Early this morning I was procrastinating and avoiding doing my weekly Leading Off. While on Facebook, I came across Justin Terveen’s composite of some of the lightning from last night’s storm. I wanted to include the photo in Leading Off, so I shot Terveen a message asking if I may. He asked me to link to it instead of posting it. I didn’t see his response in time, and just posted Leading Off without his image.
Then I woke up this morning to find his composite everywhere. It’s all over Facebook, all over Twitter, and all over the blogs and news sites. I later got a message from Terveen telling me I can use the photo however I’d like because others were taking it without asking. I asked him how that made him feel. “I lost money,” he typed. “But at the same time, I don’t want to be too petty about it. A shot like this is bound to go viral, and for that I should be honored and thankful (and I am), but people need to remember their manners.”
Terveen is great to upload his photos, giving us the option of bigger files. He never puts watermarks on his art. Please don’t make him rethink how he does his work. Please do as he says and remember your manners. (And check out his work here.)
