Admittedly it is a niche category, but I’ve got the evidence to back up my claim. My all-time favorite picture of my dogs was used on a t-shirt sold by Aerie (a girls’ clothing chain owned by American Eagle). Now they are all over North America! My daughters were excited when the salespeople said it was their favorite shirt (without knowing it was our dogs).
Click the picture for a larger view. A shot of the t-shirt is in the upper-right. Wishbone and Xannie are in the back.
It was one of those rare shots where they actually look posed (seeing the other shots from that day will tell you that it was a random event to have them looking the same direction and to be positioned like that). We just had the patio put in so it is perfectly white, and the lighting was just right.
They did turn Wishbone into a girl on the t-shirt, but he hasn’t noticed and I don’t plan on telling him. Shhhhh . . .
P.S. Here’s another secret: We don’t think Xannie is all Italian Greyhound. We think she is part stuffed animal or possibly part skunk.
Eternity Matters 
That’s cool, Neil! And I have to live my life vicariously through whatever achievements my kids accomplish.
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Wow! I get airplane photos published in a book which is in a niche where maybe a couple thousand my be sold, but you get a photo where MILLIONS will be sold. I really need to get your autograph :oD Congratulations!
(I would NEVER buy a shirt with dogs on it – I’m a cat person!)
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Neil, after re-reading my comment I realized it looks snarky. I apologize if it did. Believe me, no snark was intended. I meant that’s really something of which to be proud. I know I will likely never accomplish anything that great so I can only hope my kids do someday.
I wonder how it came about. Did you submit the photo ? Did the company happen to wander across the photo on a web site and ask permission to use it? Did they pay you anything for it?
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Hi Mark,
No offense taken, but thanks for the clarification. This was basically a tongue-in-cheek post about something quirky that happened. I didn’t get rich or famous, we just got a kick out of our amusing dogs ending up on a t-shirt. I can’t discuss the particulars, but I found American Eagle folks to be reasonable (the whole thing started because the photo was on my blog and was searchable).
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I have over 9000 photos of airplanes posted at http://www.airport-data.com. I found the site in April 2006, and since that time I have had dozens of people inquiring about publishing my photos in various venues. The latest book was published last month, “Aviation Museums and Collections of North America,” by Bob Odgen. He’s in England and spotted my shots, and ten are in his book.
What’s funny is that I have never gotten a dime for any photo I’ve ever granted permission – not that it hasn’t been offered, but I just never thought about it that way. Besides that book, I had photos in another book 20 years ago and in both cases I just asked for a copy of the book.
Having photos posted on the internet is a sure way to get interest in them. Which is also why we have to be careful what we put out there! Between your dogs and my planes, we might yet be famous!
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