Sold a Photograph!

[mortonfox]

Over the years that I've had a Flickr account, I've fielded dozens of requests for photos. While I've made a few exceptions for non-profit organizations, I do charge a nominal fee for photo use or reprint rights. Almost invariably, the requester breaks off contact as soon as I tell them that there's a fee involved. It's the internet after all. Why

Comments

[shockwave77598]

congratulations on your sale!

[mortonfox]

Thanks!

[jen_aside]

That's excellent =D Of course it helps to take photos of irreplaceable items like landmarks and that--I expect photos of your dinner might have more competition...

[mortonfox]

Thanks. I think the only time anyone ever asked me for a food photo was when a health magazine/website wanted to do an article about unhealthy food. :)

[doco]

I've only ever had one request, and that was way back in the day; a picture of a government building that a schoolbook printer wanted to put into a foreign languages for adults education; I gave permission and asked for a copy, but never received one - dunno if the book ever was printed.

Most of my stuff that flies around on the net is licensed under Creative Commons anyways, so I usually never get asked beforehand - a picture of a local statue even made it into the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Sadly, only the web edition. ;)

[mortonfox]

I got the book in which my photo was used from the Audubon Society, but I think that was the only time.

[c_eagle]

Wow.... Congrats!!

[mortonfox]

Thanks!

[schnee]

Hey, neat, congrats!

Heh, yeah, it's been my impression that people are surprisingly brazen with what they ask for. "Hey, we want to profit off of your work, for free of course, so please send us all the necessary paperwork to shield us from legal liability if it turns out we violated a third party's rights in doing so" - that's often the gist of it. And yes, once you mention money, they usually don't come back; in fact, I think I've never even gotten a "no". Just silence, and nothing else.

('course, my photos are CC-licensed, so Flickr makes the original sizes available, anyway; maybe I should change that. As it stands, the only thing that'd keep people from using my pictures without a license is their own honesty and integrity.)

I'm curious, BTW, which photo of yours was it?

[mortonfox]

It was this one, Billy Yank:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/mortonfox/2588800833/

Even more amazingly, the same buyer contacted me again next week and bought five more photos for a restaurant in another town! So the first purchase could've been a trial run.