I’ve been published again – well, sort of.

Anyone ever heard of Schmap online travel and map guides?

Nope, me neither.  Regardless, I’ve allowed them to use one of my more average photos of a wallaby in their latest guide to Melbourne.

Apparently they are best known for their iPhone app and blog widgets, allowing people to quickly call up maps of whichever international tourist destination they happen to be traveling around.  The editor contacted me through Flickr, asking to use this shot to represent the Healesville Sanctuary.

At first I cringed, thinking that’s a terribly lit photo from a not very compelling angle (in other words, a snapshot) and wanted to offer her a bunch of really excellent flora and fauna shots from both Healesville Sanctuary and Werribee Zoo to choose from instead.  Then, after thinking about it, I realised that it would be best not to waste too much time on this as the chances of someone seeing the shot on their iPhone and suddenly getting the urge to contact Rock Portrait Photography, or even just take a look at more of my photos, is next to zero.

What this experience illustrates is that even though there are millions of photos and many thousands of subscribers on Flickr, there is still a reasonable possibility of exposure to those looking for something specific.  Makes me re-think my current view on what I post to Flickr.  Currently I post very little of my professional work on there as I don’t like the idea of it being open to re-use without my permission.  Even though I apply an appropriate  Creative Commons licence to all my images I still have to rely on people respecting that, as it’s nearly impossible to track down unauthorised use of online images.

But lets face it, the iPhone is kind of cool so having one of my shots occasionally appear in one is cool by association.