Dr. Google to the rescue

Or not?

As you may have guessed, photography grabs me these days. I don’t expect everyone to enjoy my photographs but I find the constant changes of life so interesting. I welcome feedback as I am completely intuitive about taking shots (a theme in my life these days), hoping to improve with more attempts.

I am on a number of photo groups on Facebook because so many folks produce such gorgeous works. I show my work because I love colour, I love showing off Spa Creek, and sharing places I have had the chance to see like Bangkok and Malta. It keeps me off the streets as well.

I have been selling my favourite photographs on 4”x6” blank notecards for about a year after a friend suggested I work with her own card business. Turned out Whole Foods either did not want my shots or were adamant about sticking to her pen and ink drawings but that effort did not last so she and I terminated our collaboration in June. As a result, my puny notecard business has been primarily word of mouth, thrilling me each and every time someone actually finds them pretty enough to buy. Life is good but it’s definitely not raising my taxes substantially these days.

Late yesterday afternoon, after I finished my ACC column, I received a request from some guy wanting to buy six to eight of my photos. Wow. Over a couple of back and forth messages, he said he wants to pay me big money for these photos as long as they are natural and they will go into stock photos for some company somewhere.

Huh. Pay me multi thousands of dollars for natural pictures that will go into stock photography. Wow.

And, of course, there was a website he recommends I sign on to for us to start this process.

Yes, yes, I sent him a response this morning. I told him I recognise a scam when I see it.

If something sounds too good, it probably is. Fair opening perspective.

I was in Seattle last August when a similar but smoother run on my photos occurred. That was my first experience with the rush of thinking I could make some money, though I came to my senses once I could not understand in my limited way why ‘she’ (who knows who is really initiated either of these conversations) needed to use a site that I could not verify. (duh) I blocked the person on Twitter and have heard subsequently how common this scam is.

The approach yesterday was slightly different with the twist of sending these photographs to a stock company. I could not find evidence the linked method was definitely illegitimate but decided to err on the side of caution.

I raise this instance to bemoan how common our distrust of others has become. How often do we each use Dr. Google to check reviews on items? On photograph sites? On doctors or dentists? On anything? Why are we willing to privilege crowd-sourced reviews from people who don’t know at all? Sure, one ought to check the Better Business Bureau and other organisations like Trustpilot.com (or countless others) but are those really any more appropriate for us? How do we draw lines for what we are willing to trust or to reject?

In other words, does Dr. Google give us a false sense of security?

Our world does not offer perfection, no matter how hard we try to achieve it. We ought use vigilance in every aspect of our lives even though we prefer finding some shortcuts to protect us. It’s just the way it is but we probably prefer erring on missing out on the big bucks instead of opening the door to a scammer emptying our bank account. Yet all of this contributes to our cynicism, our weariness, and our sense of futility about the world we live in.

To do otherwise, likely would incur pretty poor results. Think about the poor mother working to put food on the table who doesn’t have access to Dr. Google (yes, there are folks who lack that) or time to research the countless options.

Thank you for reading ACC today. I welcome your thoughts on this column or any other. I especially thank the subscribers who support my work. Pleae feel free to circulate this to anyone who might enjoy it.

It’s cloudy on the Creek this morning so I will offer some colour from yesterday afternoon that I discovered on an Eastport Walkabout.

Be well and be safe. FIN