Shane Y. Gibson

Marc,

It's sort of a "chicken and egg" problem. Event photographers often
don't get paid for their work. Sometimes the event producer will pay a
small amount - to be able to use (some of) the photographers work.
Other times, the agreement is just to allow the photographer access to
take shots. Then, the photographer can sell them for how ever much they
want.

The problem is - very few participants are willing to pay for images
from the photographer - so the photographer often feels they have to
charge a reasonably higher rate to be able to make a return on their
time and equipment investment.

The chicken and egg problem ... if they don't charge much - they don't
make much money. But by not charging much; will they get more volume in
sales? The answer has typically been a resounding "NO". So they charge
more. But by charging more; are they limiting volume of sales?
Probably. Where's the line they draw in the sales price of the digital
image?

One last issue they face - digital photographs are easily used/reused in
lots of places and various instances that borders on commercial use -
shouldn't they be paid fairly for their work if it's used in a
commercial related capacity? For example - a lot of online blogs and
ezines that publish race reports and include shots from athlete provided
phots (which originally might have come from the professional
photographer)...

At least ... this has been my experience as an event producer, working
with event photographers.

v/r
Shane

Marc Fortier wrote:
> OK I will start by saying I'm ignorant of the whole event photography
> business model, but from a consumer standpoint, I don't see why a
> digital photo costs so much. For example, to get a full resolution
> digital copy of the photo of myself from the Echo race will set me
> back $40 (for a photo that's not even exposed very well - although I
> will mention that many of the photos from the race look spectacular).
> Now if these cost me say $5 apiece, I probably would have spent
> hundreds of dollars in the last few years, but as it is I've spent
> about zero dollars. Couldn't there be a cheaper purchase option for
> downloading hi-res digital photos 'for personal use only' (no
> reselling, etc) ?
>
> I always feel bad I'm not funneling $$ towards these photographers who
> spend their time running around the course taking cool shots of
> everybody, but I really can't justify the expense at the current rates.

--
Wicked Race Director
Wicked Adventure Racing, LLC
http://www.WickedAR.com/

"Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature,
nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding
danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life
is either a daring adventure or nothing." ** Helen Keller **