Support your local photographers

One outgrowth of the Everett White copyright story should be this: ad agencies and graphic design artists should be encouraged to tap the talents of the local photographic community.

There are lots of folks doing extraordinary work. Sometimes it is illustrating the commonplace with uncommon imagery.  Sometimes it is allowing us to see as new and exciting what we take for granted in our community.

It just takes an email or telephone call to: tap the talent; to ask for permission or arrange compensation for an existing image; or, to offer a commission for new work.

Avoiding commissions to professional photographers by using images of amateur photographers taken from the internet without permission hurts both the professional and the amateur.

MORE: Check out Joe Taylor's Everett White t-shirt post.

MORE: Eric Fetcho's take at Fetchy's Bantering.

Comments

[Chad Ryan]

You touched on a topic here that is both very commonplace and damaging. The biggest piece of advice I give to other photographers who ask me is to always charge appropriately for their work. Unfortunately, many folks are just happy to be published and therefore give their work away for a photo credit. Photo credits won't pay for the increase in electric bills that I&M is currently asking for.

It floors me how many people ask me to use my pictures for nothing more than a photo credit. Ask an electrician to wire your house and for payment you'll guarantee great exposure by placing a sign with the company name on your front door. Do that then stand back as they collapse from laughter. Yet it is somehow OK to ask someone whose invested many thousands of dollars into their photographic equipment, processing technology and education, etc. to give away some pictures or shoot for next to nothing.

Many say they feel uncomfortable charging fair rates because they are amateurs. I submit that if someone is asking to use an image for their needs then that use is worth a fair price. There are many amateurs who do great work, but giving it away hurts professionals and amateurs alike. The only entity benefitting is the buyer, which in many cases saves thousands by taking advantage of someone who felt uncomfortable charging what they're worth.

With the ease of creating, delivering and even stealing digital images, amateurs and pro's should always register their photos with the U.S. Copyright office and understand that regardless of their professional status their photos most definitely have value.

Ed. note: Bravo, Chad. Well written and good advice to all photographers, artists and graphic designers - don't be afraid to charge for your work.

[Chad Ryan]

In regards to my previous post, I do agree that there are times when allowing the free use of images is OK, such as for charity or other causes. The key here is it should be up to the artist when and to whom they allow for this type of use.

In my opinion multi-million dollar corporations do not qualify as a charitable causes, even if their representatives proclaim budget for purchasing art art very limited.

Just this week I had to demand that my stolen images be taken off a California energy drink corporation's web site. I met the company owner in person at an event in Chicago, and apparently because we had a good conversation (one that I thought could potentially lead to some paid photo shoots)the gentleman thought he had the green light to send his webmaster to my blog and "borrow" some images since mine were better than what they could have shot. I offered to negotiate a web-use price for the photos, but they opted to remove the images and I've not heard back.

Sorry for the long-winded comments, but as a professional photographer, this is an issue that hits home.

[Cathy Dee]

Working in publishing most of my career, I've learned way too much about copyright. I posted a little list of resources in an entry this week:
http://cadee.blogspot.com/2008/07/protecting-your-stuff-good-resource-on.html

[Michael Hunsche]

I own a local DJ company and my website is how I derive a substantial portion of my leads for new jobs. I use photo's from a photographer out of Indianapolis and they have no problem with me using them. I've left their logo on all the pictures and have developed a page just to talk up their services and abilities (which was planned regardless of the pictures).

They never mentioned any sort of payment and appeared to be happy to help. Maybe it's because the pictures were taken at a mutual friends wedding, maybe it's because they like the free advertising using pictures they were already paid a fair amount to take.

Photographers are in the unique position of having their pictures be their ads. So they are getting something when people post their pictures, advertising. If you don't feel you'll get anything from that ad, photographers can simply say no.

I think the issue is more that a photographer is a sort of service based business, and people tend to believe that service based over product based businesses charge a figure they made up in their head and that they can discount it at any time for anyone without having any consequences.

[Chad Ryan]

I can pretty much guarantee the amount of money I spend on cameras, lenses, lights, computers, digital storage, photo editing software, health insurance, retirement funds, office expenses, gas, liability insurance and everything else that figures into my cost of doing business are not numbers made up in my head. Unfortunately many photographers don't consider all of the costs that should determine their rates.

How far would it get me to ask you to author, record and deliver some audio tracks to me for use in multimedia productions then for payment I'll agree to drop your name in the credits? My guess is not very far.

[Nancy Nall]

A very smart photographer I know once quoted me his day rate, a four-figure sum I found jaw-dropping. "Do you think you're worth that?" I asked, knowing he was an amateur shooting portraits free of charge only a year or so before. He said, "The first lesson you learn is that if you don't charge a lot, clients don't think you're any good."

Sound advice I keep in mind when people ask for my lowest price on a writing or editing job. A while back I was asked to do a 1,000-word profile of a local judge for $100. I laughed in the editor's face and said my price was a bit higher than a dime a word, and good luck funding someone who'd work for that little. The magazine folded a few months later, but not before they wrote a raft of rubber checks to various writers and photographers around town.

[Robert E Pence]

I'm strictly amateur, and mostly I sell stock prints to individuals either through the West Central Arts Fest or requests via the internet, but sometimes I get requests for digital files for reproduction from businesses. I've done a couple of small commissions. I usually have no clue, and sometimes I ask a friend in the advertising/marketing business for guidance.

I don't know if this could be done without problems over collusion or other business practices, but I think it would be handy to some of us amateurs if local professionals could create a list of the various types of services and permissions and a general range of customary prices for each and make it available for reference.

I'd certainly refer to it. I don't want to undercut the people whose livelihood is in creating and selling photographs, and although I don't make a living (or even much money) from it, I wouldn't mind optimizing the income to offset the cost of my hardware and use of my time.

[Scott Howard]

As the VP of Communications, for the Advertising Federation of Fort Wayne, (known as AdFed), I wanted to ride on your coat tails and let you know about an upcoming event we have planned on September 18th.

We are hosting a guest speaker on the following subject (The following is from their website):

From Frankenstein to Vanna White - learn from others' mistakes. How not to use names, trademarks and copyrights. A multi-media tour de force, that offers a complete tutorial on how to avoid the legal pitfalls of advertising. Plus, you get to hoot and holler about scandalous, hilarious, and (sometimes) nefarious ads. When serious claims over ads are lodged, agencies and in-house employees are fired. Do you know what to do? You should - judgments for illegal ads have topped $40 million!

Contact me for more info at ScLoHo@ScLoHo.net