NaBiD - Frequently asked questions

Photographs

• Who owns photographs after I donate them for use on the web site?
• The photograph I donated is not being displayed every time. Why?
• I am a commercial photographer. Will you buy my photos?
• What subject matter do you prefer for photographs?
• So much for photographs. What about drawings?

• Who owns photographs after I donate them for use on the web site?
  You are and remain the sole copyright holder of your own photographs. We only require that you grant us the right to use them on the Namibian Biodiversity Database web site. Your submission of your photographs implies your agreement to this. Our right to continue using any of your photographs may be cancelled at any time at your discretion (but we hope not). We reserve the right to make your photo web-friendly by reducing resolution, changing format, or cropping if necessary, while still keeping it looking good. We also reserve the right not to use any submitted photograph. We undertake not to display a photo on the site without crediting the photographer / copyright holder. You accept that your photographs will be used on a publicly accessable web site, and that, by the time a visitor sees your photo, it had already been downloaded onto their computer. We have no control over how they may subsequently use or misuse it, or not.


• The photograph I donated is not being displayed every time. Why?
  
  We have space to display up to three photographs per species at a time. If there are more than three photos available, the program will select three of those at random. These three will be different every time the page is visited - convince yourself by clicking the 'Refresh' button in your browser and see how the selection changes. All photos, yours included, have an equal chance of being displayed during any given visit. (There is also a link on species level pages that allows viewing of all images for that particular species).
  The pictures displayed for higher categories are similarly selected at random from the included lower categories, up to a maximum of three. If a higher category includes many species but few have pictures, it will usually not display any. On the other hand, if pictures are available for most species in a group, some will always be displayed.


• I am a commercial photographer. Will you buy my photos?
  
  No, but we might still be able to help each other. Consider this: if you donate a photo, you will be credited every time the photo displays. This is free advertising for you. In addition, we can format the credit as a link, either to your own web site, or to your email address. Your photo on our site then becomes a 'teaser' that could send clients in your direction. We cannot guarantee that your turnover will increase, but at the very least your visibility in the niche market for biodiversity images will be enhanced.
  To optimise your exposure, you should consider how our display system works (previous question). A single photo of a rare, seldom-photographed species is guaranteed to display every time that species page is visited, but one photo among many for a commonly-photographed species will be competing for display time with many similar ones. On the other hand, well-known or popular or newsworthy species will have their pages visited more often than obscure species. Since all photos have an equal chance of being displayed, having more visitors means that your photo is seen more often, despite there being other photos for the same species. Therefore, a mix of photographs of both rare and popular species might be the best strategy to give yourself maximum coverage.
  Incidentally, if you are unsure of the species identification in your photograph, we might be able to help by accessing our worldwide network of expert taxonomist collaborators.


• What subject matter do you prefer for photographs?
  
  If it's a living being occurring in Namibia, we are interested. If it can be identified to species level, we are definitely interested. Beyond that, it's up to you. We will accept images of:
  • Whole plants or animals
  • Distinctive parts of animals or plants - e.g. a portrait, or the flowers or fruit
  • Products, signs or structures - tracks, dung, nests, etc.
  • Museum or herbarium specimens
  The only things that are problematic are:
  • Images that include more than one species, and give equal prominence to both
  • Images that were obviously not made in Namibia, e.g., Mount Kilimanjaro in the background


• So much for photographs. What about drawings?
  
  Everything said for photographs above can be applied to drawings, too. For many microscopic taxa, no photograph can rival the clarity of a good scientific illustration. We would gladly accept any such illustrations, but of whole organisms only - the figures of minor morphological details found in most taxonomical papers would not be appropriate here. While we remain appreciative of subjective and interpretative art, we will only use objective scientific illustrations.