The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository Is Live!

The Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository is live!

You can find it at: https://www.animal-photo-references.com!

A screenshot of the home page on the Exotic Animal Photo Reference Repository website. It is labeled "Photos by Taxa" in black text and has a copyright notice that reads: "Artists creating derivative or transformative works without Generative AI have blanket permission to reference these photos.

All other commercial and non-commercial use of these photos - including reposting them online or reproducing them in media or academic publications - requires advance permission. "

Below the text are six images in a 3x2 grid, each captioned. In the first row a photo of a cheetah is above the word "Mammals"; an American alligator is labeled "Reptiles"; a California Condor is labeled "Birds." The second row has a dart frog labeled "Coming soon: Amphibians"; an odd-looking fish sitting under a rock labeled "Coming soon: Fish"; and a small jellyfish labeled "Coming soon: Invertebrates."

Here's how this repository works: all photos were taken by me, a human, at zoos, aquariums, sanctuaries, and other facilities with animals in human care. There is no AI involved in the photo editing or creation and there never will be. Right now there's 56 species on the site; my catalog has over 300 and I will be uploading the rest of them as fast as I can.

Artists creating derivative or transformative works (without AI) have blanket permission to use these references. Yes, even for work you're going to sell.

All other usage/reproduction requires permission, but assume I'm friendly and please do ask! That's educators, researchers, the media, people who need images for a school presentation, etc. This is just to retain copyright/control in case they're scraped/reused unethically - it doesn't meant I don't want folk to have access! So please do reach out via the contact form on the repository website, I don't bite and I'm most likely going to say yes.

Please don't repost the repository photos to your own blogs: I've created @animalphotorefs as a dedicated blog to share photos from the site, and of course I'll reblog a lot of it here! That again just helps with retaining copyright and sourcing of the images. If you really want to repost some for a specific purpose, please just ask me first!

Also, folks, this project has no funding. It's just me and my camera.

There will never be a paywall on the site - I believe resources like this absolutely must be free for everyone to access. So please, please, please support the repository if you use it. Want sneak peeks at photos, cute videos I take, or to help choose what I photograph and what gets posted first? You can do that through Patreon (and there's a free trial on the most interactive tier!) If you'd like to just drop a tip, I've also set up a Ko-Fi.

I can't wait to hear what everyone thinks of the repository.

To whet your thirst for cute photos, here's an Indian rhinoceros contemplating a goose.

An Indian Rhinoceros' head is visible above the surface of deep water. It is staring directly at a Canadian goose that stands on concrete at the edge of the pool.

Tags

art tutorial art reference

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Try a 3D sculpture of your art in your own style in a free program that is simple and very easy to use.

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DO YOU LIKE OLD COMPUTER GRAPHICS?!

did you like ANY of these photos? would you like to see HUNDREDS MORE OF THEM?! with THOUSANDS OF UNIQUE TEXTURES?! ALL FROM FUCKING DECEMBER 15TH, YEAR 2000?!