, and the crystal ball tutorial video mentioned above. Each of these videos has been posted and shared to more sites than I have time to chase down. Some sites will even allow you to download the entire video, which I think is kind of cool! My Greek Goddess Iris video has also been shared on a conspiracy theorist’s Facebook page. Maybe I accidentally inserted some illuminati symbols in there? That one is still a head-scratcher. Statistics for my YouTube channel indicate that the majority of my audience is 25-34 years old and predominantly male (76%). Interestingly enough, the United States is not the top viewing Country – c’mon peeps! India holds that spot with 26% followed by the US at 20%. It blows my mind that people in Greece, Russia, Finland, Hong Kong, Chile, among some 50 other countries, actually watch my videos (a huge reason why I try and include closed captioning/subtitles on my videos for translation purposes). It also makes it interesting trying to respond to questions in different languages. Fortunately, there are several online translation sites that I use often. I just pray they’re translating my responses correctly. Technology has made our world seem a lot smaller (the jury is still out on if that is a good thing or a bad thing). The fact that you can post an image or video that can make its way around the world really is an interesting phenomenon. When I started photography, so many other artists from around the world influenced my creative process and the fact that I am now sparking creative ideas in other individuals half way around the globe is beyond rewarding. I can attest to the school’s experiment that an image or video can travel much further than anticipated and probably a lot quicker than expected as well. If you’re an artist and want to share your work with as many individuals as possible, post it online! If you have an image or video you’re not sure you want popping up years from now, keep it under wraps. Once it’s out, there’s no bringing it back. And if your picture winds up being used on the banner of a porn website, don’t be surprised!
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SteeleKeep the interesting parts of life in focus. Archives
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