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Creating this journal in the hopes of providing artists with extra leads for high quality resources that might otherwise be ignored. More specifically from government websites that many people shy away from because the last thing you want is government knocking on your door for copyright infringement.
Perfectly understandable, but a good number of government organizations do allow you to use their images for free with minimal restrictions. It varies from one organization to the next and you have to be careful in reading the Terms of Use in each case as some draw the line between commercial and non-commercial use... but I want to start a list of some that I believe in good faith to be safe both for both personal and commercial uses.
A list I hope you may help me to expand, with the understanding that government sources should always be credited if only as a matter of common courtesy to give credit where credit is due. And that everyone should read the fine print on any government website because there are certain exceptions like obtaining additional permission for things like official logos or any photos with identifiable people that may require model releases.
That said, here are some my favourites:
- Hubble / spacetelescope.org: Bar none my top pick. Affiliated with many other space agencies like NASA and ESA, where they offer you a downloadable monster ZIP file for their top 100 images. Terms of Use here: spacetelescope.org/copyright/ (where they also ask you to notify them of image use; something I've done in "batches" which they have not responded to, but I imagine it's because they have much greater priorities
)
- NASA Landsat Image Gallery: Amazing aerial photos from what I think are taken in satellite orbit. Terms of Use said to be public domain with proper attribution in the opening paragraph preceding the image previews.
- Yellowstone National Park (via Flickr): A great number of images from a public profile that states: "Images in the public domain mean that there are no licensing restrictions on them and that you can use them for free. All we ask is that you credit the photographer and the National Park Service (NPS) like this: photographer name, NPS. So, go ahead and download images you might need for a school project, PowerPoint presentation, cool advertisement, magazine article, or your next viral video"
- Grand Canyon National Park (via Flickr): Another amazing well of inspirational images. From a profile that states the same thing as Yellowstone: "Images in public domain mean that there are no licensing restrictions on them and that you can use them for free. All we ask is that you credit the photographer and the National Park Service (NPS) like this: NPS photo by "photographer name" So, go ahead and download images you might need for a school project, PowerPoint presentation, advertisement, magazine article, or your next viral video."
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service / Pacific Southwest Region (via Flickr): Sizes & subject matter vary quite a lot, some real good gems in landscape & animal resources if you're willing to comb through their gallery. At the time of this posting, you just need to scroll down a little to find some epicly gorgeous sand dune scenes at high resolution. From what I see the images are mostly offered with a Creative Commons Attribution license, which is ok for commercial use as long as you credit and link back to them. Always best to double check in each case though, and I would stay away from using any photos with recognizable people because they can require additional model releases. Also worth noting this organization operates several Flickr accounts from different regions of the USA, and that their licensing terms are not necessarily the same from one region (or Flickr account) to the next. This one in particular for the Pacific Southwest stood out for its quality & generous terms of use.
Hope to provide more sources as time permits, although it is a slow process since I try my best to ensure these sources are safe and useful especially within an artistic context. Please feel free to offer any other government resources that you think might complement the ones above, even outside the US provided they allow for commercial use
Perfectly understandable, but a good number of government organizations do allow you to use their images for free with minimal restrictions. It varies from one organization to the next and you have to be careful in reading the Terms of Use in each case as some draw the line between commercial and non-commercial use... but I want to start a list of some that I believe in good faith to be safe both for both personal and commercial uses.
A list I hope you may help me to expand, with the understanding that government sources should always be credited if only as a matter of common courtesy to give credit where credit is due. And that everyone should read the fine print on any government website because there are certain exceptions like obtaining additional permission for things like official logos or any photos with identifiable people that may require model releases.
That said, here are some my favourites:
- Hubble / spacetelescope.org: Bar none my top pick. Affiliated with many other space agencies like NASA and ESA, where they offer you a downloadable monster ZIP file for their top 100 images. Terms of Use here: spacetelescope.org/copyright/ (where they also ask you to notify them of image use; something I've done in "batches" which they have not responded to, but I imagine it's because they have much greater priorities
)- NASA Landsat Image Gallery: Amazing aerial photos from what I think are taken in satellite orbit. Terms of Use said to be public domain with proper attribution in the opening paragraph preceding the image previews.
