I was just glad I could upload a photo at all. I have been sorry to see photobucket photos be expired. There are old threads where the photos would have been so instructive, but sadly no longer are visible. I can see I'm no help. People are kind here. If we post Jr High level photos, even they can be endearing. We have nothing to be ashamed of.

The problem with photobucket and other hosting sites is twofold (or maybe more). If one moves a file from where it was originally used, that picture disappears from the post. This happens a lot and on older threads I'm sure the poster doesn't even know! However, Photobucket and a few other recently started charging for hosting any photos, whereas before there was a certain amount for free. They demanded payment to retrieve one's own files and many people weren't prepared to do that. That's why there's suddenly a huge number of posts without pics. I agree that it makes some threads basically useless. I would try dropbox. They still have some free storage.

My pictures are bad, in general, and I often can't get a wide shot that I'm not embarrassed about, but if it helps someone, I'm game.

I didn't know that Photobucket and others were charging for hosting photos. Flickr still doesn't, but I think Houzz wants the content to be theirs, all theirs...

To be fair, though, posts with missing photos are often useless, so I think the answer would be to check for any possible safety and privacy issues before posting, say, by cropping out or blurring house numbers or other identifying features.

And as Sheila says, the quality of a photo shouldn't be a deterrence. Most of us aren't professional photographers, and we can still learn a lot from less-than-picture-perfect (ahem) plant photos.

Vape, you are too modest- your photos are lovely. I agree that wide shots are usually the hardest.

Virginia

Just to make you feel better, Newbie. I post some awful pictures sometimes, and I’ve gotten over it. Don’t worry about it. I agree about the privacy thing, but don’t fret over less than perfect pictures. Yesterday one of mine posted upside down, I just left it and wrote, “Sorry, I don’t know what happened here.” Another time I was scrolling through my phone looking for a certain picture and somehow posted a picture of a random cake stand that I had just bought. People thought it was hilarious and said “just leave it, it’s funny.” Some of my pictures are blurry or have a mess of garden paraphernalia in the background. I try to do my best and don’t sweat the rest. We’re happy to see ALL pictures:) Welcome! Lisa

Thank you, everybody, for responding and for your encouragement! Actually, I wasn't worried about posting poor photos - I know you're all very forgiving! :-) - but more about what people might do with the pictures (not you guys! But since Houzz is public, anyone can see the pictures & save them).

I don't mind genuine gardener friends saving the photos & enjoying them - but I have had bad experiences in the past of my photos being stolen for commercial use. One company in the U.S. even took a picture of me & my dog and used it to advertise their pet funeral service website! My poor dog wasn't even dead!! I only found out because a reader alerted me. It was really poor taste. Another dog kennel stole one of my photos and used it to advertise their services. I was really upset about that as I had no idea if their service was any good and I didn't want them using an image of my dog to endorse their business.

Besides which - there is the copyright issue. Again, as I said, I don't mind "genuine" gardeners enjoying the photos and even using them privately if it gives them pleasure - and I'm more than happy to share if it helps provide information to others - but I don't think it's right for businesses to steal photos and use them without permission, especially if they're going to benefit financially from it. I'm very sensitive to the copyright issue as I make my living based on licensing intellectual property that I've created.

Sigh. I know I'm probably being silly. It's just because I've had those bad experiences - I'm a bit paranoid now. I think Marlorena is right - I guess if I'm really worried about privacy & copyright, I shouldn't post any nice photos. I really wanted to share some pictures of my newly planted roses and introduce myself & my garden a bit - and I thought this is one place where I can find like-minded people who would understand and not be bored stiff by me rambling on about my new roses - haha!

I admit that is somewhat irksome when your photos get used in such a manner. Recently I discovered two of my photos have been used by nurseries to sell plants, one in France and one in Scotland. You feel like complaining but I let it pass.

I also like to feel charitable though, and if it helps to sell a rose, and they are reputable businesses, then I try not to mind too much.

I'm also concerned about neighbouring properties getting in my pictures as they don't ask to be in them and so I try hard to avoid that.

