Are you hoping to use travel photos by Tom Bricker on your website or social media? This post covers my photo licensing policies. Every single photo on this site is taken by and copyright Tom Bricker (it’s odd writing about myself in third person, but it’s possible you don’t know my name…okay, with that established, personal pronouns from here out). The good news is that photo usage is FREE for most of you. we simply request that you comply with a couple of (I hope) straightforward and simple requests.

This is because my aim with photography is not to discourage others from posting them. That is not my philosophy towards photography. I began taking photos with the purpose of sharing them with others, and my goal always has been to make as many people happy through my photos as possible.

I welcome and encourage others to download my photos for their personal use. Whether it be printing them at small sizes, using them as iPhone wallpapers, etc. You’re also welcome to share my photos on social networks like Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and on non-commercial blogs/websites. (See below for non-commercial website usage terms.) There is no charge for such usage and you do not need prior approval from me.

Most photos on TravelCaffeine can be easily downloaded and used, and those should provide sufficient resolution for most purposes. If for some reason you need a larger size for your online use, you can contact me. I’m not always the best about responding to emails due to my travel schedule, so re-try if you haven’t received a response after 2-3 days.

If you need a larger version of a photo for printing, please check out my SmugMug photo galleries. Purchasing prints that way helps supporting the site and my photography, and I appreciate it. Keeping large-sized prints exclusive to SmugMug provides a way for those who enjoy it to support my photography while still leaving thousands of free photos for those who don’t want to spend money on prints. I feel like that’s a pretty fair balance.

With that said, I do have a couple of requirements and limitations on photo usage…

Non-Commercial Usage

Free use of my photos is limited to non-commercial usage. Non-commercial can be a somewhat vague term online, but generally, if you’re not using the images to further a business purpose, I view your use as non-commercial. I don’t view having a personal blog with an ad or two to cover the costs of hosting as commercial, but if you’re a staff writer for a blog, major newspaper, or internet publication that has significant revenue, you’re commercial. If you’re a travel agency, you’re commercial.

Make sense? If not, feel free to email me for clarification.

Requirements for non-commercial usage:

In some cases, following these requirements isn’t practicable or possible. If not possible to fulfill these requirements (such as when sharing on social media sites), just make a good faith effort to comply with the spirit of the requirements. I’m not going to sue you for sharing photos of mine with your friends. 🙂

Commercial Usage

Photography equipment is expensive. Photography knowledge and skills similarly require significant time and dedication to acquire and master. Given this, it only seems appropriate that if you’d like to use my images to promote your business or commercial endeavor, you will incur a licensing fee for such use.

Licensing prices are determined by a myriad of factors, including type of media, distribution size, length of use, intended use, and prominence. Licensing fees are competitive and are used only as a way to offset some of the significant costs associated with creating the photos.

Along these same lines, if you have a subject you’d like photographed, I am available for commissioned shoots. Sorry, but I don’t do wedding or engagement photography.

For a price quote as to licensing fees or commissioned shoots, please email: tom@travelcaffeine.com

Thanks!
Tom Bricker