Suzanimal
08-31-2015, 08:08 AM
Fantastic!!!:cool:
One college student provides the Internet with photos of everyone from President Obama to Paul Rudd—all for free.
August 31, 2015 At the Young Americans for Liberty national convention, a gathering of roughly 350 college-aged libertarian activists, former Rep. Ron Paul takes the stage to loud chants of "End the Fed!" and "Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul!" from the crowd. They eventually take their seats and Paul moves through a winding speech, touching on everything from the Iran deal to Bernie Sanders. The one constant throughout the speech: the quiet, rapid-fire click of a camera's shutter.
The sound comes from the camera of a 21-year-old college kid.
Chances are, you've seen one of his photos, but haven't heard the name of one of the most widely published political photographers in America. Gage Skidmore's work has appeared in major publications like The Washington Post, The New Republic, our sister publication The Atlantic, and yes, National Journal, as well as small one-man blogs across the Web. Even Donald Trump's official campaign website uses Skidmore's photographs.
The secret to the Arizona-based Skidmore's success is not just that he's a good photographer. It is that most of his work is both online and free for just about anybody. Skidmore releases most of the photos he takes on the photo-sharing service Flickr under a Creative Commons attribution license, which allows anyone to use his photos—even commercially—as long as they give him proper credit.
Why does Skidmore release his photos for free, when he could be charging for them? "Creative Commons to me is a vehicle to provide greater exposure for my photographs," said Skidmore. "I want my photos to be used."
And that has been a fairly successful strategy. A Google search of "Gage Skidmore" turns up a whopping 469,000 results—about 407 times the number of hits if you were to Google my name.
Skidmore's most common subject is presidential candidate Rand Paul, who appeals to his own political interests. Skidmore became interested in politics via his support for Paul's father, Ron Paul, in early 2007, and from there he turned his support (and his lens) towards Rand Paul.
"Naturally my fondness and appreciation of Ron Paul led to my interest in covering Rand Paul, and he was only a short car drive from me in a neighboring state, and the rest is history," said Skidmore, who lived in Indiana at the time. "I covered his [2009 Senate] campaign every couple weeks as I was still attending high school for the better part of a year, learning still how to even use a camera, and it has sort of blossomed into other projects from there."
The soft-spoken photographer has continued to photograph the younger Paul since then, and he said the photos that he releases under a Creative Commons license have been frequently used by the Paul presidential campaign in its social-media efforts. But the father-son pair aren't the only politicians Skidmore shoots. Since his first shots in 2009, many more have crossed in front of Skidmore's lens. He has photographed both President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, along with Mitt Romney and most of the 2016 field.
Skidmore's favorite photograph of the at least 35,000 photos he has on his Flickr account is one he took of Rand Paul during the 2013 CPAC conference. "He paused during his speech, and had a very genuine smile," Skidmore said of the picture.
....
http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/the-most-prolific-political-photographer-you-ve-never-heard-of-20150831
One college student provides the Internet with photos of everyone from President Obama to Paul Rudd—all for free.
August 31, 2015 At the Young Americans for Liberty national convention, a gathering of roughly 350 college-aged libertarian activists, former Rep. Ron Paul takes the stage to loud chants of "End the Fed!" and "Paul! Paul! Paul! Paul!" from the crowd. They eventually take their seats and Paul moves through a winding speech, touching on everything from the Iran deal to Bernie Sanders. The one constant throughout the speech: the quiet, rapid-fire click of a camera's shutter.
The sound comes from the camera of a 21-year-old college kid.
Chances are, you've seen one of his photos, but haven't heard the name of one of the most widely published political photographers in America. Gage Skidmore's work has appeared in major publications like The Washington Post, The New Republic, our sister publication The Atlantic, and yes, National Journal, as well as small one-man blogs across the Web. Even Donald Trump's official campaign website uses Skidmore's photographs.
The secret to the Arizona-based Skidmore's success is not just that he's a good photographer. It is that most of his work is both online and free for just about anybody. Skidmore releases most of the photos he takes on the photo-sharing service Flickr under a Creative Commons attribution license, which allows anyone to use his photos—even commercially—as long as they give him proper credit.
Why does Skidmore release his photos for free, when he could be charging for them? "Creative Commons to me is a vehicle to provide greater exposure for my photographs," said Skidmore. "I want my photos to be used."
And that has been a fairly successful strategy. A Google search of "Gage Skidmore" turns up a whopping 469,000 results—about 407 times the number of hits if you were to Google my name.
Skidmore's most common subject is presidential candidate Rand Paul, who appeals to his own political interests. Skidmore became interested in politics via his support for Paul's father, Ron Paul, in early 2007, and from there he turned his support (and his lens) towards Rand Paul.
"Naturally my fondness and appreciation of Ron Paul led to my interest in covering Rand Paul, and he was only a short car drive from me in a neighboring state, and the rest is history," said Skidmore, who lived in Indiana at the time. "I covered his [2009 Senate] campaign every couple weeks as I was still attending high school for the better part of a year, learning still how to even use a camera, and it has sort of blossomed into other projects from there."
The soft-spoken photographer has continued to photograph the younger Paul since then, and he said the photos that he releases under a Creative Commons license have been frequently used by the Paul presidential campaign in its social-media efforts. But the father-son pair aren't the only politicians Skidmore shoots. Since his first shots in 2009, many more have crossed in front of Skidmore's lens. He has photographed both President Obama and first lady Michelle Obama, along with Mitt Romney and most of the 2016 field.
Skidmore's favorite photograph of the at least 35,000 photos he has on his Flickr account is one he took of Rand Paul during the 2013 CPAC conference. "He paused during his speech, and had a very genuine smile," Skidmore said of the picture.
....
http://www.nationaljournal.com/2016-elections/the-most-prolific-political-photographer-you-ve-never-heard-of-20150831