I have been having fun building a few websites where the pictures and text actually tell a story.  Usually our online business sites are collections of pictures with a central theme, but no "story".

I recently had the opportunity to photograph a partially woven Navajo Rug which was still on the loom.  Since we collected Navajo rugs for many years I know something about their weaving process.  It was fun to have a story to tell with the pictures to "jog" my memory as I wrote.

Years ago we purchased a Navajo rug weaver doll of the kind made for tourists.  Comparing the doll to the photos of the actual Navajo rug on it's loom made it easy to illustrate how true to life the doll actually is.

We took our grandkids to the state fair this year and one of the highlights for me (still a kid at heart I guess) is the mother pig with piglets which is always featured.  This year I had my camera with me so when one of the piglets got lost and had trouble finding where she was supposed to go for dinner I could take pictures of her frantic search.  Pig Pictures is the result. In the picture below you can see her trying to get help from Mom.

Someday I might get adventuresome and try recording these kinds of events with a movie camera.  However, I find still pictures show much more detail and are easier to edit.  They also allow visitors to spend as much or as little time as they want with each pictures.  In my experience movies either go by to fast for subjects I am really interested in, and to slowly for topics of general interest.

In the process of developing Walking Rain Gallery I looked at most of the stock photo websites and forced myself to read through their terms of service and allowable uses.  It was NOT fun and after hours of reading I remain as confused as I had been.

They advertise products in ways that make them seem free or inexpensive.  However, when you start to explore exactly what that means things get very confusing.  Can you take one of their pictures and use it to produce a line of greeting cards?  What exactly is commercial use?

I came away feeling that if I used one of their images for a profit making venture I would always have to plan to pay.

In a world of inexpensive digital cameras and essentially unlimited cloud storage I don't think digital pictures have the same uniqueness images did at one time.  Certainly, there are photographic artists who take pictures worthy to be called art, and they deserve compensation for their work.  However, that seems like a very tiny universe of pictures.

I think there should be a way for a photographer to profit from their work without imposing so many restrictions on buyers.  I will see if I can make that work on Walking Rain Gallery.