photo credit: Darwin Bell

Well that was simply amazing. Like the photo above. I just downloaded and activated the new Photo Dropper Flickr WordPress plugin. I’m simply in love with it. It’s fast, easy and finds great photos that you can use for free on your blog. So no more need to search Flickr manually, download the photos, then upload to your server (like I did for the post linked above). This little tool does all of this in a matter of clicks.

For a very nice explanation of using Creative Commons photos found on Flickr, check out SkellieWag’s excellent post.

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Photo by (/-\)nniina Loves U

There are a lot of great pictures on Flickr. I am continually amazed by the quality and creativity of people out there. Frequently, while browsing Flickr, I will find photos that would be perfect for one of my blogs. But before I post the photo I check to see if it is licensed under the Creative Commons. For example, the photo above is licensed under the Attribution 2.0 Generic license, which allows me to copy, distribute and transmit the work as long as I give the photographer proper attribution. I do that with the “Photo by” credit under the picture.

So how do you determine whether a photo on Flickr is licensed with a Creative Commons license? In the sidebar to the right of the photo, look under the “Additional Information” section. There you’ll find the copyright notice. If you see “all rights reserved,” then the photographer has NOT licensed the photo with a Creative Commons license. At this point, if you really want to use the picture, then you should e-mail the photographer with a request to use it. I’ve done this with some of my other blogs and have never been turned down.

If you see “some rights reserved,” then it is licensed under a Creative Commons license. The link will take you to the CC page that describes what you can do with the photo.

Further, what’s awesome about Flickr, is that you can narrow your search to only those photos licensed under a Creative Commons license. How do you think I found the photo at the top of the page?

UPDATE: ProBlogger has a post about a WordPress Plugin that searches for Creative Commons licensed photos on Flickr all within the WordPress Software. It’s definitely one that I’ll have to check out. Actually, I’m downloading it now.

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