For non-profit or civic organization events, I normally permit downloads for approximately 30 days from the date of the event.
Important legal notice in five parts:
(1) I very much dislike having to put this notice here, but experience has taught me that there are people out there who feel that (a) because I have taken their image, the image legally belongs to them, and (b) they can do anything they want with the image in terms of editing it, altering it, or changing it to suit their own artistic notions, their own personal desires, or their own financial gain. This is not true - and before someone attempts to do what I've just described, I strongly urge them to consult with an attorney who is familiar with copyright law and creative rights.
(2) The free downloads from my web site, www.mikehaywardphotography.com, are for your personal use only. You may download an image, have it printed as a nice photograph, and then frame it to display in your home or on your desk or wall at work. You can size it down and print it to mount on the front of your kitchen refrigerator to remind yourself of a good time you had. You may share it via e-mail with friends or family so they can see what you've been doing and how good you looked doing it.
(3) You may not digitally alter, re-format, edit, or otherwise change the content of any image you download from my web site, www.mikehaywardphotography.com.
(4)You may not may use my image(s) to promote any business endeavor you are involved in nor may you use it in any commercial sense to sell services or products that you offer for the purpose of financial gain or profit. If your intent is to use my image to make money in any way, shape, or form, you do not have my permission to use the image in question.
(5) If you would like to use the image for your MySpace, Facebook, or other public social internet medium, and you want to share it with your friends, you need to contact me (as the copyright owner of the image) and obtain my written permission to do so. I am very appreciative of these inquiries and typically pedrmit use of my images in these situations. The only condition for such use (and I mention this again because it is so important) is that you do not alter, edit, or change the image nor remove or crop out the copyright notice on the image.
Here are the instructions on how to download your free copy or copies of my image(s):
1. I would suggest that you have a plate full of cookies on your desk next to your computer.
2. Go to www.MikeHaywardPhotography.com If you are already there, and you are reading these instructions on my web site, you can naturally ignore this step.
3. Find the gallery "icon" for the event you want to explore. The icon/event name will normally be at the top of the opening page of my web site, included as part of the section called "Featured galleries..."
4. Click on the icon (once should be enough). This will bring up the gallery page you want. A gallery will typically open with the first two rows of images in the gallery. An invitation to view a slide show presentation of all the gallery images should be ignored if the only thing that interests you at this time is DOWNLOADING AN IMAGE.
5. Make things easy: Click on the words "Show All" near the bottom of the page to open ALL images in the gallery on the same page.
6. You should now be on the page that displays "thumbnails" images of ALL the photos in the gallery. Use the vertical scroll bar on the right side of the page to move up and down through all the images in the gallery. Pick one that interests you. Put your cursor on top of the image and click on it. A larger version of the image will appear on your computer screen.
7. Move your cursor over the image. A shaded bar will roll in on the left side of the image. Position your cursor on the shaded bar to prevent it from rolling off the page. If it does disappear, don't worry - you simply need to roll your cursor around on the image to get the bar to re-appear.
8. On the shaded bar is an option to "Download Original." Position your cursor on this line, slide your cursor to the right where the words "This Photo" appear. Click on the words "This Photo" and an instruction window will appear asking whether you want to OPEN the image or SAVE TO FILE. Chose the "Save To File" option. It is at this point that things can become confusing because you might not know where your computer will devilishly save the file. Typically it is saved to your computer "Desktop"or to a file labeled "Downloads."
Oh, by the way... In the "Download Original"/"This Photo"/"Save to..." section above, there will be an opportunity for you to write down the name of the image file you are about to save somewhere in/on your computer. This would be a good thing to do, especially if you end up having to do a "search" for the file to discover where your computer hid the image.
9. Once you know where that rascally image has been stored, you can either use your computer's graphics program to find and open the file, or you can go directly to wherever the file is located and double-click on the file name to have your computer magically open it with your computer's default graphics program hidden elsewhere on your computer.
10. If and when all of this fails to deliver the results you expected, call someone nearby who knows computer stuff and get them to help you. They should be able to get you squared away and teach you something in the process. Reward them with a treat from your plateful of cookies.
