My first Unsplash photo was posted on August 18, 2016. In that time I've accumulated almost 3 Million Views, and over 12,000 downloads across 30+ photos.
This Is Why I Post On Unsplash
For someone with such a small following where most of my interactions across social media are confined to people I know in real life, getting 3 Million Views on anything is AMAZING.
A lot of people complain about Unsplash "ruining the professional photography market", but I say F*ck 'em. If your business is being "ruined" by people offering up photos for free, then you're probably in the wrong line of work.
FREE Does Not Mean BAD
Some of my favorite photos on the internet are freely available on Unsplash. Even NASA is on Unsplash. Hubble Space Telescope photos are freely available for anyone to use for any reason. That is INSANE. Unfortunately they did strip out the EXIF data on the Hubble photos (Camera Type: $4.7 billion Space Telescope, Aperature: f3.4 Meters).
There are some really high quality photos available and the fact that you don't have to pay a dime for them is pretty amazing.
All Ships Rise With The Tide
Unsplash has been doing a lot to push forward the photography industry as a whole. They recently launched Unsplash for Brands which was there way of bringing Branded stock photos to the site. For example, one of the first Brands brought on was Square. The partnership looks like this:
They hire photographers from the Unsplash community to make branded stock photos of their cash register and payment processing products.
These photos then show up on Unsplash for searches like "Cash Register"
Then eventually proliferate out to the greater internet through blog posts and other mediums.
Creating exposure for the brands, revenue for Unsplash, and nice little payday for some Unsplash contributors.
Unsplash gets paid so it can remain free, Brands get their products in front of a massive audience, and they have to hire photographers from the Unsplash community to take the photos. It's a win-win-win for everybody!
Take A Penny, Leave A Penny
I contribute to Unsplash because without it, I wouldn't have been able to use and download 100s of fantastic quality photos for use in both personal and professional projects.
I contribute to Unsplash because without it, there's no way 12,000+ people would have used my photos.
I contribute to Unsplash because without it, my sites and campaigns would be way uglier or I would've spent a fortune on Stock Photos.
I contribute to Unsplash because I use the site almost daily, and it's my way of giving back to the people who gave first.
Check me out on Unsplash, or give me a follow on Twitter and let me know if you've used on of my photos or hit me with your Unsplash username and I'll give you a follow!
