Nana holding Gramma, back in the days before they were so famous.
I often rarely check my actual personal email these days (yes, "often rarely"). I check mail various other places even less, if at all. But tonight I clicked into my flickr inbox. Noticed a "new" message there from a month and a half ago. Turned out to be someone notifying me that they're using one of my photos on their web site. That's nice of them, the license used on flicker does not require them to notify me.
So I was curious anyhow. They provided me a link to the page where the photo was to appear, but after loading that link I couldn't see any photos of mine there. The web site is entirely Spanish. It seems to be some Spanish newspaper?
My next clue was a link they provided in the message to the photo license which had the photo ID in it. So I clicked that to find out what photo they are actually using. That worked. It was a ruffled (but nice) picture of Nana! Well i had noticed the photo of an elderly woman on the link they gave me. Perhaps they had decided against using my photo in the end? Finally i resorted to doing a google search for my name and the spanish web site... and sure enough google provided me a link...
Scroll down to the bottom and there is Nana, attached to a short article having something to do with the Prime Minister of Spain and Alzheimer's. I'll bet Nana never guessed a picture of her would end up on a Spanish newspaper web site. Well, I have to admit, neither did I, to be fair.
Searching a bit more I found another link to apparently a science news site with another short article on Alzheimer's, again using this same picture.
Then, yet another, this time a polish site with an english language description of Alzheimer's. The same picture. The site name translates to "Herbs Online: A guide to herbs and herbal cosmetics". Nana's there.
It seems I must have mentioned Alzheimer's in the photo description, and now Nana is an Alzheimer's poster girl... crazy hair and all. (It really is a nice picture though... a moment in which she was ironically looking the least Alzheimer's-afflicted of that entire visit.)
Anyhow, that got me searching. And next i found.... Selena breastfeeding. Look, here she is nursing Istra in "Mommies Magazine". And here she is again, on some woman's personal blog who seems to be a bit obsessed with strollers.
I always wondered why that first photo got so many clicks on flickr. I just figured flickr was teeming with weirdos. But it turns out Mommies Magazine linked back to the flickr photo page. It was a bunch of mommies looking at that picture, not perverts after all! Who would have guessed that?
Extending my search still further I found some of my apple picking pictures being used out there. Here's a picture featuring Gramma with Istra in an article called "Fun to the Core" on Grandparents.com! And another accompanying someone excited about apple picking season on a site called "All Over Albany".
I found this picture of Istra crying on mommy's shoulder stuck in what appears to be a novel (?) someone was writing online, entitled "The Price of Love". They converted the photo to black and white, and the only indication that it's my photo is the filename which they've changed to "a-last-tear-by-tim-selena-middleton.jpg". Fair enough! Rather sappy paragraph it's attached to though! It reads: "I cried. I cried in pain – cried for all those memories, those beginnings, those endings, and for all those times together at the church. Cried for a long time, maybe a quarter of an hour. Then I settled the kids in the car, and I went back for a minute or two more and I cried on my own, all over again." Istra captures these sentiments, apparently.
Ha. Well, too much time searching... but it was kind of interesting. Kind of fun to see a few of one's photos somehow getting around in the wild, without the owner's knowledge or any particular effort to make the things known. Makes me realise (not for the first time) that i really should be taking the time to more carefully tag and embed descriptions of many of my posted photos. (If i had time...)
Mommy, when i feel i want to say aomething to you, but I don't know what to say, I just say "I love you". Ok? [Istra]
Many thanks for the loan of your marvellous photograph, which I also attributed to you in the "alt" and "title" tags as well as in the file name. If you'd prefer a hyperlink to the original file, then I'll happily provide one.
I found your image in a flickr image search and it's fantastically emotive in this context: my project The Price of Love is not a novel but a memoir about bereavement, designed to help grieving widowed parents, and especially those with young children. The book is based firmly on my own experience.
My kids were two and a half and eleven months old at the time of their mothers' death, so that the age of your infant (and the wonderful capture of the tear) caught my eye when I was searching.
My family circumstances have resettled now, and the awful horror of bereavement and of supporting grieving children is safely behind me. Nevertheless, I won't forget that time or fail to remember that personal happiness and good family health are precious gifts to appreciate with every single day.
I was delighted and intrigued to read that your daughter loves stuffing rocks in her pockets -- as a geologist myself I can relate to this behaviour precisely. My other site roads of stone is the place I use for my geological, sporting and planet-preservational ramblings. In this vein, I saw your recent post about that sinkhole in the Niagara Escarpment, and as it happens, there is another famous Devil's Punchbowl not half an hour from where I live.
Many thanks to you once again, and with all best wishes to Ontario from a frosty winter's night here in (the other) London.
Makes me wonder if any of my pics have been used for anything... how do you go about finding out, Tim?