I’m part of the Worth1000 community and a couple of years ago I participated in a Surf and Turf competition for which the idea was to combine a land animal and sea animal into one being. Lots of hilarious things come out of that. Mine was called the Seahound and it looked like this:

Seahound

Courtesy obligates me to mention that neither of the two images I used to create the above one were made by me. See below for the two sources. I have no way of retracing who the original photographers of these pictures were. I found them through a Google search when I came up with the idea of making a Seahound. Uses like this, non-commercial, supposedly fall under the creative commons license, meaning (in short) that, as long as the user doesn’t sell the derivative image onwards and doesn’t use it for commercial purposes, it is okay to use the source images. This image ended up 8th (out of 73) in the contest, with seven even more hilarious ones going first.

Seahound sources

Occasionally I do a Reverse Image Search on my work (typically the stuff that IS my own and COULD be used commercially) through Tineye and see if anything comes up. Several times something did come up, but nothing close to the results that were returned on this particular image. Together with a good number of other images from this competition it came up on a wide variety of sites, among which websites that sell backgrounds for cellphones and such.

Dilemma, then. What to do?
This is my image, I created it. But it it’s not completely my image, because I used source images that aren’t my own. Should I pursue this? Should I find out what I can do about it? Someone out there IS making money of images that aren’t his/her.
Kind of frustrating it is. And the biggest problem is that most likely the servers that host these images are based in some obscure country where the laws in these matters aren’t taken too seriously. And if for whatever miraculous reason they would reply to emails, or if for whatever miraculous reason the websites would be taken down, then they would simply set up another website within a couple of days.
Carrying water to the sea, that would be.

So… as you’ve noticed before in some of my posts I’m a big fan of Jim Carrey, and I’ll quote that favorite quote of mine from Liar Liar again:

…so what I am going to do is piss and moan like an impotent jerk, and then bend over and take it up the tailpipe!

Cows are probably one of the most photographed animals. And one of the most prominently visible animals on funny post cards and stuff. Why?
They’re so dang curious and they stuff their nose IN your lens if only you give them the opportunity.

I was out with the wide angle and that makes things even worse, because you get in so close and when you look through the view finder you don’t realize how close you are really… Until you get a wet slimy slobber on your glass.
But nonetheless… got myself a couple of those post cards

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/13, Sigma 10-20mm, on-camera flash

D700, ISO200, 1/180 sec @ f/13, Sigma 10-20mm, on-camera flash

You’ve got something stuck….. (discretely pointing at teeth)

D700, ISO200, 1/2000 sec @ f/2, Nikkor 50mm, on-camera flash (fill)

It’s not always all easy and lazy, photographing cats lazying on a warm lamp or on the bed. Sometimes it takes a bit more than just pulling the camera out of the bag.
Our friends have a beautiful German Shepherd. She was quite patient and willing and jumped up and down in the snow for the most part of an hour while I tried to get the right shots, which in the end wasn’t all that easy, focusing in the dark on a moving subject… But… in the end I think I managed to get a few good ones anyway.

D700, ISO3200, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x SB-800 fired remotely on both sides of the dog.

D700, ISO3200, 1/250 sec @ f/4, Nikkor 70-200mm, 2x SB-800 fired remotely on both sides of the dog

So I did a couple of those, here and there. You saw a few posts ago the ones I did in Portland, and quite a while back the ones of our own cats. And they keep on being a source of inspiration.
They’re a pair of silly, and curious beings, that surprise you all the time with the funkiest stuff, or the weirdest positions, or whatever… One of their favorite spots is on the light on the aquarium, because it’s warm and nice, and they just squeeze up behind a flower pot which is standing there. And when we’re sitting at the dining table having breakfast, you get these kinds of peek-a-boo moments when they hear or smell something…

D200, ISO100, 1/250 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm, off-camera SB-800

D700, ISO1600, 1/90 sec @ f/2.8, Nikkor 70-200mm