These are the answers to some frequently asked questions for this website, PNWLens. Some answers may be a bit different for the annex site, PNWLens Collection.
If you have a question that isn’t answered on this page, you can use this form to ask. Please ensure that you’ve looked at the answers that are already here before you submit the form.
Frequently Asked Questions Table of Contents
About this website
Image and Gallery Frequently Asked Questions
Finding Images
There are a few ways to find images on this website:
- You’ll find an image search bar near the bottom of the homepage and a few other places on the website. Image search bars will search images in galleries. Most images from image search, when clicked, will open in a white lightbox with image information. Some may be purchasable from that lightbox. Others that have the cart greyed out may be found in other galleries that have a direct download button. I’m going to try linking to the primary location of the image from the description, but it’s a daunting task. If you want to download such an image and there’s not a link, try doing a sitewide search using the header tool for a gallery name that matches the content of the image.
- Using the search icon in the site header will search posts and galleries — but you can then open a gallery and view images within that gallery. Where a journal entry is about a specific photo, I’ve tried to link to the gallery that is home to that photo.
- Browse. Go to galleries and browse through the galleries there. They are in chronological order according to when they were added, but I’ll likely add individual categories in the header menu as I get more added.
Do you allow guest images on the website?
I have the facility, on this website, to allow user uploads to selected galleries.
In the event that you encounter a gallery with user uploads and want to upload an image, here’s what you should know:
- There is currently no member area in which you can view your photos. They’ll be accessible from the front end of the website but if you wish to delete them, you’ll need to ask.
- You can add the following information: An image title and description, alt information for the image, a custom link and link target.
- As there’s no field for author information, I recommend that you add that in your description and use the custom link field to link to your website if you’d like. The custom link field must contain a full plain URL.
- If you use “FooBox” as the custom target, your image will open in the regular lightbox (if that’s what set for that gallery) and then another lightbox on top of it. FooBox has social sharing icons and it has a download button. If you choose FooBox, users will be able to use the icons to share your image and they’ll be able to download your image.
- Images go into a moderation queue. I do not get notified of new images so I try to check on at least a weekly basis. No notifications get sent out, either, so please check to see if your image was added.
- You must be logged in to add an image. You can register here.
- I may add extra information to your image, such as an additional caption (perhaps based on your description) and image tags and categories so it can more easily be found.
- Your image may appear in other galleries on the site, such as image search galleries or galleries that add images by their tag or category. So please add author information to your image in the category and custom link. We can see who uploaded the image but that doesn’t get shown on the front end.
How can I use photos on this website?
You’ll find more information about that in privacy and terms. In a nutshell, if the photo is of an event with people in it, consider that photo for “editorial use only.” It may be used, but not edited. It is likely in a lightbox that has a download button. If that’s the case, you may download it. For any photo that is in a lightbox that has an instant download button, you may download the image and use it for your website, etc but not for making commercial items. And you must not claim to be the photographer. It would be nice if you attributed the image and linked back to it, and you’ll find that the first time you hit that download button, there’s a popup where you can make a donation, if you want to say “thank you.”
You also might, in some other lightboxes, find photos for sale, either downloads or physical items.
Advertising
I add this section as I’ll, likely, eventually get asked about these items.
Guest/sponsored posts or link back Requests
Question: Do you accept guest posts or sponsored posts or will you add my link to your blog post?
The answer is, currently, “no.” I do not accept sponsored posts on this website and I do not insert additional links into post content.
If this site grows and I finally get through sorting my own images, I may, at some point, allow some guest posts, but do not currently have that set up. I do not plan to allow any guest posts or user uploads on the annex site.
Offers of various services
Question: I want to offer SEO services/I can help put your site first on Google/I can help redesign your website.
Answer: I am interested in none of these things. Thank you.
Advertising on this website
Do you sell ad space on this website?
Answer: no, I don’t. At some point, I may run some affiliate or contextual ads in written post content, but do not plan to try selling ad space either here or on the annex site.
Newsletters
Note that newsletter lists are maintained on this site (not managed by an outside service such as Mailchimp).
Lists are shared between PNWLens.com and its annex as the content between sites is similar. This means that I (eventually) import subscribers between sites, but keep their preferences the same. This also means, however, that preference changes on one site do not always get updated in the other site as I get no notification about preference changes. If I get an unsubscribe from one list, the subscriber gets unsubscribed from the other list manually as I do get notifications about that.
Double opt-in is configured for newsletters. If you get an email asking you to confirm that you want to subscribe and you never tried to subscribe, just don’t respond. Anyone can come along and put an email address in a form. If you don’t respond, no account has been created for you and you won’t end up getting newsletters.
You should be able to unsubscribe by following a link in the footer of any email newsletter. If you are having difficulty, please contact me. It is not “rigged.” If you’ve worked with websites, WordPress, or computers..or any tech for that matter…you probably know that things can have glitches. I have not experienced that on this website, but it takes getting notified about such a problem. Trust that I really do not want to keep you on a list that you don’t want to be on.
Shop and Photo Purchases
On this website, there is a shop capability, though I’ve not yet put it to use.
As mentioned previously, in some lightboxes, you might find some photos for sale for download, and you might find, at some point, some physical items such as prints or wall art in the shop. If you do, these are the terms:
Returns
Physical items may be returned within 30 days, letting me know ASAP if you intend to return the item. I do not refund shipping charges (unless there was damage in transit to you), nor do I pay for return shipping.
Downloads are non-refundable. If you find that there is an issue with your file download, contact me and I’ll find the image file in my archives. There should not be an issue — however, the very first few photos that were uploaded to this site were before I remembered that WordPress now likes to resize images by default. I disabled that “feature” right away but there’s a chance that I didn’t identify each and every image that had been “crunched.”
Thanks!
