#introduceyourself My name is Matt I love the Public Domain and I give my professional photos away for free!!!

Who I am
My name is Matt and I live in Georgia, USA with my beautiful wife, and my two awesome kids. I have a deep passion for creating with excellence. I used to be a web designer(10 years), professional photographer (7 years)and graphic designer(12 years). (I also own a few other businesses, one of which is called Sons of Sawdust, you can find that business on Steemit here: @mattofsawdust) Over the course of my photography career I took over 1 million photographs!!! Most of these photos sat on hard drives in my closet. So, I had the idea that I wanted to give them away for FREE! I started researching how to do this and found that I was not alone. There were many other photographers that were in the same boat as me. So, I created a website called Public Domain Archive where myself and other photographers could freely give away our high quality photography as free stock photos.

Why public domain?
I've always loved incorporating high quality photos in my web/graphic designs. Even as a photographer there were times when I was doing a mock up and I didn't have the time to go out a do a photo shoot. So, I started searching for places that I could grab a high quality photo and use them without having to pay for a royalty or license. This lead me to the discovery of the Public Domain license and public domain images as a great resource. When a photo is released into the Public Domain, it is free forever, to anyone, for any purpose. The problem is, there's no one place to go and find tons of high quality public domain images. The sites that do have good images are hard to find and I always forget the domain name of these public domain resources. So, I set out to change that! I created PublicDomainArchive.com as a repository where I archive the highest quality public domain images that I find across the web. A hub for all high quality public domain images. I also wanted to create a website with a minimalist design that keeps the focus on the images. Since starting the site a few years ago, I have received millions of visitors and hundreds of thousands of image downloads!

What we are not
We are not a stock photography website like Shutterstock or Dreamstime. We are a public domain image repository. We are a site where you come to explore and discover photographic treasures. A place to find inspiration and photography that you can re-use in your creative projects. If you are expecting shutterstock, you will probably be disappointed. We aren't trying to re-create the wheel, we are trying to create one place where you can come to be inspired to create something amazing. I hope that you will join me on this journey as I try to create an amazing website where you can explore thousands of high resolution public domain images.

We need your support
I discovered Steemit recently and realized that this would be the perfect platform to be able to share my photos and possibly be able to make a little bit of Steem for the effort and so, I am excited to be here and to be part of this community! It is challenging to run a website and only generating revenue through ads, my hopes are that Steemit will provide the opportunity for me to be able to pour more time into taking incredible photos and giving them away for free! Your upvotes and resteems will enable me to help more people just like you. Thanks for keeping this in mind. Thanks again for stopping by and thanks in advance for sharing me with your friends!

Here is my first free photo. You can have it and use it anyway that you like! I took this photo in Chicago, IL while on a trip with my wife for her 30th birthday. Hope you like it!!!