BetterPhoto Q&A
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Solicitation for images.

Today, I get an e-mail asking for images to be submitted for a Calendar. Seems a small company out west is soliciting for images. They found my gallery on BP and sent me a message.

"one-time use in the 2008 CalendarT and its associated promotional materials, both printed, on-line, and advertised on 12 news. Your name along with the copyright symbol will be imposed on each published photo. "

No money compensation, a "chance" to win a lowepro bag. All Calendars go to the Boy Scouts so they can sell them for charity.

I called the lady, she seemed real nice. Just looking for photos.

So, what do you all think? At first I was excited someone would want my photos, then I thought, Yikes, should I send some of my best work to someone for free? It was a nice 5 minute ego boost, but is it worth it if I really do plan on doing something to market these images? (per Jim Zuckermans make $ course).

I just wondered what other photographers thought of this. I would like to do it, but I dont feel comfortable with sending out my image files.

Thanks for any imput.
Mary

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June 29, 2007

I am not 100% sure that this is the same thing; however, I recently received a similar appearing solicitation, this one from a calendar publisher who stated that the proceeds from all sales would go to benefit the Girls/Boys Clubs. They wanted to include several of my images and offered no compensation, but told me that a donation would be tax deductible and I might win a camera back pack. I did some investigation and discovered the following: the “publisher” could not be verified through any known source; the Girls/Boys Club (at least locally) does not use an outside group for any fundraising; when pressured, the folks who contacted me admitted that if the calendars sold the percentage that would actually benefit the organization would be less than 2%. I chose not to participate.

After taking a very brief look at your gallery I have to say that you have some incredible images! Much better than my own and certainly worthy of sales to legitimate publishers. Personally, if I wanted my images to help an organization that I believed in [I already do some work locally for conservation and nature education groups] I would contact that group directly and find out how I can best help them. From my years of working in non-profits, I have to say that the using an outside agency for fundraising generally results in less income to the group.

Bottom line: considering the caliber of your work, I’d be real careful about allowing anyone to publish it without compensation or at least without verifying that the organization is 100% legit and what you expect. Good luck!

Irene

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June 29, 2007

I appreciate your opinion.

anyone else come across this?

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June 29, 2007