I suppose its flattering to have a picture selected to be used for a travel guide. It just happened to me the other day because of a picture I took and posted on Flickr. The managing editor of Schmap Guides sent me an email asking permission for “inclusion in the second edition of our Schmap Italy Guide, to be published mid-April 2008″. While I’m not getting paid for this and it helps their commercial venture, I decided I’d let them use it. Here’s the picture they liked:


Santa Maria Novella

Famous for its elaborate facade of inlaid black-and-white marble, Florence’s Santa Maria Novella church contains works by Ghiberti, Brunelleschi, Masaccio, Giotto and others.


One reason why I had no reservations against it was after my iPod cases got popular, I realized that pictures regularly get copied around the Internet without any asking beforehand. Case in point, my photos of my iPod cases on Etsy or Flickr were copies all over the place. After the very popular high tech and gadget site Gizmodo posted an article titled “Hand-Carved Wooden iPod Cases Deliver a Touch of Class”, a large number of other sites picked up on it and also copied my photos. I’m sure I only know about some of those sites too (at least I was referred to as a “talented Massachusetts artist”).

For those interested, here’s a short list of sites who picked up and reported on my iPod cases: