What is this site?
We hope it will eventually become a repository of media that you can use free of charge, for personal and commercial projects. For the moment, it’s just the promise of such a repository.
Where can we find these photos while we wait for you to figure out this site?
For the highest quality images, check out Xer’s flickr page. Unfortunately, it is almost never updated. To have the occasional photo cross your social media feeds, you can follow me as ‘Doing it for the Exposure’ on Facebook and Tumblr.
What’s the catch?
There’s two big ones.
1) You have to give proper credit when you use the media (see ‘Licensing’).
2) There’s very little here and the variety is severely limited (see ‘Variety’).
—Licensing
The free media hosted here is licensed under various Creative Commons licenses. Typically, it’ll be the Attribution license, which allows you to use the media (in part or whole, as-is or altered) for whatever you want, so long as you credit the creator and display the license of the work you used. To learn more about Creative Commons and the open media licensing project they’ve been working on for 20 years, visit creativecommons.org.
—Variety
At this point, all media hosted here is being created by one person. A person who doesn’t get out much, needs to spend much of the day in bed, and has significant issues allocating and maintaining focus. So no party shots, no properties or people that will need release forms signed, no city skylines or gleaming trails of car lights in the dark. At least not yet.
What types of media do you have?
Right now? Almost nothing. Eventually? A lot of backyard wildlife photography from the Pacific Northwest of the United States. Hopefully various macro photoshoots and collections of abstract photos. Maybe even some astrophotography. All categorized and tagged for relatively easy searching.
—Stock Photography
High resolution photographs of decent quality. Camera RAW files may be available for some images. Jpegs will typically be directly from the camera, without further processing. Photos will likely include: suburban wildlife, plants, and household/office doodads. Lenses can go from macro to super-telephoto.
—Stock Video
High and medium resolution videos. Given my lack of background in cinematography and no special equipment, these will mostly be filmed from a stationary camera on a tripod, of subjects like sleeping squirrels or running faucets or waving tree branches. I don’t know. Maybe you’ll find something useful in here. There will be super-telephoto video of the moon at various times in the lunar cycle. That’s pretty cool.
—Stock Audio
Miscellaneous audio, made by someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. Almost entirely experimental and/or environmental—except for the recordings of vocal tics, which we don’t know exactly how to classify just yet.
Why are you doing this?
Because I can. I have a bit of a background in photography (from the days of film), and I’ve wanted to get back into it for quite a while now. Finally got a semi-professional digital single lens reflex camera and a bunch of cheaper accessories. And then some more expensive accessories. And then was gifted another DSLR. And then traded an old camcorder for an old DSLR that can use the same lenses as the one I purchased the expensive lenses for.
I’m also a former graphic designer. I know all about the search for the right stock photo when the budget is zero. My camera also does video and the kit came with a microphone, so there’s a couple more types of media I can experiment with as well.
Ultimately, this media repository is a way for me to share things I create with the rest of the world. I take photos because I love taking photos. And a good part of the enjoyment comes from showing my creations to the rest of the world.
Take care of each other.
—Xer S. Rowan