Credit Where It's Due

(I wrote this post last week and it mysteriously disappeared so let's try it again!)

Unless you have been living under a rock (and of course you haven't!), I'm sure you've dipped your toe into, or become unreasonable obsessed with, the image bookmarking site Pinterest. I've been pinning for a year and I love it! I can't believe how much easier it is for me to organize my inspiration. However, Pinterest has come under the scrutiny of some, particularly photographers, who are tired of getting their work pinned and linked with no credit and while I can't begin to understand the intricacies of copyright law, I like to follow the rules of "play nice and give credit where it's due."

So, here's what I wish everyone would do on Pinterest:
*Pin the original source of a post or image
*Pin the link to the actual post not the home page of a site
*Add credits (photographer, artist, stylist, magazine, etc) whenever you can.

I often see bloggers who should know better re-pin images on Pinterest willy-nilly. The images link back to a random Tumblr with no attribution to the photo. This is just plain lazy, pure and simple. It takes a bit more time to pin the right way but it's also the right thing to do.I admit that I too was guilty of this when I first started pinning; now I am going back into my boards and correcting all my improper links!

Let's use this image above as an example. It was originally posted on Pinterest with the caption "neon stripes" and linked back to a Tumblr. The image was nowhere to be found on this site. Of course I wanted to re-pin it, it's awesome! But I also wanted it to be properly pinned- what to do?

Here's a little tool that has helped me immensely: this bookmarklet (which I originally found on Miss Moss- see how I gave credit there?) called src-img helps you find original image sources and credits. I use it about a thousand times a day. When you click on the tool and then the image, this is what it looks like. This tool took me to the Trendhunter site, which included all the info I needed to attribute the photo to the right people.



That's more like it! A well-credited pin!

And with that, I will now hop off my soapbox.