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Welcome to the Privacy and Terms page of PNW Lens Photography.

This is the more “user-friendly” of my privacy pages. The rest are auto-generated by my GDPR/CCPA compliance plugin and may have some strange-sounding legalese. I’ve linked to these pages here for convenience (it may be in a menu toggle farther down on this page if you are viewing this on mobile).

Some of the verbiage that I find strange are the “Do not sell my information” which is used in CCPA legislation. The plugin I use tends to interpret analytics as the selling of information. And I do use analytics. However, what I do NOT do is collect and outright SELL information to third parties. For instance, I do not collect a newsletter list and then sell that list. The only case in which I would do such a thing is if I outright sold an entire website that included said newsletter — and I’d let subscribers know first so they could unsubscribe if they wanted to.

Privacy and Terms, in a nutshell:

This page is specific to this annex site. Some items may be the same between here and the main site of PNWLens.com, but there are some different gallery, shop, and user account features on this site that are not available on the main site.

This page includes both privacy info and terms and conditions for things like use of images, refunds, etc.

I DO use some Google services to view the number of visitors to this site and which pages they are visiting. And I do have various contact forms, etc with which you might share information.

Various Privacy Pages and Documents:

Below are the various privacy and cookie policies for this website. As I mentioned, most are auto-generated.

Who I am

This website is created and run by Cheryl Dimof. I am an individual photography enthusiast in Poulsbo, WA.

Photography Terms of Use

On this website, all photography is done by myself. The only case where I’ll use outside resources on this website is if I start posting ABOUT photography and must use other photographs as an example. In such cases, I will give credit.

You’ll find various types of galleries on this website.

Galleries of local events with people in theme are for “editorial use only” as there was no model release in these cases. For these, as well as for some other images, you may find that they are in a lightbox that has a download icon. If you are able to instantly download an item, it is available use for non-commercial purposes without payment. However, you might find that when you do so you you get a popup to make an (optional) donation. For such images the terms of use are:

• If it’s unpaid, I’d appreciate your attribution of the image.
• In any case, you cannot claim authorship of the image.
• You may use it on your website, in blog posts, in a print newsletter, on your own mug, etc, but you may not use it on commercial items (i.e. tshirts, mugs, etc).
• Where photos have people and are for editorial use only, you may not modify the photos.

Images that you purchase and then download do not require any attribution but of course I still prefer that you don’t claim authorship of the photo. While I love photography for its own sake, purchasing photo gear is costly and the photography takes time, though it’s usually time well-spent.

Copyright Info and Licensing Terms

Starting in Sept 2024, I’m trying to add better license terms into the metadata of photos I export. In general, here are some of the terms you might find in the metadata of the photos. I’m working on this section and adding more as I sort through my images.

All Rights Reserved

The photos in galleries with a “purchase” button are generally “All Rights Reserved.” Such photos are not available for use unless you purchase an image. If you do purchase an image, of course, you may use it commercially in web design, print (but not for product use without checking in with us to see about purchasing an extended license) without attribution, modify the image, etc, but you cannot claim authorship.

Creative Commons Share-Alike 4.0

You can read these licensing terms here.

This license grants you to use the photo free of charge WITH attribution. You may use the image commercially and modify it. In general, I use these terms in some of my images that are of objects and that do not have people in them, as I feel weird about allowing modification (well, except cropping and some colorization, of course) of allowing modifications of images of people at public events for which there is not model release.

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

You can read these licensing terms here.

Basically, you are allowed to use these photos as long as you don’t make modifications and use them for noncommercial purposes. I use this for many of my event photos which include people in public events. So, photos are legally allowed, but I was not, of course, able to obtain any kind of model release. The license includes the provision that you attribute the image.

More to come…

User Uploads

This facility has the capability for user photo uploads. If you encounter such a gallery and want to upload a photo, please read more here. I want to keep that information in one place to avoid discrepancies.

Photographic Prints

If I sell any photographic prints, wall art, or other physical products on this website, they’ll generally be ones that I either have in-stock or make in-house. If you see a photo on this website and would like to order a print of it, you can always get the download in the largest size and have it made yourself OR it may be available for automatic print fulfilment on the annex site. Or you can contact me.

