http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/photographers-respond-to-lady-gagas-new-copyright-demands-20110307

This practice by certain artists has been going on for a few years. Back in 2004, during the early days of Amy Winehouse’s career, I was asked to sign a form whereby the images I took had to be approved by her management before the agency I was selling through could distribute them. One universal look of anger and disaproval on the waiting photographer’s faces was enough to send her agent back into her dressing room with a very red face . We took a stand and the artist’s management backed down.

Unfortunately, these practices now are far more common with artists wishing to control their image in the media.

I will never sign away my copyright. I may not get the passes to any concerts but I will sleep very soundly at night with the knowledge that I have kept what is legally mine.

The tradition, which dates back to end of the 18th century in Catalonia in Spain has been included by UNESCO in the list of intangible cultural heritage of humanity.
The towers are built by “castellers” who belong to groups called “colles” and intricate techniques are used to complete the highest and most complex castle. There are three parts to a castell and each varies in width and height. Some reach eight storeys high and even 10 storeys has been achieved. A young child normally climbs the whole tower and salutes the crowds from the top. Sometimes the towers collapse and serious injuries, even death, can result.
The amazing feat requires strength, teamwork, concentration and discipline. The motto of the castellers is strength, balance, courage and wisdom.

The following article was written by Tony Wu and the original article can be found here. It sums up perfectly why professional photographers cannot work for free, even if there is a promise of a credit or future work.

Reasons Why Professional Photographers Cannot Work for Free

Dear potential photo buyer,

If you have been directed to this page, it is likely that you have requested the use of an image or images for free or minimal compensation.

As professional photographers, we receive requests for free images on a regular basis. In a perfect world, each of us would love to be able to respond in a positive manner and assist, especially with projects or efforts related to areas such as education, social issues, and conservation of natural resources. It is fair to say that in many cases, we wish we had the time and resources to do more to assist than just send photographs.

Unfortunately, such are the practicalities of life that we are often unable to respond, or that when we do, our replies are brief and do not convey an adequate sense of the reasons underlying our response.

Circumstances vary for each situation, but we have found that there are a number of recurring themes, which we have set out below with the objective of communicating more clearly with you, and hopefully avoiding misunderstandings or unintentionally engendering ill will.

Please take the following points in the constructive manner in which they are intended. We certainly hope that after you have had a chance to read this, we will be able to talk again and establish a mutually beneficial working relationship.

Photographs Are Our Livelihood
Creating compelling images is the way we make our living. If we give away our images for free, or spend too much time responding to requests for free images, we cannot make a living.

We Do Support Worthy Causes With Images
Most of us do contribute photographs, sometimes more, to support certain causes. In many cases, we may have participated directly in projects that we support with images, or we may have a pre-existing personal relationship with key people involved with the efforts concerned. In other words, each of us can and does provide images without compensation on a selective basis.

We Have Time Constraints
Making a leap from such selective support to responding positively to every request we get for free photographs, however, is impractical, if for no other reason than the substantial amount of time required to respond to requests, exchange correspondence, prepare and send files, and then follow-up to find out how our images were used and what objectives, if any, were achieved. It takes a lot of time to respond to requests, and time is always in short supply.

Pleas of “We Have No Money” Are Often Difficult to Fathom
The primary rationale provided in nearly all requests for free photographs is budgetary constraint, meaning that the requestor pleads a lack of funds.

Such requests frequently originate from organisations with a lot of cash on hand, whether they be publicly listed companies, government or quasi-government agencies, or even NGOs. Often, it is a simple matter of taking a look at a public filing or other similar disclosure document to see that the entity concerned has access to significant funding, certainly more than enough to pay photographers a reasonable fee should they choose to do so.

To make matters worse, it is apparent that all too often, of all the parties involved in a project or particular effort, photographers are the only ones being asked to work for free. Everyone else gets paid.

Given considerations like this, you can perhaps understand why we frequently feel slighted when we are told that: “We have no money.” Such claims can come across as a cynical ploy intended to take advantage of gullible individuals.

We Have Real Budget Constraints
With some exceptions, photography is not a highly remunerative profession. We have chosen this path in large part due to the passion we have for visual communication, visual art, and the subject matters in which we specialise.

The substantial increase in photographs available via the internet in recent years, coupled with reduced budgets of many photo buyers, means that our already meager incomes have come under additional strain.

Moreover, being a professional photographer involves significant monetary investment.

