This website provides access to over 2,000 photographs. Each photo is presented in a thumbnail size, on index pages with 12 to 54 photos per page, and in a larger size with one photo per page. There are four major divisions within the site:
Within each division are a number of sections. Each section contains one or more index pages of thumbnail photos. You can click on any thumbnail to see a larger image. You can also use the links to go from one single-image page to the next.
For a collection of recent images go to Recent Photos Gallery. These will be changed periodically.
You may also go to the Site Map to link to any index page directly.
Use of Images
The photos on this website are copyrighted and available for purchase. Each photo is presented in a low-resolution version and which is backed up by a high-resolution version that I would be pleased to send. Scroll down for more information on pricing and quality specifications.
To order an image, or for comments or questions, please contact me at lichen@idiom.com.
I have two large collections of photos that are not part of this site:
Lichens of North America. For an informational site on this subject go to http://www.lichen.com/. To see a list of the lichens species for which I have photos go to the Lichen Species List. All of them are available for purchase. In addition to species photos I have many images of lichens as they are seen in the landscape from a distance, illustrations of lichen morphology, and use by wildlife and people. Please contact me if you would like to see examples of these.
Sierra Nevada Wildflowers. To see some examples of these images go to http://www.sierraplants.com/. These photos are being held for use in a new field guide and are not available at this time except for a few restricted purposes.
Purchasing Images
I do not have a fixed set of rates, as every situation is unique. The factors that determine the price include:
-Commercial use or non-profit?
-Size the image will be displayed
-Number of copies to be distributed
-Used in a printed publication or online, or both?
-Amount of work involved for me to provide the image
If images are small enough files, not larger than a few megabytes, and are in the form of jpeg files, I can send them as email attachments at no extra charge. If I have to put them on a disk, and send them by mail or courier, I usually charge a shipping fee.
I do give discounts for quantity. If you are interested in a particular subject and if I have alternate versions of a photo that's on the website, I'd be happy to send low-resolution alternates as email attachments for $10 each. To find out what would apply to your situation, please contact me at lichen@idiom.com.
Technical information and image quality
All of the photos on the website are displayed at a low resolution for viewing on a monitor, and all of them are available as high-resolution files suitable for printing. I can supply them in any resolution as TIFF files (for Mac or PC), as jpegs at any quality level, or in any format or color space available on Photoshop CS.
The older photos were taken as 35mm slides and scanned on a Nikon ED 4000 or 5000, typically producing a file of about 55 megabytes, or about up to 5400 x 3600 pixels. Newer photos were taken either on a Nikon D70, a 6-megapixel camera, or a Nikon D200, a 10-megapixel camera. All of the scanned slides are in 8-bit color. Some of the images which were taken as digital originals are in 16-bit color; please inquire if this is a concern to you. The photos that originated on a digital camera are typically about 16 or 28 megabytes in size, depending on which camera was used, or double that if they are in 16-bit color. For an additional fee, I could rescan a slide in 16 bit color.
Most of the images are uncropped, but sometimes I have cropped them a little, or occasionally (especially with images of people) a lot. With the cropped images, the shape may be different than the normal 2:3 ratio, and the resolution will be less. If you want an image to be printed in a large size, please let me know and I can help you decide if it will be adequately sharp to serve your purpose. I can also send a section of an image on a trial basis if you wish.
There are 2 kinds of defects, those in the original image, like unintended blurryness or excessive film grain, (especially in old Kodachromes) and those from external sources like dirt or scratches on a slide, or dust on a digital camera sensor. Sometimes, of course, a blurred image from motion or soft-focus is an artistic choice, not a defect.
Whether a particular defect is visible depends on how big the image is enlarged; a speck of dust that can be seen in a 11" x 14" print may be completely invisible in a quarter-page textbook photo.
Most of the images are quite sharp, and quite clean, but there are some which are either a bit soft, or a bit grainy, and some that have minute residual defects. All of them should be good enough to make a print at least 8 x 12 large, and most of them could be larger. To be safe, if you want to make a bigger enlargement than that, please ask if the image is suitable. Or if you are in doubt as to whether a particular image is clean enough or sharp enough for your purpose, I would be happy to send a cropped section of the high-resolution version so you can see if it will work for you.
Almost all of the low-resolution versions on the website have been slightly sharpened in Photoshop; most of the high-resolution versions are unsharpened. The high-resolution versions do not have watermarks.
Some of the photos on this website appear in more than one place; for example a photo in the Work section might also be in the Travel section.
Acknowledgements and miscellaneous information
Thanks to Bob Gill for help with designing this website, to Steven Stephenson for some slime mold identifications, and to William Ferguson for a number of insect identifications. A number of the earlier images were taken by my late wife, Sylvia Duran Sharnoff, and are acknowledged on the single-photo pages.
Out of respect for the privacy of people who are pictured on this site, the usage of those images is restricted to purposes that I feel would not be offensive or exploitative. For example, I would not knowingly allow the image of a person to be used in an advertising commercial without their written permission. A few of the photos of people have signed model releases, and I have indicated that on the single-image pages where appropriate, but the same general considerations about usage apply. Please contact me if you have questions about this.