- Yellowstone National Park (via Flickr): A great number of images from a public profile that states: "Images in the public domain mean that there are no licensing restrictions on them and that you can use them for free. All we ask is that you credit the photographer and the National Park Service (NPS) like this: photographer name, NPS. So, go ahead and download images you might need for a school project, PowerPoint presentation, cool advertisement, magazine article, or your next viral video"
- Grand Canyon National Park (via Flickr): Another amazing well of inspirational images. From a profile that states the same thing as Yellowstone: "Images in public domain mean that there are no licensing restrictions on them and that you can use them for free. All we ask is that you credit the photographer and the National Park Service (NPS) like this: NPS photo by "photographer name" So, go ahead and download images you might need for a school project, PowerPoint presentation, advertisement, magazine article, or your next viral video."
- U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service / Pacific Southwest Region (via Flickr): Sizes & subject matter vary quite a lot, some real good gems in landscape & animal resources if you're willing to comb through their gallery. At the time of this posting, you just need to scroll down a little to find some epicly gorgeous sand dune scenes at high resolution. From what I see the images are mostly offered with a Creative Commons Attribution license, which is ok for commercial use as long as you credit and link back to them. Always best to double check in each case though, and I would stay away from using any photos with recognizable people because they can require additional model releases. Also worth noting this organization operates several Flickr accounts from different regions of the USA, and that their licensing terms are not necessarily the same from one region (or Flickr account) to the next. This one in particular for the Pacific Southwest stood out for its quality & generous terms of use.
Hope to provide more sources as time permits, although it is a slow process since I try my best to ensure these sources are safe and useful especially within an artistic context. Please feel free to offer any other government resources that you think might complement the ones above, even outside the US provided they allow for commercial use
The Voynich Manuscript and Nostradamus Connection
I have good reason to believe that Michel de Nostredame - aka Nostradamus - was personally connected with the Voynich Manuscript. Before I begin, I would like to acknowledge this theory goes against conventional wisdom. The radiocarbon dating of the manuscript's vellum places it between 1404 and 1438, and Nostradamus lived between 1503 and 1566. I am well aware of the apparent discrepancies. I do not necessarily challenge the validity of the radiocarbon dating for that matter. To the best of my knowledge, the radiocarbon dating was done on the vellum. That does not otherwise prove the age of the ink applied to the vellum, and by extension, when the Voynich Manuscript was actually written (except perhaps that it was some time after the radiocarbon dating of the vellum circa 1404-1438). Nothing at face value excludes the possibility that the vellum was recycled or left as blank pages for over a hundred years. I am basically keeping an open mind, and I invite you to do the same if we can
Heads Up
Soon I will be posting a journal which might appear strange to you. It pertains to personal research I've been doing into the Voynich Manuscript, and how I believe Nostradamus is connected with it. This upcoming journal is basically a transcript of my research paper. It is primarily meant for documentation purposes so I can leave my imprint of it across multiple online sources. Realizing it is more academic in nature, which might not attract much interest here on Deviant Art. But I suppose it still counts as literature, and who knows, it might inspire others to become more curious about the Voynich Manuscript 🧐 Feel free to comment (or not), but now that my research paper is finally published, I plan to take a break and crawl back out of this Voynich rabbit hole for a bit... perhaps refocus on my photography again 🙂 (plus a lot of other stuff to catch up, including sleep)
My Interview with Shoutout Colorado
For anyone interested in reading more about me, feel free to check this interview I had with Shoutout Colorado: https://shoutoutcolorado.com/meet-nicolas-raymond-photographer-visual-artist/
Google Bard and Plant Identification
As you might know, I like experimenting with AI. Starting out with image generation, even though I am less interested about that now in favor of revisiting my photography (and a growing obsession with deciphering the Voynich Manuscript I will not elaborate upon any further in this journal). I am however still using AI in other ways. For example, I am using Google Bard to help plan my photo trips as it can return maps, and pins dropped on that map to reveal places of interest I asked for in the first place (like waterfalls and historic landmarks). I've noticed Google Bard can also help to identify things like plants if you attach an image within your query. And that's what it tried to do right here, from a photo I captured in the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens in Grand Junction: Worth noting, I submitted this photo a few months ago on iNaturalist, hoping that another human could help me identify it. No luck there as far as I know, but I was drawn to this image, and wanted to
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awesome, just been on the hubble and it's brilliant, thanks so much xx