Emerald Bay Photography News and Updates

Over the years of working as a professional photographer, I've come to realize that at least 50 percent of my job consists of educating and guiding my clients through the confusing labyrinth that is the photography industry.

So I thought I'd share a recent story as example for clients and photographers alike. Note: names have been replaced by generics for reasons that will become obvious shortly.

In summer of 2007, I was hired by Client A to photograph a building. The following October, the occupant of the building (let's call him Client B) requested to license three of the images from the shoot for their own advertising uses. The person I was dealing with was billing himself both as the marketing contact and in-house photographer.

A 1-one year license was issued for the 3 images. As part of my standard contract, it was stated clearly that a byline (a small copyright notice usually next to the image or somewhere on the page) needed to appear in conjunction with any website usage. Given that my Client B contact was a photographer himself, I trusted that he would observe the rules of the contract, and didn't bother checking up on them.

A few weeks ago, Client A alerted me that Client B had contacted them, asking to obtain a (free) CD from their firm, featuring all the images from the original shoot, for use on a new website. Client A (whose marketing department is incredibly knowledgeable and respectful, and has always adhered to all licensing rules) instead referred Client B back to me.

Realizing that they were overdue on their license anyway, I searched their website to see if they were still using my images. As it turned out, they were indeed featuring one of my images in both their website header's 5-image rotation, and on their 'Contact Us' page. I politely emailed Client B, offering to renew their license at a reduced price.

They responded with "no, we don't want to pay for outside photography anymore. We will take your image down." I told Client B that was fine, but that they still owed licensing fees from last October until now. We went back and forth a couple of times, solidifying which image exactly the license was going to refer to. All seemed well.

Within the span of only half an hour after that, Client B emailed me with the following statement: "Actually, *I* took that picture. There used to be one similar, but I got rid of that one and took my own."

I was befuddled. How could he claim that? We had just gone through confirming the image. At which point I realized that I hadn't seen that required byline on their site anywhere, which of course made it easier for them to deny my copyright.

So I went back to their site to take another look. As I hit 'Refresh', I found that the image had been erased, both in the header rotation and on the contact page. So now there was no more trace of my image on their site - ergo, no way for me to prove that they should have to pay up. Right?

Wrong. Enter ... Google Cache. In order to be able to serve pages that may have gone offline or changed, Google keeps a copy of every website as a cached version, usually about a week or so old.

So I retrieved the cache, took a screen shot of the contact page, and attached it to my response email as a jpeg. I also added a url to the same image in my online portfolio. The proof was undeniable now - right down to the matching cloud formation in the background. I wrote that I disagreed with his statement, and cited the screen shot and portfolio link as proof that the image had been indeed mine. In addition, I pointed out, my copyright was nowhere to be found, neither live nor cached.

The silence in response was deafening. I decided to make it easy on him, and sent him an invoice. It contained the license fee, and a penalty for omitting my copyright.

The following morning, a meek one-liner: "I will put a check into the mail today." Not a word more. Two days later, an envelope with the payment showed up in my mail box.


So what is the moral of the story?

In my trade, I know that creating and maintaining trust and good relationships with my customers is absolutely paramount - and not just to assure repeat business. It's simply a matter of good practices. I'm up front with my fees, have a detailed and easy-to-understand standard contract, and am always available to answer any questions that might pop up.

In return, I expect that the client shows me the courtesy of being respectful and professional towards the service and images I deliver to them, and that they are considerate when it comes to my copyright and the specifics of the mutually-agreed upon contract.

So if you're a photography buyer - don't be afraid to ask your photographer questions about any area of licensing, or the industry in general. We are always happy to explain in an effort to avoid confusion and costly misunderstandings later.

And if you're a photographer - it's tempting to abandon your rights in this economy in order to maintain good relations with a client. But please remember that not only aren't you doing yourself any favors - you are also hurting your peers, the industry as a whole, and in the end your client, by not making sure that your services, products and rights are assigned their proper value and protection.

In the end - who is going to produce those high-quality, custom images for our clients if we photographers are unable to make a living and have to abandon our profession?

Labels: Bend Oregon photographer, Bend photographer, Central Oregon photographer, client education, licensing rights, photographer advocacy, photography industry