Where in the world wide Web are your photos?

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Where in the world wide Web are your photos?

Amateur photographers are finding their work showing up in interesting places

By Omar L. Gallaga

AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

Sunday, August 10, 2008

On Feb. 23, 2007, Matt Wright, a young freelancer who was working in Austin at the time, took a photo of Barack Obama.

Maybe you've seen it.

The image, taken backstage after a rally at Auditorium Shores, shows the Democratic presidential candidate with his head cocked to the side, wearing a black cowboy hat. A sea of young people are snapping his photo with phones and pocket cameras.

Wright remembers the mob scene around Obama breaking up; a perfectly composed shot began to form. He was on the phone with his girlfriend. "I said, 'Hold on, babe, I gotta call you back.'

"The crowd parted. He tipped his hat. I shot it real quick. It's one of the few instances when I knew I had taken a really great photo."

Even though he was freelancing for Texas Observer, Wright retained the rights to all his photos. He posted the photo on the Observer's blog and on the photo-sharing Web site Flickr.com.

Within 24 hours, the photo was being linked to, used on political blogs and passed along in e-mails. To date, the image has earned Wright about $1,000 and has been used in magazines, in advertising for a cowboy hat vendor and in a Los Angeles gallery exhibit called "Presidents and Cowboys." It was also used on several Web sites without permission and without a credit.

FULL STORY: http://www.statesman.com/life/content/life...0810photos.html