Working for copyrights...or something

If they're providing all the camera equipment and all I have to do is push the button, I might think about it for all of 2 seconds before rejecting it.

Hi Timmy,

If they hired you to work in the dark room for 6$/hr and you are getting something out of it, great. If you are happy then good for you.

If they then want you to "increase your job description" then you need to get your contract changed to match that. What that is is up to you.

Would I give copyright away for $6/hr, lol,... in four words, no.

Would I give copyright away for serious cash... possibly but it would have to be serious.

Whilst we are about it... how much are you charging them for you to use your equipment, have you worked out what the depreciation rate/day is for your kit. Subtract that from your $6/hr find out how much you are really getting paid.

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I think that your gear list is lacking something important, a brain..

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Best regards and hope you get something sorted that works out for everyone. Just because the owner is old doesn't mean he is stupid or should be pitied. He knows a good deal when he sees it, thats why you are working for him at $6/hr and why he owns the company.

BearSummer

You obviously have little respect for the man that has made his living for 55 years creating memories for people. That is pretty calous comment about your employer.

It may not be delicately worded, Sheldon, but it might just be a factual statement. If his boss has been in the business 55 years, my guess is he's somewhere in his seventies (maybe even older). If so, he has every right to be frail.

On the other hand, give him high marks for still being involved in the business, regardless of how active he might be.

While it may not have been the most PC remark, consider the flip side. If he's spent 55 years in the business, he probably has a fairly good understanding of the situation he's got Timmy in and he should understand the aspects of the business. This if anything should make re-negotiating even easier!

If any of my actor friends or even my best friend in the world asked me to take a headshot photo of them I'd gladly do it, and I'd probably do it for free, but you know the first thing I'd do? Have them sign a model release.

This seems like a pretty good situation for Timmy, he doesn't think the guy is out to screw him, he just wanted to get our feelings and clarify the copyright issue.

Remember it's not personal, it's business.

You hit the nail on the head.

His son is the active man behind the buisness these days, and when the worse happens his son will still be around.

I think it's safe to call a man frail when out of no where he ends up with a broken vertibrite.

I have an enourmous amount of respect for this man, he served in WWII, raised a family and has owned a buisness that has become the staple in portrait photography in the area for 55 years. When i say area i dont just mean town, i mean the entire county.

For sure. I love talking to the guy and hearing the stories behind all the photographs (belive me...there are many. I got 3 times as many reprints done today because he wasnt there :lol

My question is - if they are 99% portrait photographers, what do they want with a soccer photo??

Give them to the schools for their yearbook (for free).

So, this professional portrait studio sends thier photographers, who they are paying (very little, in your case), to high school sports competitions to take pictures which they then give to the school for free??

Have they done this in the past, or has this just started with your photo?

They do it every year, and they also have a monopoly of sorts on the school portraits in the surrounding towns.

There are 2 highschools 2 middle schools and 4 elementry schools in my town alone, they do the photography for all of them. This includes dances (excluding proms), ID's, Sr. pictures, year book photo/portrait packages.

My guess is that the donation of the photographs is to keep 'em coming back as well as pay them back for their years of service.

They didn't make you sign a "Do not compete" agreement, did they?

Owning the copyright is a valuable commodity.

In your position I would shoot the photos and agree to let them publish the images once.
If they want to use any image again then ask for a small fee. What you quote would be really what you think you could get away with. But I wouldn't let them have the copyright.