Image is a crucial element in content creation, regardless of the content form you create. Even a simple blog post requires an image to strengthen the story. Three websites I always rely on to supply my imagery needs for my blogs are Unsplash, Pexels, and Pixabay.
Especially for Unsplash. I have a little story about it. It is one of the startups whose story I followed since the initial stage. How Unsplash was started has inspired me a lot. In case you didn’t know, Unsplash was started as a Tumblr blog displaying 10 photos. Today, there have been millions of photos available on Unsplash, with thousands of contributors (including me 😎)
In addition to downloading photos to supply the imagery needs for my blogs, I also used Unsplash to share the decent photos I took. As a photography hobbyist, I needed a platform to share the photos I took with my digital camera. Instagram was great, but I needed a platform whereby people can download my photos in a larger dimension so they can use them on their creative projects.
I used to regularly upload photos to Unsplash between 2017 to 2022. I stopped uploading my photos to Unsplash started in October since it got acquired by Getty Images. I even decided to delete all the photos I have uploaded.
The stats of my photos were not bad prior the deletion. One of my photos has surpassed 25K downloads, with over 3M views.
Why I deleted my photos?
I am a big fan of bootstrapped businesses. So, when Unsplash made an exit by selling it to Getty Images, I was upset and disappointed. I thought they betrayed the community and I couldn’t tolerate it.
Time went by and I kept downloading photos from Unsplash. Until one day, I started to think that I might a hypocrite. Triggered by the feeling, I finally decided reuploading my photos to Unsplash. After all, I think I need to thank Unsplash for supplying my imagery needs for my blogs this far.
Unlike before, I don’t expect anything from my photos this time. I don’t care about the stat anymore. I just want to contribute to the platform as a part of the community. Unsplash has given me much, so I think it’s fair to give it back.
By the way, you can check out my photos on Unsplash here.