If you’re an Articulate E-Learning Hero who’s also a designer you need good images and appreciate the benefits of a community whose members share their work and expertise.
The morgueFile Community
You probably know morgueFile as a place to get free images, but I never knew their intention was to have a give-one-take-one sort of self-sustaining community. I thought their contributors were professional photographers and it never even occurred to me they’d want my contributions!
Since I’ve used some of their community’s photos to good effect for recent Articulate #ELHChallenge demos about digital magazines, freelancing tips, and ways to survive the holidays – I thought it would be fun to give back, too.
A Quick & Easy Way to Contribute
(Update: I’m no longer seeing the app or finding images I’ve contributed – but they’ve still got lots of images you can use!)
Last week I found out about their morgueFile #Quest app for iPhone*. Each day they issue a daily challenge (“red” for example), you snap a photo to answer it, upload it, and voilà! You’ve shared your work in a quick and easy way that helps both you and others.
Lucky for me I took a week of vacation right after discovering the app, so I had time to play with it and had oodles of fun taking pics and entering them into current and past challenges. You can see some of them on this page and get a glimpse of my vacay at the same time!
The Win-Win-Win-Win-Win
Not only do I find it more motivating to take pics with the app like this, but I get to be creative in a different way, I have more photos to use for my own projects, I have new sources of inspiration, and it makes me happy knowing that someone else might benefit from these little bits of color and light I’m sharing too.
If this sounds like fun, you might want to give it a try! They even have a Classroom where you can learn more about the basics of photography and how to take better pics, if that’s your goal.
*You don’t need the app to contribute to the site, of course! You can upload your contributions via any browser.
Nice job Jackie. I didn’t know you were a professional photographer too!
Ha. :) Wouldn’t that be nice! You’re definitely the professional here – but I’m glad you like them. Thanks, Richard!
Yes, I love your pics. There’s a lot of variety. I can see how some of them could be used in an abstract artsy way or as a background to a scene. I’ve used my own pics for CD and video artwork. Oftentimes people don’t realize that what’s in front of them every day is a piece of art.
Thanks, Dan! I agree – once I’m consciously aware of what’s around me it’s easy to see arrangements of light and color as nothing but art. I can also see how I could use a lot of it for elearning. (Plus it’s fun!)
Awesome! I wonder if they have an Android App? Now I have to go look lol
Hi Jennifer! I think they’ve only got the iPhone app right now – but we should tell them that people would love to participate via Android too!
Fantastic post Jackie – and love your photos. Thanks for sharing this info!
Thank you so much, Dianne! I just mentioned you in the forums last night when I was talking about great pictures shared by community members. Here it is, if you’d like to see it. :)
I didn’t know MorgueFiles worked like this! Thanks for the blog post Jackie!
Hi Darlesa – I know!! How did I never understand this before??
Thanks for stopping by! I hope the Seattle aviation world is treating you well. :)