# Professional Photographer

> TLDR: How I accidently became a professional photographer.

Back in 7th std, my father gave me parent's started to let me use the Canon Powershot we had in our home. I simply enjoyed taking photographs, but ofcourse, I wanted to put my work out there.

One day while randomly browsing wikipedia, I saw that there was a photography contest being conducted by Wikimedia Commons.

> Wikimedia commons is a place where you can upload your work in a permissive licence which others can reuse.

Every photo had to be atleast Creative Commons BY licensed to be uploaded. I didn't mind people using my work for free because I knew these photos weren't good enough to be monetised. To be honest, I didn't think of it much, it was just me putting something out there that gave me a satisfaction of publication.

## Publicity

One of my friends, nik, one day sent a Greek research paper saying that I was credited in the paper. Supposedly he had googled my name out of boredom and saw this greek paper in which my name was given as credits under a photo.

Turns out, they had used my Chicken in the Coop photo, which had the CC BY 3.0 License, which had a clause which said that you could use the photo for any purpose as long as the creator was credited. Hence my name was on the paper as part of the caption.

Then I google dorked extensively, found that if you google "chickens in a coop" and filtered by reusable licensed pictures, my picture was second in row.

Apart from this one, my Cicada photo and my Kumbilappam photo also somehow became famous.

Look folks, my photos are being used by real people! I'm a professional photographer now lol.

> That was sarcasm. My photos are amateur at best. But people still used it.

So lesson learned. If you want to be a famous photographer, or creative artist whose work is used by people. Just start publishing stuff in reusable license. This is especially useful if you are doing something as a hobby or a sidebuisness, where you do things for the fun of it.

## Usage Spottings

Below is the list of places where I saw my name credited with one of my photos.

- https://www.travelandleisureasia.com/in/web-stories/trips/top-10-bird-sanctuaries-in-india-for-wildlife-lovers/
- https://india.mongabay.com/2023/03/commentary-as-india-faces-an-egg-shortage-can-insects-be-a-potential-solution-for-protein-and-nutrition/
- https://www.rediff.com/getahead/report/mothers-day-our-mummas-tasty-recipes/20260510.htm#:~:text=Varghese%20K%20James
- https://youtu.be/XF8vLgDZ7RQ?t=244
- https://scroll.in/article/1046348/opinion-egg-shortage-in-parts-of-india-is-a-harbinger-of-a-coming-protein-scarcity#:~:text=Varghese%20K%20James
- https://www.zmescience.com/medicine/china-confirms-first-human-case-of-h3n8-bird-flu-strain/#:~:text=Varghese%20K%2E%20James
- https://www.idntimes.com/science/discovery/5-serangga-yang-hidup-di-rawa-area-lembap-jadi-favoritnya-c1c2-01-b11wj-325p4g#:~:text=Varghese%20K%20James
- https://treevitalize.com/types-of-coconut-trees-identification/#:~:text=Varghese%20K%20James
- https://www.todaystraveller.net/more-to-goan-food-than-fish-curry-rice/#:~:text=Varghese%20K%20James
- https://es.gizmodo.com/la-proxima-oleada-de-cigarras-periodicas-de-cada-17-anos-sera-ensordecedora-2000165134#:~:text=Varghese%20K%20James







