Interesting Discussion on Mtbr.com

There's a very interesting discussion about race print sales and photo rights on our mountian bike site. It started when someone asked a photographer who uses the site about prints from a race. It's interesting - and frustrating - to read what riders think and believe about the value of photos and photographers.

http://forums.mtbr.com/showthread.php?t=162185

What do you think?

Yeah, that's an age-old discussion, made all the more fuzzy by the advent of digital imaging.

Don't think it's at all confined to m-bikers, though. They ARE a good group to see talk about this topic, however, as biking events straddle the line between event photography, sports photography, and even action portrait photograhy...

Boy, a few times there I was dying to chime in, although I know forum etiquette says that would be inappropriate. Still, I have been riding my bike a bit lately. Maybe I'll register and get involved... :cool:

What had me shaking my head was the guy who felt he had partial commercial rights to a shot because he was in it... :eek:

BTW, PhotoMom has a great outlook and way of explaining the business side of things (I assume this is different PM from the one on our site). That's really the key here: educating the public on what a photographer's rights are, and why certain prices are appropriate for a given market.

Yeah, very interesting.
I found that thread very useful, and wished it could be transported wholesale over to our business forum for discussion !


I have exactly the same issue in the smart owners's club (www.thesmartclub.com) where members place a value of £0.00 on the images.

At big events we have teamed up with a company called 4x4 navigation, who do the photograph everyone kind of thing.
They have a trailer, with a network in it, image server, 6 laptops for customer to pick photos on, two inkjets, CD burner.
They charge £25 for a CD with one image on it, or various per-print prices, front & back matted on the spot but not framed.

They're making a living, because they're not costing their time. Their son is the runner, taking the CF cards back to the 'van and running back with blanks. Their daughters handle the sales, cash handling, and guiding the customers through scrolling the image library to find the pic of their car.
Dad does the photography, and Mum runs the printers, the network, and the cash safe built into the custom designed trailer.

They do events every day of the week that they can manage, the trailer is also their home during the summer, talk about commuting !


My role there at the events is as photographer for the club, as a result I have to freedom to shoot what I want and produce the images we use for club publicity and so on.

But if I post to the site a photograph of someone at the event, and they want a copy. Will he pay?
I thought we could make a nominal charge, for club funds. But no, he insisted it was a rip-off.
So I suggested that we trebled the price to be the same as 4x4 navigation :D
... and this guy is a fellow member of the committee !!

So far to go in educating people.

You beat me to it John!
I was going to post this here too.
Jody has a good head about her, I haven't met her in person but we have had a few email conversations.
Brian

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

Jody has a good head about her, I haven't met her in person but...

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So, she's not a member here? I'm wondering why not??? :confused:

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Originally Posted by Asylum Steve

So, she's not a member here? I'm wondering why not??? :confused:

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I looked at the member listing here and found a "photo mom", but it wasn't her.
I'll see what I can do!
Brian

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Originally Posted by mtbbrian

I looked at the member listing here and found a "photo mom", but it wasn't her.
I'll see what I can do!
Brian

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Hi All,

I'm here! PhotoMom was taken on this site, so I had to settle for PhotoMommy. Interesting thing that happened that week during the Hey PhotoMom thread...hits to my site went through the roof and so did sales. One guy ordered three big posters...

I guess the saying "Any publicity is good publicity" is true. While they were arguing with/about me, they were buying my product, and I made some good contacts...

I would say that in the short run, speaking up was definitely worth the effort.

Thanks for letting me know about this site Brian and John.

See you guys in the dirt sometime!

Jody (PhotoMommy)

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Originally Posted by PhotoMommy

hits to my site went through the roof and so did sales...

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Welcome, Jody. You need to link to your site in your signatue here so we can check it out... :cool: