Why I now use watermarks on my pictures.

(…even though I truly hate it)

Me warming up with a mug of hot tea on the black rocks of Isle Royale - following an arduous and very, very wet 7.7 mile hike during his time as the Isle Royale Visiting Artist in 2024.

I have always hated watermarks on images when I’m looking through a photographer’s website. However, in the quickly evolving age of NFT development and AI-scraping, I have come to the conclusion that I need to start including watermarks on my images shared on my website. This is because they tend to be images large enough for unscrupulous people to grab and reproduce without my authorization. I have been contacted numerous times by people wanting permission to create NFTs of my images. I personally think that is a huge scam and always deny permission. However, my gut tells me that such people are likely stealing the photos anyway.

If you find it annoying to view the images in this format, I offer my sincerest apologies…I’m with you (I truly am)…and recommend that for viewing my pics in un-watermarked format (though at a very much lower-quality) please visit the social media I have linked through this website. (Though, admittedly, my social media participation may be changing soon also due to the evolving rights-grabs that the various social media are building into their user agreements.)