We finally get to put up actual pictures that Scarlett took in the Galapagos on products!

There are so many reasons why putting up products with our actual pictures takes so long. I’m still new to editing and to be honest, I’m not sure which is more difficult for me, editing pictures or creating graphics from pictures.

So much needs to be done in efforts to protect work. There are many reasons for why you see graphics come out faster on our products compared to pictures. One of our main concerns is that animals, including penguins, get misnamed. Of course pictures are often stolen, meta data is changed, no credit is given, etc. But the worse is when someone puts a up picture of an African penguin that belongs to someone else and references it as an Emperor penguin, as an example. Or uses that picture to share Emperor Penguin facts. Of course most of you reading this know there’s differences amongst species but not everyone does so the wrong information paired with the wrong picture is misleading. This irks me.

When we went to the Galapagos the penguin merch was so sparse, I was ecstatic when I found anything penguin related. I bought a magnet that had a penguin on it and branding of a Galapagos national wildlife association. It even said Galapagos penguin on it. I bought it immediately and took it home. When I placed it on the fridge, I felt like a real doofus. It was a picture of an African penguin. Super upsetting.

There’s a lot to know about protecting art of every sort and pictures especially. Did you know it’s illegal to remove or crop out a watermark? Everything a person makes is automatically their property and copyrighted but getting the images copyright registered with the copyright office is what makes it possible for people to leverage their work in court when people or companies use a photo without permission.

After a ton of research and knowing about sad stories of stolen work, I’m not sure if I’ll ever be fully comfortable putting up a design or picture without it being on a product. I worry that’ll make us unpopular. Maybe I shouldn’t be worried? But better safe than sorry?

Anyways, thanks for your patience everyone! We hope you all love the new products! If you want to see them featured on any other products, please let us know!