Do you think I had these sources handy?
Think again.
Oh, I saved urls, and some of those links were still working, most other photos weren't too hard to find on the web elsewhere, but finding the source of the photos has been a nightmare. Who took that picture? And who does it belong to?
I don't even wanna talk about it. Time-Life, AP, UPI, Bettman/Corbis, Getty Images, the JFK Library, the Library of Congress, NARA -- National Archives and Records Administration -- I don't wanna talk about it. And that's just for starters. Did you know there's a rabbit living under my artemesia?
WHAT WAS I THINKING? I have squirreled down rabbit holes, I have climbed up trees, I have fallen off cliffs, I have been all over the lavender like this bee, in my quest to track down the source of each of these photos. My photo source document is now fifty pages long. Fifty pages. And I have 8 sources to go.
I am wrung out on this permissions thing, and I hope I never again put up a photo on my website that is not credited. Do you realize how many people do this? When I'd come across a credited site in my searching (thank you, Eyes on the Prize!) I would shout Hosannas and Bless Your Hearts! The sun would beam brightly all over me, in exactly the way it's slathering itself on this hydrangea.
I will be smarter next time. Now I understand. Now I know. And I am parched. I'm going to go water my garden and then come back in to track down these last eight photos. If I can't find one -- no way -- then I'll substitute for one whose source I can verify. Then I'll ship the whole kaboodle off to Scholastic so they can do their part.I did hear from my editor yesterday, just a teeny note. He's on page 206. So far, so very good. That, as much as anything, waters my soul.
