Something To Think About

posted on 27th of january, 2012

A few days ago I did a search for some new approved images of mine to see if they were in the system yet. They all came up but one. I contacted the good folks at Dreamstime to inquire and was told it had been content filtered (I have my filter on). The image was a 70 year old photograph of a man and woman (my grandfather and my mom) on their farm holding shotguns and some pheasants they had just hunted. They said all images showing dead animals were content filtered. Maybe this could be disturbing to some members of society.
Yet, I have an editorial image on line of a homeless man sleeping on the street in the cold and it has had sales. Socially speaking, this image should be more disturbing to viewers than an antique photograph with some dead birds.
Cheers
Ken

Tags: animals content dead disturbing filter

Comments (7)

	Posted by Ebamo on January 28, 2012 Great photograph. I hope it gets the attention it deserves. This image of mine is filtered for the same reason. [imgl]http://www.dreamstime.com/shark-fishing-image11916062[/imgl]
	Posted by Peanutroaster on January 27, 2012 Well said.
	Posted by Clearvista on January 27, 2012 Ken I agree with everything you said in your blog. It is a sad situation we find ourselves today.
	Posted by Bradcalkins on January 27, 2012 I think a good way around this would be to display somewhere how many images were filtered out. I think there are many subject areas where the buyer would expect filtering and have it turned off, but this image is a good example of one that is likely to be filtered out of a search where the buyer wouldn't expect the filter to make a difference... Ideally you'd get a little warning (but please, not a pop up!) that says your search results were limited by content filtering. For example, when I do a search on 'bust' I find the stone head of Beethoven I was looking for, but the content filtering has taken it down from 5771 to 4356. Yet all it says is: " Home > Search results: 4,356 images Content filter: ON" I'd propose that it say something like: Home > Search results: 4,356 images Content filter: ON (1415 images removed)" But usually I would just keep it off. However, the other day I did...(More)
	Posted by Sunguy on January 27, 2012 Just some interesting information. My grandmother was an avid photographer who develped and printed her own images on the farm. Therefore, I have many vintage photographs of farm and country life of which I have legal ownership, and over the last while put some up on Dreamstime.
	Posted by Egomezta on January 27, 2012 It is a great image, I always have the content filter off.
	Posted by Jdanne on January 27, 2012 Two of my Karate fighting photos are content filtered, others with similar content are not. My content filtered photos get much less views and - I'm sure - have less sales potential. Please see my block about this topic. My opinion: Everybody should switch off content filtering.