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Spring has sprung on Blue Spring Road

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rain by jansenphotojansenphoto (Dutch goes the Photo!)

Rainy day moments!

Spring in the Mid-Atlantic of the United States isn't as edible as spring in the West Indies, but it's more colourful. I have learned to enjoy the display.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Rain by jansenphotojansenphoto (Dutch goes the Photo!)

Rainy day moments!

Feeling bored, I picked up some camera gear and drove out to Duke Farms in Hillsborough. Just a few minutes from my house as I drove along Blue Spring Road, I noticed the pink blossoms on one of the trees. So I pulled over and captured a few images. I just love how all the pink looks against a background of green.

Even though I spend most of it indoors, with a runny nose, and itchy and watery eyes, and I can barely breathe, spring is my favourite season of the year. I grew up in the British West Indies (Caribbean) where there is no fall, no spring, and definitely no winter. But it's not summer all year long.

There is the dry season and a wet season. The dry season runs from about February to June while the wet season starts in July and ends in January. During the wet season, there is less sunshine and more rain. Of course, there is also a hurricane season which starts in June and ends in November. Ignoring the occasional tropical rain forest shower, with blue sky weather and warm sunshine, the dry season is an ideal time for the islands.

During that wet season, the rains come more frequently and last longer. The land turns an even deeper shade of green. The islands enter a time of renewal when the fruit trees bear so much fruit; bananas, mangoes, java plums (Syzygium cumini), cashews, plum rose (Syzygium samarangense ), soursop (Annona muricata), sugar apple, acerola cherries, coco plum, Bequia plum (Spondias purpurea), guava, guinep (Melicoccus bijugatus), golden apple (Spondias Dulcis), avocado, and papaya. The list of fruits is long.

Spring in the Mid-Atlantic of the United States isn't as edible as the wet season in the West Indies but it's more colourful. I have learned to enjoy the display. And the beer.

Spring is also a time of renewal for me. It's when I come out of self-imposed hibernation both literally and emotionally. It's time for me to be outside, go hiking in the woods or on long walks with Bhavna.

I have decided to release the images under a Creative Commons Zero license. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. You can download the images from Unsplash.

Signs of spring along Blue Spring Road
Signs of spring along Blue Spring Road
Signs of spring along Blue Spring Road

Creative Commons Zero Images on Unsplash

I've uploaded some new FREE Creative Commons Zero stock images to Unsplash

About every month or so I go through my Adobe Lightroom Catalog and flag a few that I license via a Creative Commons Zero (Public Domain) license.

These images are dedicated to the public domain by waiving all of my rights to the images worldwide under copyright law, including all related and neighbouring rights, to the extent allowed by law.

This means that anyone can copy, modify, distribute, and display the images, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission.

You can download full resolution versions of these images via my Unsplash profile. Read the Unsplash FAQ for more information.

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Finding Free Quality Stock Images For Any Purpose

There are many times when writing when I want a decent picture to complete my post. A a photographer I tend to use my own images. I either capture a new one specifically for that post or I use one from my Lightroom catalog. However, occasionally I don’t have anything in my portfolio that meets my needs and I may not have the time to create one.

For many bloggers doing their own photography is a chore. They either lack the time or the skill to create an image that meets their needs. Some turn to sock photography web sites and are disappointed. Many stock photography websites are either too expensive or have nothing but images of staid looking characters in suits.

Inexpensive or free stock photography sources was a recent topic of discussion on the Desk community. There are a growing number of websites offering amazing free stock imagery. Someone started a list of sites that offer free stock images. Some sites on the list were decent but I found many lacking. I did my research and found several site that have free stock images that in my opinion are high quality. These photographs are free from copyright restrictions or licensed under Creative Commons, which means you can copy, change and distribute the images for commercial purposes, all without asking for official permission. Here’s my list.

Of course having access to multiple sources of good quality stock images present a new problem. Choosing. With so many images available it easy to get caught up in find the perfect image for your post. When I first tried using these stock image sites I spent almost 30 minutes looking for an image to use on a post that took me almost as long to write. That's not efficient. Why waste thirty minutes of creative time on a treasure hunt? First you have to search the online stock image archives, then download and image. Then you resize and upload to your blogging platform, insert image and publish. This takes time away from writing and increases time to get your writing published. So I came up with a strategy to help with that.

When you have time, when you are not writing, you can visit these free stock web sites and download some of the images that you find compelling. Don't worry at this point how you will use that images. Just download it to a folder on your computer. If you want to be really efficient, upload the images to the media library of your blog host. You might want to categorize the images and add ALT tags and titles. Then when you need an image for a post, choosing will be easier and faster.

There’s a lot of different licenses on the photos featured above. Make sure you understand what the restrictions are, and if in doubt just give credit. You can find my Creative Commons Zero images on my Unsplash profile