Hi webmasters, I don't know how much the "specifics" rules would apply to this. Can we talk about photography? shall we? photography forums have changed a lot, and basically, some are just repetitive questions of what camera to buy, while others are almost desert, or keeping just the same 10-20 forum members who have become bitter, talk about the same boring things, private jokes, and even push new forum members away. I'm really surprised on how old photo forums changed (or died).

We have talked about writing, but pictures are an important part of content creation. Sometimes requiring WAY more effort. How? you can write about places you never been to, but a picture is what changes the game.

Photography basically made me begin my journey in the web world. Things were very differently then, cameras used film and you had to have some knowledge to make things work decently (image composition aside). I was still around when selling just one picture could make your monthly salary if you were good, and for some time I was absolutely shocked on what a single image (or a set) could represent in earnings, as I sold several of my pictures; then moved to stock photography. To me, that chapter meant discovery and exploration more than earnings... but good thing I didn't get used to it! because things were about to change radically.

Soon, stock photography became a thing, and I managed to adapt to this. Yet, you could feel film was falling behind and the digital stuff was changing the world, sure, I adapted pretty well. But images generally became cheap, and also generic. I saw people falling down to never recover. Getty Images and similar services killed a lot of businesses and hurt many photographers; free communities to monetize pictures also changed their policies facilitating free stuff instead of earnings via promotion; flickr was a game changer!, as you would easily find people traveling sharing their pictures stating "you can use them for free". And if that change wasn't enough, the proliferation of the cell phone cameras changed things even more.

I also witnessed pictures being stolen, or used with other people credits (appropriation), both things happened to me. I've seen how over the years people have created this idea that content should be free of use somehow. Texts can be edited, but images are harder to change for appropriation. And now, AI has been trained with pictures available all over the web (yours and mine), while also offering the users the chance to "build" new images based on their requests, no need for a photographer anymore.

I've created all the content for my websites, I have written all the articles (except for guest articles), and all the images fit this too, as I've been the one shooting the pics or making the illustrations. Now? I see tons of websites using other people images, some provide the authors credit, some do so only with a weird link (shortened and with a redirect), some won't include anything.

What's your story? can you share your journey around this context? what's your view for the future? I'm seeing more opportunities shooting for clients by request than creating content. Share your opinions.