Purchasing Images

My payment processors are either Stripe (for most credit cards as well as Apple Pay and Google Pay) or Paypal (which also allows you to use Venmo).

Returns and Refunds

On downloadable images, I do not offer returns and refunds unless there was some sort of issue that could not be resolved.

For in-stock photographic prints and wall art, there’s a 30 day return policy, but I’d appreciate being notified of the intent to return within 14 days. Unless the item was damaged in shipping it to you, the item must be returned in the same condition it was received. I do not refund shipping charges to you or pay return shipping charges back.

Collection of Information on this Website

Please check the individual cookie policy for more up-to-date information on what cookies are currently on this website as it gets automatically updated to reflect changes that I make.

Google Analytics

I use Google Analytics and Search Console to compile website stats and see how many visitors are visiting specific pages. Information collected may be geolocation, IP address (though it get anonymized), demographic information.

Contextual Ads

If I missed it somewhere else, we’re now running contextual ads on this website, as well as a few from affiliate program. Personalized ads get shown with consent and Google’s Asense privacy policy applies. We also use Amazon’s affiliate program which we use for books and product links. If you click a link to Amazon chances are we get a small commission when you make a purchase that goes toward running this website.

Newsletters

I manage my own email newsletter in-house rather than use an outside service such as Mailchimp. All information is stored on my own server. At the least, subscribers must provide an email address, but may disclose additional information if they wish. In addition, I do collect IP/Geolocation information in case I want to target a newsletter to a specific geographic area. Newsletter lists are shared between this site and the annex site, Collection. I cannot connect the lists so I import subscribers from one to the other and remove them when they unsubscribe.

Contact and Comment Forms

Users must leave an email to use contact and comment forms on this website. Actually, the comment form for this website is located on the main URL as it all goes to the same place. I use Akismet for spam protection as well as Google reCaptcha v3 — both of which will collect some basic information to distinguish spam and bots from valid submitters. When you fill out a comment, by its very nature you are disclosing some information about yourself, if only your opinions.

Google Maps

I use Google Maps in some places on this website, which may use geolocation data to show users the nearest map marker to their location.

Post and Gallery Ratings

This site has features where you can rate galleries. Some IP address is collected, if cookies are allowed, to prevent users from leaving multiple ratings.

Guest Posting

On blogs other than strictly personal portfolio blogs, I like to allow for guest posting. On this website, I may accept guest posts on topics related to photography. You can submit posts on the write for us page you’ll find in the menu.

If you submit a guest post, you agree to the following:

1. Currently we do not pay for posts, nor do we take payment for sponsored posts. We are currently working on a system for revenue sharing for published posts but have some revisions to make to our forms and terms before we can do that. If you are interested, please contact us and we’ll let you know when it’s ready. FYI our experience has been that contextual ads often earn very little and affiliate ads are hit or miss. But whatever the amount is, we would like to share with post authors who are interested, as we cannot afford to pay up front per-post.
2. We have the right to refuse to accept a post for ANY reason and do not have to divulge the reason we do not accept a post. If your post is published or declined, you will get an automated email letting you know (unless it goes to your spam folder). Generally, the reasons that we will decline a post is if it need excessive editing on our part, was not in some way related to photography, or was strictly commercial. In that case, we may accept sponsored posts in the future, but do not currently as I get this blog started.
3. You agree that you have the right to post this content and that it is not AI-generated. For glossary terms, SOME AI is allowed as long as it is disclosed as such and is not the main part of the content.
4. You must be registered and logged in to submit a post. You must have “member” status to access the posting form. You can get that by filling out a few simple profile items to let us know that you’re a real, adult, human: a profile photo, a short bio blurb that will go on your author box, at least a first name, and a date of birth which won’t be shown to anyone but you and admin unless you choose to make it public.

Please refer to privacy pages

In case I forget anything, here, I again urge you to look at the privacy policy for your area with automatically generated info.