I'm sure we would like to see your roses when you feel ready.

At least we know your dog is very attractive, newbie, or all these businesses wouldn't be stealing his picture. I'm not going to tell my dog, who is probably more average so she doesn't feel like a reject. We have another member who also is very sensitive about copyright issues, which is completely understandable when you make your living this way.

Hah! Thanks, Sheila, for the compliment. I'm sure it's not true about your dog at all!! I think all dogs are gorgeous in their own ways - especially their eyes - such lovely expressions.

My dog was a Great Dane and yes, she was a beautiful girl - very expressive face. She's gone to the Rainbow Bridge now but when she was alive, she had a very popular dog blog and we had quite a lot of readers/followers (to the point where pet companies were approaching me to sell them advertising space)... so I didn't like having her image on things without permission, as it might have been interpreted as a recommendation or endorsement from us - which would have been awful if the business wasn't ethical.

And yes, I am very sensitive about copyright as it is how I make my living. It's a form of stealing, really, if the images or text or design are used for commercial gain without permission. It takes the artist a long time & effort to create their "products" - so it's sickening when others benefit from it financially. It's really no different to someone breaking into your shop and stealing a lot of your stock to go and sell somewhere else. I know it's hard for people to see it that way because it's an intangible product, but intellectual property does have a value.

There are loads of stock image sites where you can license images for a low fee so I think any proper business should just make use of those. Or if they really want to use your image, they should contact you to ask for permission. You might be perfectly happy to let them use your image for free - as Marlorena said above - but at least, it was done with your permission. You've effectively licensed its use.

Yes, now I understand your concern. You’re perfectly right to be concerned about that, especially since it’s already happened to you before. I don’t have to worry about that. No one’s going to be stealing my pictures anytime soon! Lisa

Isn't there something like a watermark that can be placed on photos to indicate the photographer? I have a couple pro-photog friends who do that; if the photograph is appropriated, the thief cannot claim they "didn't know."

My photo was twice used without permission on the COVER of a widely-distributed rose catalog. I think they thought it was okay - and it was because I laughed and laughed - because you had to know what I look like from the back bent over to sniff a low-growing rose. I wasn't aware a camera was near, so my posterior was held high, affording an extra good view of my floral print skirt. The beautiful flower-decorated chapeau I sported was, alas, obscured by my rising feature.

You could always add watermarks.....

Personally, my pics aren't usually of the quality worth stealing. I take them with an old iPhone, upload to Facebook with the rose's name, and later download into a temporary folder on my laptop to upload in my posts here. After I "submit" the post, I delete the files in the temporary folder.

Keeping them on Facebook is free -- though the albums do fill up to capacity eventually, I just start a new one. And the "date added" label is how I'm able to go back and use older photos in threads to show how a rose grew over time. My Facebook page is private except for friends, but I do keep my garden albums public because I will sometimes share them on Facebook groups. I suppose when I'm taking better-quality pictures will be when I start watermarking, but for now, this works for me.

:-)

~Christopher

Hi Newbie - I think another way you could do this is upload your photos to HelpMeFind (which assigns you the ownership and copyright for the photo) and then post a link to the photo on Houzz. This would be a bit more inconvenient for the Houzz readers, since they would have to click a link to see the photo, but it would protect your ownership of the pictures.

So sorry for my late response and thank you, everybody, for your thoughts and suggestions! I really appreciate it.

I was really hoping for a way to embed the photos in the posts - rather than link to them elsewhere, which is a hassle for everybody to go and see it. But it looks like I'll have to use the Houzz upload function if I want to insert photos directly into the post.

That's a good idea about a watermark! Maybe I'll do that. I know thieves can still cut around the watermark (unless you cover the whole image) - but at least it might make some people pause and think twice, plus - as Dara said, thieves can't ever claim that they "didn't know" once the copyright symbol is on the photo.

Thanks again, everybody. I think I'm going to have to just live with the risk, if I'd like to share photos.