"Donating" UW Photos

At the end of the day there will always be:

Those that can and those that cannot...

Those that do and those that do not...

Those that will and those that will not...

Those that have and those that have not...

No Aquarium will ever feel sorry for a sucker flooding his $5000 kit, this is why they will not employ someone specifically...

There will be no signs telling the children that these pictures were donated freely without cost so that you may pay to see them.

There will be no signs telling the children that these pictures were donated freely without cost so that you may pay to see them.

That's not exactly true...I certainly can't speak for all Aquariums, but the Florida Aquarium in Tampa most definitely does label what is donated and by whom.

I'm with cmdasia...Giving away my photographs is no problem for me. I'm not, nor will I ever be, a professional photographer. Does that make me a sucker? Absolutely not. It simply means that I feel no need to try and make money from my hobby. It means that I can choose to do what I want with my photos. Some may try and make a profession out of theirs. Great and good luck to them. But them doing so doesn't degrade from my photographs just because I'm willing to give them away.

What sane person could argue with that eh?

Here's a freebee!

I'd like to point out that many non-profit organizations (NPO) have paid staff that earn much more than I do as a scientist. I'd also like to point out that some are designed as tax shelters for their for profit partners. As a photographer who does sell his images, I offer an innovative service to NPO by charging for my images and thus helping them REMIAN non-profit B)

I take all kinds of images, but to the world I'm "the octopus guy" and images of octopuses and other cephalopods are almost all of what I sell. Some people want a discount for educational uses and usually get one. For some reason images of octopuses are ONLY used for educational projects. . . imagine that! This may be similar for any marine image.

I do give my images away too. I give them to kids doing non-web based school projects and to colleagues who use them in professional presentations or professional publications.

Dr. James B. Wood

While surfing some u/w websites I found this in part of an article by Cathy Churh http://cathychurch.com/ in her FAQ section at her website.

Regardless of how much you want to become a pro, you must NEVER give the picture away just for a photo credit. If every beginner gave their photos away, there would not be a decent market for anyone to sell their photos. That is partially why the market is presently so poor for underwater photography. I am constantly asked for FREE photos for advertising brochures for the Cayman Islands. I know that when I turn them down, they will turn elsewhere and get photos for free. If they couldn't get free ones, they would realize that they should budget properly for photography and we (especially beginners) would all benefit.

Have a great day and enjoy life

Stephen

This might be an old thread, but I have some comments.

1. They have money to pay for an exhibit, to blow photos up and present them attractively (150 of them to be precise), but they don't have a few bucks to spend to get photos? If you didn't budget it for it, cut it back to 100 photos and take the remainder and pay the photographer.

2. They asked for your 'top quality shots'. These are worth $$$ whether you choose to sell them or not.

I sell my images, so I am be a little biased here, but this is a large organization that is obviously spending a lot of money on something. Getting something for free for a 'photo credit' is lame and the response is a pretty standard ASMP response that I have sent out myself when I have received similar requests.

M