85322330, Old Dog Photography/Flickr

It is fascinating to see the in-depth coverage of wildlife and nature on Flickr.

Let’s take butterflies for example. There are thousands of Flickr groups sharing butterfly images. Why do I think this is so exciting? Because this means thousands of butterfly species from all over the world are being photographed by people with a passion for the little creatures!

This is a great source of imagery for all the textbook publishers worldwide – so keep shooting! And add the name of the species in the keywords along with locations and include the Latin name in the title whenever possible.

And of course it’s not only butterflies we’re looking for, but all wildlife and nature out there.

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85119012, Julie A. Ziesemann/Flickr

It was just a short two weeks ago today that we launched the Flickr Collection. The response has been great, and in that time we’ve more than doubled the size of the collection and logged nearly 100 sales! (The images in this post are among the recent sellers.) There are images of everything from street corners to castles, puppies to portraits and even (and we’re not quite sure why) underpants full of spaghetti!

And we’re still in high gear! We’re adding more new, fresh, creative images every day. Plus we’ve got some big plans ahead for an even bigger splash in the next few months.

85132759, By Eleonore Bridge/Flickr

85154252, Photo by Vilhelm Sjostrom/Flickr

85423346, amanda vivan/Flickr

85202162, Ellen van Bodegom/Flickr

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One of the most amazing pieces of this collaboration for us here at Getty Images to watch has been the incredible reach of the Flickr community, and how that expresses itself through the location of the artists who are signing up.

So far, Flickr members from 84 countries have joined in the Flickr Collection on Getty Images.

From Australia:

85186754, Leah Consunji/Flickr

to Croatia:

85321912, photographer artist/Flickr

From the Philippines:

85153912, Fresh amazing pictures make people look!/Flickr

to Tunisia:

85485280, Mar?a Aguilar Calero/Flickr

There are already around 100 artists (in some cases a lot more) signed up in places like Italy, Japan, Germany, Spain, the US, the UK, Netherlands, Canada, and so on…

And numbers are climbing in other spots like Brazil, Norway, Romania, Switzerland, Taiwan, Finland, just to name a few.

The most amazing thing of all is that this partnership is just getting started!

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There are a lot of pictures on Flickr that make me smile and this is definitely one of them. If this shot was key worded more according to stock standards it probably would’ve read something like ‘Man and woman embracing, blue sky in background’ but on Flickr, I love how not only are there so many original images but there are some pretty unique headlines as well.  “Hair Love, “  need I say more?

85308066, Shampoo Violeta/Flickr

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Does Flickr imagery transcend the culture of the place it was taken? Does it have universal appeal?

As an editor for the Flickr Collection, I’ve looked at thousands of images on Flickr, and whenever I come across Japanese imagery, I find it distinctively Japanese. I’ve posted some examples below:

85176930 © Stephan Wilms/Flickr

85269903, Masato Ninomiya/Getty Images

85154506, detch/Flickr

85151272, © 2007 Jon Climpson/Flickr

Is it culture? Is it country? Is it aesthetic? What is it exactly that makes these feel so familiar to me?

Japan is a country of Zen, Karaoke, Samurai, Harajuku girls, Wii, cup noodles, sushi and the list goes on and on. It’s a country of all things in the mix.

For those who have seen the film, “Lost in Translation” by Sophie Coppola, you might have wondered the same thing as I have. Is it western? Is it Japanese? Or is it the mix of both that makes the film universal?

What are your thoughts? We would love to hear what you think of the Japanese imagery we have so far in the Flickr collection!

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85206885, Siobhan Connally/Flickr

The Flickr Collection has been live less than a week, and already we’re seeing a tremendous amount of interest both here on our site and over on Flickr. Those of us who spend time in the Flickr forums have seen some really good, interesting questions come up over there as well as from our customers. We thought we’d share a few questions and answers here. Starting with the big one:

Q. So, have there been any sales yet?

A. Yes! We’re happy to report that just within the three/four business days we’ve been open, we’ve already seen a number of sales. Not only that, but the sales are from several different countries. The image below is officially the first one sold. Others in this posting are also among the sellers.

85151902, Photo by Tedfoo/Flickr

Q. You’ve said the collection will be growing. How’s that going?

A. Great! Since we launched early last Wednesday, the number of images for sale has nearly doubled. Hundreds more are coming online every day.

Q. I’ve submitted my images and they aren’t up on the site yet, where are they?

A. We’re working through literally tens of thousands of images that have been submitted for the collection. We are getting them inspected and up on the site as fast as we can. Since the day we launched, we have already added nearly 4,000 more images. So hang tight, they’re on the way!

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Vict?ria Pe?afiel/Flickr

I can’t help but notice that the Flickr partnership is turning up a very different type of imagery from what we normally edit.

They’re not all “slice of life” pictures either — there’s some really considered, crafted work from hugely talented photographers. What I get a kick out of is the tiny details of people’s lives – the little moments that say or reveal a lot, which are local but universal.

The shot above from a photographer in Barcelona is a great example – you have all the intimacy of family life, care and protection, animal instinct – maybe also competition! It’s shot through (excuse the  pun) with humor and warmth. This is true of a lot of Flickr imagery and is amazingly hard to recreate.

Images like this also have a general appeal, despite (or maybe because?) they’re intensely individual.  Like a lot of the Flickr stuff I love, if you read a description of the shot you’d struggle to visualize it – but it works.

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