Category: Photography

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To Watermark or Not to Watermark Images For Sale

Some say watermarks deter buyers from purchasing Art, others say it doesn’t.

It’s true that there are many comments on line leaning one way or the other. What I tend to do is listen to those with the most experience. Should I listen to folks who sell a couple dozen works a year or the folks who sell thousands of pieces a year. Amazon, eBay, Fine Art America and ImageKind, who sell thousands of units have run A/B tests and have determined that watermarking degrades sales. They are not artists with egos – they are Internet marketers looking to improve the bottom line.

Indian River Inlet Bridge
Charles W. Cullen Bridge at Indian River Inlet – with an example of my usual watermark.

In my case, I choose to NOT watermark the images I upload for sale at Imagekind or Fine Art America and other POD (Print On Demand) art companies. If the unscrupulous want to steal an image – they will – and there is nothing you or I can do to stop them. Anyone with rudimentary image editing skills can remove your watermark in a matter of minutes.

On the other hand I DO watermark images that I post to social media and on other websites. Why, you ask? Well, there I want people to see where the image can be found. My watermarks include a URL – in most cases my USPictures.com domain. I can have that domain point to whichever POD I choose (and I can change that at any time).

CLICK: Bill Swartwout Photography

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Social Distancing as a Photographer

Unique times and a call for Social Distancing to help keep everyone healthy.

We are currently experiencing another epidemic turned pandemic around the globe. As a preventative means to help mitigate the spread of this COVID-19 Coronavirus, we have been asked to keep a safe distance from one another. How we all do this is a matter of choice and/or regulation. Social distancing in photography for me is what I usually practice – because I am, primarily, a landscape/seascape photographer.

Some of my best-selling works are of landmark bridges on Delmarva. That’s the “eastern shore” portions of Maryland and Virginia plus the State of Delaware. I live in southern Delaware so the bridge closest to our home (15 minutes) is also my favorite subject. I have some buyers who own both of these “bridges” and display them on the walls in their homes.

Likely one of the best-known bridges on the East Coast is the Chesapeake Bay Bridge in Maryland.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge at Twilight

Another (very) popular bridge is the Charles W. Cullen Bridge across the Indian River Inlet at the Delaware Seashore State Park in southern coastal Delaware. It is quite popular because it is located at a wonderful beach destination and is visited by hundreds of thousands of people annually.

Indian River Inlet Bridge at Twilight

At the very southern end of Delmarva is an engineering marvel known as the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel. The 17.6 mile bridge-tunnel crosses the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, connecting Cape Charles with Virginia Beach, Virginia.

Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel

When out and about photographing these, and similar, locations I am usually alone. There are seldom people near me when I find “the right” locations from which to photograph some of my favorite landscape and seascape scenes. It appears that I have been practicing “Social Distancing” for much of my photography career. However, when there are other people about and it’s difficult to social distance, you’ll see me wearing a face mask to help keep us all safer.

Please visit my online gallery at Bill Swartwout Photography to see more of my work. To see my photographs on jigsaw, puzzles and other items please visit my Zazzle Store.

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Bill Swartwout Photography at the Imagekind Marketplace

Bill’s photographs are part of one of the world’s fastest-growing art gallery sites.

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I’ve been working on revamping my gallery at Imagekind, where I first began selling my photography online 13 years ago. Specializing in wall art, Imagekind produces high quality decor at a competitive pricing structure. Please visit Travel.Imagekind.com to check out my new look.

Imagekind is an online marketplace for independent artists and photographers. Art buyers can discover new art prints and posters from tens of thousands of unique and independent artists from around the world at Imagekind.com, one of the world’s fastest-growing art sites. Offering nearly two million high-quality fine art images, customers can select unframed, framed and canvas wall art prints by color, style, or to match home décor.

From my point of view, Imagekind.com offers independent artists and photographers (like me) the opportunity to display and sell art online with no up-front fees, and the profit from each sale goes directly to the artist (me).

Imagekind’s gallery-quality giclee digital printing is recognized as best-in-class.  There are. literally, millions of combinations of artwork, frames, and paper types, and canvasses so you, the customer, can see why Imagekind.com is a one-of-a-kind art destination.

I currently have more than 600 different art photographs available at Imagekind. They are organized into a variety of collections (sub-galleries) to help you narrow your search. If I do not have exactly what you are looking for you can also search among those other thousands of artists to find the wall art of your dreams. Please be sure to visit my gallery at Imagekind. Click: Travel.Imagekind.comm.