Okay, so today I needed to get a picture of Ronald Reagan. Sounds straightforward, I know. But sometimes you need a specific kind of picture, not just the first thing that pops up.
First off, I just opened up my web browser. Nothing fancy. Went to my usual search engine. Typed in the obvious: ‘picture of ronald reagan’. Like expected, tons of images flooded the screen. Loads of them. You get all the classics – the wave, the smile, him with Nancy, the jelly bean jar one.
Digging a Bit Deeper
But I wasn’t after just any old snapshot. I needed something that felt a bit more, I don’t know, official or maybe thoughtful? For this little thing I’m putting together. So, I started tweaking my search terms.
- Tried ‘Ronald Reagan official portrait’. Got some good ones, but very formal.
- Then ‘Ronald Reagan in oval office’. More options came up, showing him working.
- Also tried adding ‘serious’ or ‘thinking’. That narrowed it down a bit.
Spent a bit of time just scrolling through the results. You know how it is. Page after page. Some pictures were too small, really low quality. Pixelated junk, basically. Couldn’t use those. Others were clearly watermarked by photo agencies, meaning they weren’t free to just grab.
Found one I quite liked, him at his desk, looking off to the side. Seemed perfect. But then I tried to find where it came from, check if it was okay to use. Couldn’t find clear info. Didn’t want to just take it and hope for the best. That’s always a hassle you want to avoid.
Went back to searching. Looked specifically for sources like presidential libraries or government archives. Figured those would be more likely to have clear usage rights, maybe even public domain stuff. Took a few more tries, clicking through different archive sites.
Finally landed on a pretty decent black and white photo. It showed him speaking at a podium. Good quality, clear image. Found it on a site that seemed to list it as public domain from a government source. Good enough for me. Downloaded it straight away.
So yeah, it took a bit longer than just grabbing the first image, maybe 20 minutes or so of actual looking and clicking. But I got the kind of picture I needed in the end. Job done.
