Photographic Archive CDs
Royalty-Free Images

Text and pictures © 1992-2024 Guillaume Dargaud
Last updated on 2021/11/05

"You can't depend on your eyes if your imagination is out of focus."    — Mark Twain.

The Photo Archive CDs are collections of JPEG images provided royalty free^(*). The first two CDs contains images of Antarctica and the other three images of rock and mountain climbing. You should be able to use the CDs on any computer that can read ISO 9660 compact disks. To aid in image selection, thumbnails are presented grouped on HTML pages that should be viewable in any graphical web browser (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera...). There are so many bugs and different versions of those browsers that is impossible to guarantee satisfactory operation on even those listed above; so if you cannot get the pages to display properly, please return the CD for a full refund, indicating operating system, browser type and version.

On Microsoft Windows systems, the welcome page should come up automatically when you insert the CD. If it does not or you are on another operating system, open the file index.htm using your browser. At worst you can open directly the images located in the D:\Large\ directory (or whatever it's called on your system). I encourage you to make a backup copy of the CD.

All the pictures provided on those CDs are royalty-free^(*) but remain © Guillaume Dargaud 1992-2024.

Royalty-free means that you pay only once for an image that can be used for multiple projects over an unlimited period of time. Since royalty-free images are sold on a nonexclusive basis, customers often choose them as a complement to a design rather than making them the primary focus. Fees for royalty-free images are the same for every purchaser, regardless of the project specifics. The only factor that alters the cost of royalty-free images is the file size selected for purchase. Generally royalty free images cost less than licensed images (stock photography).

In other words, here is what you can do with them if you have legally purchased the CD:

• Use the pictures in any personal or commercial project you wish, including website, exposition, advertisement, publications, illustration, software... without paying any extra royalty.
• You can print them and sell the prints (for instance if you are a framing shop).
• Crop, resize, transform or more generally apply whatever digital filter you wish.
• Use them as many times as you want.
• You are not required to name me when you use the images, although I appreciate if you do or you put a link to my website (http://www.gdargaud.net/).

And here is what you cannot do with those pictures, even if you have purchased the CD:

• Re-sell the files directly.
• Redistribute copies of the entire CD, or parts of it, either for free or money.
• Pretend you took them (for a photo contest for instance).
• Request exclusive rights of use.
• Put the files up for free download (those images are not 'open right').

Image characteristics: pictures were taken with various equipment including: a Nikon F801s, a Nikon F100, a Ricoh GR1 and a Ricoh GR21 using mostly Fujichrome Velvia 50asa or Provia 100asa slide film. Some photos use Black & White film (Kodak Tmax 100 or Fujifilm Acros 100). They were scanned with a Nikon Super Coolscan 4000ED at 4000dpi or in a few cases with a Minolta Dimâge Dual Scan II at 2820dpi, so most images are between 3800x2600 and 5400x3500 pixels. Yes, that's almost 20 Mega-Pixels, 3 to 10 times better than your average digital camera. Gamma of the scan: 2.2, gamma of the display screen: 1, sRGB or embedded AdobeRGB colorspace. ICE has been used or dust has been manually removed from the scans. The images are saved in JPEG files with very little compression and no watermaking or other useless security measures.

The CDs also contain a CSV file with image information (size, ratio, resolution, comment...) which you can import easily into any kind of database. A DHTML page on the CD gives an example by sorting images in various ways.

The various Photographic Archive CDs cost a meager US$140. I used to sell individual pictures for corporate use for $200 each, so that's about a 8000% price drop... Yeah, I'm bad at marketing.

Preview Thumbnails

CD	Title	Random Thumbnail	Image lists
	Resolution
	Number of images
	Content
	Price
	Purchase
	Antarctic Photo Archive CD 1		105 Emperor Penguins 70 Adelie Penguins 81 other animals 60 Landscape and icebergs 14 sky and weather phenomena 25 Dumont d'Urville 18 Terra Nova Bay 17 Dome C / Concordia
	2820dpi
	390
	Pictures taken during one winter and five summers in Antarctica
	140 US$
	Antarctic Photo Archive CD 2		21 Emperor Penguins 53 Adelie Penguins 50 other animals 51 Scenery and icebergs  6 Sky and weather phenomena 32 Dumont d'Urville  7 Terra Nova Bay 29 Dome C / Concordia
	4000dpi
	250
	Pictures taken during one winter and five summers in Antarctica
	140 US$
	Antarctic Photo Archive CD 3		11 Animals 13 Mario Zuchelli station 32 Fisheye 26 Flying 52 Glaciology  9 McMurdo station 19 Polar night 38 Outside 44 Aurora and green flash 25 Portraits 33 Science 20 Summer camp 15 Traverse 23 Work
	Mostly 4000dpi
	360
	Pictures of the first winterover at Concordia station
	140 US$
	Climbing Photo Archive CD 1		21 Alaska 22 Chamonix 25 Cho-Oyu 10 Ecuador 26 Italy 49 New Zealand 23 Nepal 13 Various 38 Peru  9 Sarek  8 Tasmania 21 Tibet
	Mostly 4000dpi
	265
	Pictures of mountain climbing around the world
	140 US$
	Climbing Photo Archive CD 2		27 California 118 Colorado 10 Dakota 12 Others 93 Yosemite
	Mostly 4000dpi
	260
	Pictures of rock climbing mainly in the southwest USA
	140 US$
	Climbing Photo Archive CD 3		30 Arizona 35 Nevada 156 Utah 73 Wyoming
	Mostly 4000dpi
	294
	Pictures of rock climbing mainly in the southwest USA
	140 US$
	Climbing Photo Archive CD 4		51 Australia 32 New Zealand 21 Misc 146 Oisans
	Various
	250
	Pictures of rock climbing around the world
	140 US$
	Climbing Photo Archive CD 5		19 Corsica 11 Ice Climbing 25 Landscape 50 Mountain skiing 52 Nature 43 Rock climbing 16 Spain 13 Various
	The Alps
	230
	Pictures of climbing and backcountry skiing around the Alps
	140 US$
Discount	Antarctic and Climbing Photo Archive CDs, the complete set	For the whole thing, 3 Antarctic CDs and 5 Climbing CDs, just purchase 6 of them. I'll send you the last two free. The security of the transaction is handled by Kagi.com which accepts most forms of payment (credit card, purchase orders, check, Paypal, etc...). As of 2017 my payment system is no longer in business, so just contact me and we'll work something out.
	Various
	2070
	Antarctica and climbing pictures
	-140 US$ discount