Sometimes I’ll get a response from an old blog post. To avoid spambots, my blog posts are timed to close comments after a month or two. But if someone wants to contact me about a blog post, there’s the “Contact Chuck Miller” link.
Which is how someone contacted me about this blog post.
So who would be interested in a two-year-old blog post about my vascular surgery recovery?
“My name is Ashley and I am a clinical educator responsible for training new nurses on a vascular unit. I am working on revamping our training to include more visuals for their understanding. I was looking for pictures of femoral bypasses after the dressing has been removed and came across your blog and photo. I wanted to inquire if you would be willing to provide permission for the use of your photo. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. I appreciate your consideration.”
Yep. Apparently my leg could be considered medical research.
Checked the email account. It’s from a legitimate health care company. So it’s not a spambot or a scammer.
Okay, fine. I sent an email to Ashley and offered her a reasonable licensing fee for my leg photo.
Never heard back.
Which means one of two things.
(1) The email I sent to her ended up in a spam filter or she hasn’t read it yet.
Or the more likely scenario …
(2) She saw that I wanted a licensing fee for this photo, rather than provide the image for free, and went to look for other options that didn’t involve that photo.
Yeah, kinda figured that was the more likely scenario. Considering all I went through to come out of that surgery in one piece … with 94 staples holding my leg together while I survived a femoral artery bypass to keep from, oh, I don’t know, DYING …
If I survived all that, and I post a picture of my recovery on my blog post, then if someone wants that image, I expect a few dollars back, considering how many dollars I went through in surgical co-pays and recovery.
I’m also a photographer. And when it comes to providing my works, I’m more than happy to offer my images for charity or for fundraising. But there are times when I want to be paid for their use. That is the simplicity of it.
So if you want that image of my post-surgery, staple-riddled leg …
I need some coin.
Considering how much coin I spent to survive to this point in my life …
It wouldn’t hurt to receive some of that money back.
Chuck The Writer 
Could be a golden opportunity toward having pics of your parts land in the NEJM, JAMA or The Lancet, for posterity. Talk about an audience. And oh, what a gift to humanity!
I’m sure Ashley is busy huddling with her superiors, working up a counteroffer.ย
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