Our profession is by nature equipment-intensive. We need to buy cameras, lenses, computers, software, storage devices, and more on a regular basis. Things break and need to be repaired. We need back-ups of all our data, as one ill-placed cup of coffee could literally erase years of work. For all of us, investment in essential hardware and software entails thousands of dollars a year, as we need to stay current with new technology and best practices.

In addition, travel is a big part of many of our businesses. We must spend a lot of money on transportation, lodging and other travel-related costs.

And of course, perhaps most importantly, there is a substantial sum associated with the time and experience we have invested to become proficient at what we do, as well as the personal risks we often take. Taking snapshots may only involve pressing the camera shutter release, but creating images requires skill, experience and judgement.

So the bottom line is that although we certainly understand and can sympathise with budget constraints, from a practical point of view, we simply cannot afford to subsidise everyone who asks.

Getting “Credit” Doesn’t Mean Much
Part and parcel with requests for free images premised on budgetary constraints is often the promise of providing “credit” and “exposure”, in the form or a watermark, link, or perhaps even a specific mention, as a form of compensation in lieu of commercial remuneration.

There are two major problems with this.

First, getting credit isn’t compensation. We did, after all, create the images concerned, so credit is automatic. It is not something that we hope a third party will be kind enough to grant us.

Second, credit doesn’t pay bills. As we hopefully made clear above, we work hard to make the money required to reinvest in our photographic equipment and to cover related business expenses. On top of that, we need to make enough to pay for basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, etc.

In short, receiving credit for an image we created is a given, not compensation, and credit is not a substitute for payment.

“You Are The Only Photographer Being Unreasonable”
When we do have time to engage in correspondence with people and entities who request free photos, the dialogue sometimes degenerates into an agitated statement directed toward us, asserting in essence that all other photographers the person or entity has contacted are more than delighted to provide photos for free, and that somehow, we are “the only photographer being unreasonable”.

We know that is not true.

We also know that no reasonable and competent photographer would agree to unreasonable conditions. We do allow for the fact that some inexperienced photographers or people who happen to own cameras may indeed agree to work for free, but as the folk wisdom goes: “You get what you pay for.”

Please Follow-Up
One other experience we have in common is that when we do provide photographs for free, we often do not receive updates, feedback or any other form of follow-up letting us know how the event or project unfolded, what goals (if any) were achieved, and what good (if any) our photos did.

All too often, we don’t even get responses to emails we send to follow-up, until, of course, the next time that someone wants free photographs.

In instances where we do agree to work for free, please have the courtesy to follow-up and let us know how things went. A little consideration will go a long way in making us feel more inclined to take time to provide additional images in the future.

Wrap Up
We hope that the above points help elucidate why the relevant photographer listed below has sent you to this link. All of us are dedicated professionals, and we would be happy to work with you to move forward in a mutually beneficial manner.

Early morning start at the Eastern most point of the Spanish peninsular, Cap de Creus nature reserve. Then on to the the fishing village of Cadaques, birthplace of the Spanish artist Salvador Dali.

I traveled there at the end of the 1990′s to document the struggle for survival in the South and I was fortunate to spend some time with the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. The remote area I stayed in was subject to frequent aerial bombardment by the Northern Sudanese government forces using Helicopter gunships and old Russian Antonov aircraft bombers. To get there, the four seater plane I traveled in was forced to fly under the radar, 500 feet above ground, to avoid detection. After landing on a remote strip of land in the South, we were told that an anti-aircraft gun had our plane in its’ sights and at the last minute an emergency radio message was sent to allow us safe passage. A close shave indeed!

The troops that I followed were lightly armed and used child soldiers, some as young as 10 years old, to fight on the front line. Not surprisingly, casualty rates amongst them were high. I saw and photographed many casualties.

It now remains to be seen whether both sides can put an end to this bitter fighting and move ahead peacefully for the sake of future generations.

I’ve tried a few of the free photography apps, some are quite gimicky. However I’ve found this great free app called Instagram. After taking a photo with the phone’s 5 megapixel camera you have the option to apply several different filters, from black and white to the very much in vogue aged look. Also you can use a tilt-shift focus filter to give a ‘miniature’ appearance.

Here a few recent shots I’ve taken in Spain using the application.

More photos here

http://howardsayer.zenfolio.com/p830860173

All photos ©Howard Sayer photography

The ecologist and television presenter Bruce Parry sums it up perfectly in the excellent Artic series on the BBC last night..we need to wake up to the reality of climate change now before it’s too late to do anything.

More photos here http://howardsayer.zenfolio.com/p403795961