It's a surprise to see my niche being brought up on Hacker News! I read the site regularly, so it's a little flattering to be mentioned.
Gunkanjima was a fascinating place to explore, but there are countless other much smaller sites with their own mystique and rich history. The 'Royal House' and 'Red Villas' are among many that I have explored and documented.
Shikoku is one of the four main islands of Japan. It's not in any way 'forgotten' in the urbex sense, but as with most everywhere in Japan, it has many abandoned buildings and sites to find, as well as some good diving sites, I hear.
Although perhaps not quite the standard sort of site to be mentioned on Hacker News, I always enjoy reading this website. I write about my explorations of ruins, travels in Japan, photography and the occasional piece on design, SEO and other branding and marketing related material. Feel free to have a read if you need a break :).
That's pretty much what happened to me as well. At first they wanted their standard fees per photo of £40 for the first, £20 for the second and £10 for any after that. Those fees were terrible, and I was successful in getting a lot better rate. I ended up waiving my unauthorised usage fee and setting for a a reasonable amount that I would have been happy with if they had contacted me in the first place. Still, several people are saying that I should have stuck to my guns and demanded my original invoice and that I was too lenient. Perhaps a learning experience for me...
I appreciate the discussion and the submission. I believe my case to sincere. This is the first time a major publication has used my work without even contacting me, let alone paying me. On my website I clearly state that I am happy for the work to be used under a Creative Commons licence in non-commercial contexts on the internet. This is intended to target mostly bloggers and other people whose intentions are merely to share and like things.
However, the Daily Mail is a major tabloid serving advertisements next to my article, including Google Adsense, to which I have filed a DMCA complaint, and thus profiting from my work. Not only that, but they edited most of my images, removing the watermark and cropping the bottom off, as well as enlarging many images such that the quality becomes poor. As an aspiring photographer, that really hurts.
Gunkanjima was a fascinating place to explore, but there are countless other much smaller sites with their own mystique and rich history. The 'Royal House' and 'Red Villas' are among many that I have explored and documented.
Shikoku is one of the four main islands of Japan. It's not in any way 'forgotten' in the urbex sense, but as with most everywhere in Japan, it has many abandoned buildings and sites to find, as well as some good diving sites, I hear.