Flower close-up shot that prevented me from contributing to stock websites.

Flower closeup

This is the close-up shot of an image I took in Japan. This is THE close-up shot I contributed to my first stock image website. I can’t remember the exact site as it was years ago. I think it was Adobe Stock.

So imagine after contributing two images, I would obviously feel proud that my photos are at the level to get accepted into stock websites. I searched for this exact flower image on the website to see the statistics and more.

As luck would have it, a few copies of the same images came up in the search. Some had more saturation, some with different edits, but they were all the same image. What are the odds of different people contributing the same photo and perspective?! The sinking feeling of having my photo used to resell remained persistent. You get paid for the number of downloads, but what if other photos take away the downloads from your own? Is this legal? Did I waive any rights under the T&C?!

I did not bother to research more on this, but the possibility that it could happen dithers me from any further contribution from then on.

So, I continued to work with my photography website instead (which I have revamped a bit).

What are your thoughts on this?

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