Providing prints

Bono in Pittsburgh
(my image, my permission)

Over the past year or two, I have had various requests for some of my U2 photos. I always engage the requesters, and ask about what and why they are looking for. Often it is a shot from a show they went to with a friend, or they are looking for something in their basement, office, or where ever.  Great!

I always ask if they know of the African Well Fund. I have lead a couple photo auctions in the past to help them out, and they have been highly successful. So I figure, why not have my U2 photos continue to help them out.

I write back saying, what I can do is put the images up on my favorite print site, MPIX.com, let them print however they want, and if they like them- make a donation to AWF however they feel they want to.

The downside of this? After I tell them this is how I would like to proceed, they go silent. I didn't ask for additional money up front, I didn't ask them to send me their first born... Just if they liked what they saw, consider making a donation. They didn't have to, they were paying for the print and I was doing most of the work. Maybe they found someone else to do the work, I dunno.

Bono in Chicago
(my image, my permission)

So now I am think I ought to do something else. Maybe I should setup a SmugMug pro account with my U2 photos so anyone can order prints to their hearts delight. I would get 80% of the profits, and every now and then, I would throw some of the profits in to the AWF coffers.

I don't know of any better way to do this right now. There is some sort of market out there for these services. I have tried the fair and nice route. I know people are just printing the images off the screen, even as crap as they are. Or taking them for their own. I want to at least give a professional way for people to obtain them without too much extra work on my end every darn time.


Or maybe I need to find out if the demand is really there or not. *ponder*

Resolution- new Zelda useage

About two months ago, the same ad agency which ran the initial "Zelda" series for Eukanuba contacted me again. They were looking for some follow-up information about Sierra. Thats cool. However, they also asked if I might be interested in allowing the image to be used in a Canadian ad campaign.

Alright! Bonus!

Sure I said, I would love to. How long? Four months they said. Sounds reasonable, back and forth on some details, and we settled on a rate. Then they sent me request for service, but the dates they had listed were for time that had already past by.  They asked for my invoice, and things could get moving along.

Wait a second, what do those back dates mean? I emailed with the follow-on question with my contact, no response.

Something was not right there. I asked a buddy in Canada to pop in to a local news shop and look at a few magazines to see if what I suspected was true- it was. The ad had already been running and they were now trying to secure the rights to cover up any problems. This would also explain the higher rates of hits I was getting from Canadian addresses on my blog.

Whoops on their part, now- what do I do as a photographer? I had a working relationship with that agency, so to speak. They had been upfront about things and were not unreasonable.

I talked with photography friends, I talked with a family lawyer who really does not know copyright, but read up and knew the law system better than I did. One suggested I just take the money that was in front of me, and be thankful. One suggested to ask for a reasonable amount more. One only could suggest things if I had officially registered my images with the US Patient Office. Creative Commons was not good enough for a real court case. No one suggested I get all lawyer-ed up and threaten all sorts of problems.

After thinking about the conditions and input to date, I put together a simple email with an invoice for the additional fees that the violation, I felt, would cover.  Then I waited, and waited, and waited. They said they would have to talk to the financial folks.

I got a little worried to be honest. The ad was done in another country. I may not ever have found out about it if they hadn't contacted me. The ad agency in question could have easily ignored me after I made my counter request- which was basically doubling the initial fee because they had violated my copyright on the image. They could have easily ignored me and I would have had very little real leverage. 

Finally last week- they agreed to the additional fees. They were decent about it all through-out the process. I felt violated at first. How DARE they use that image without my knowing?! Then I was also flattered- they wanted to use my image again!

In the end, everything is working out. We can get some extra bills paid with the money, and Sierra is a star in Canada.