Customer Photo - Natalie in Adelaide

It's customer photo time again!  This time a glimpse into the office of Natalie in Adelaide.  I love the cute little floral paintings on the other wall - so sweet!  Thanks Natalie for sharing! :) 

Customer Photo - Emma from Tyne & Wear

Another beautiful customer photo from Emma in Tyne & Wear!  I love the wallpaper - it's such a delicious colour and the paisley is so pretty!  The lovebirds painting was a commissioned piece to fit with the colours Emma had chosen for the room.

Using Google Images to see where your images are online

I've spoken to a few artists and makers lately who've had their images taken and used without permission.

Sometimes it may be a relatively harmless occurrence, with perhaps a blogger or Facebook user posting a photo without realising they ought to ask for permission.  Other times it's more serious and damaging to the artist where there have been Facebook pages and websites set up using images and offering to create replicas of handmade items or prints of original artworks cheaply.

Whilst there are a number of things people can do to try and prevent such theft - such as watermarking photographs, it's not 100% foolproof.  After all, artists and makers need to make sure their images are presented nicely enough for people to want to buy their products and if somebody is determined enough and is able to use Photoshop, they can get round watermarks to a degree.

Quite a big part of the problem is that the owner of the images often doesn't even know their images are being used.  This is where Google comes in.  When I was discussing it, quite a few people seemed unaware of the function in Google Images whereby you could search for copies of your image that had been indexed by Google.  What's more, you could even use it to try and track down the original artist of a piece photographed if you wanted to.  It's really easy as you'll see from these instructions:

1. Go to Google Images, or go to Google and click on Images at the top of the screen.  Then in the search bar click on the little camera icon (as pictured below).

2. Decide whether to paste the URL (web location address) of the image or to upload it from your computer or device, then click search.  

3. Hey presto! Google returns a list of all the places it knows of that have your image.  

That's about it!  I know it won't help prevent people from taking your images but at least if you know about it, you can begin to do something about it.  And perhaps if people know that they're more likely to get found out, they'll be less inclined to take images in the first place.   

November Giveaway: Win a Free Signed Print

I'm pleased to announce my first giveaway promotion for which I'm offering a free signed print worth £12.50 + shipping.  You can choose which print design you want and you can view all the available prints here.  The giveaway is open to everyone including people outside of the UK.

All you need to do is sign-in below using your Facebook account or email address and then choose to follow me on Twitter, Like my Facebook page, comment on my blog post, or tell your friends by tweeting about it.  You can increase your chances of winning by doing all four.  You can also increase your chances of winning by tweeting about it again on different days.

Don't worry if you've already liked my Facebook page or have already followed, simply click to show you're already a follower and you'll be entered.  You can also increase your chances of winning by tweeting about it again on different days.

Hopefully that's all clear!  If not then let me know and I'll do my best to answer your questions!

Entries close on the 16th November and I'll use Rafflecopter to randomly select the winner.  Finally, your details will only be used to contact you if you win.  They won't be used for email marketing or for selling or passing on to any third parties.

Best of luck!

Louise

a Rafflecopter giveaway