Photographer gives up equestrian shows due to theft

not a local photographer to me but from what I can see they take some very good photos. Such a loss that photographers are been driven to this now especially as their prices are fairly reasonable compared to some, I hope that they have sufficient business elsewhere that they don't have to give up the business completely.
 
It is a shame but I do think photography like this is a declining market (sorry) and that it must be hard to make a profit without people stealing the images in the first place.
I can take pictures on my iPhone and put it straight on the Internet, easy. Digital cameras make it so easy to take your own photos. I very rarely buy pictures at shows now as I take my own camera and give it to my helper to take some pics as i'm going round and the quality is usually better. Phones have good videos now and good cameras, it's not a big deal to take a decent picture anymore.
When my mum was eventing a couple of decades ago we couldn't wait to get the proof through the post and send off for the picture. Now I can't wait to get home and upload my pics straight from my camera. The show photographer will have one shot of me over a fence and I will have 5 shots of approach, take off, landing ect over pretty much every fence not to mention a short video.

Unfortunatly it is also too easy for people to steal the images. I'm not saying it's right, far from it but when it's possible to do and impossible to police people will do it.
It's like downloading songs illegally or getting songs off a mates playlist, it's possible to do so people do it.

It's a shame but it's a sign of the times and ways need to be figured out to move with it.
 
that's a real shame. while i agree with what firewell says, sometimes the event photographer might be in exactly the right place to get a really good picture, so i'll still buy them if they're good pics.
i do think that if a rider wants to buy multiple images, there should be a significant discount, now that with digital there's no need to print out photos first etc, that's my only bugbear with professional photographers nowadays.
 
such a shame :(

i do photography and tbh its more cost effecvie for people to get me to do their pics than the "'pro".....

i have a quality SLR camera and done shows/family portraits etc (its part time im at uni) and i charge far less than all prices on their sites

so other than image theft - many people nowadays have SLR camera....and i phones etc (which i dont call quality pics but still it works for some!)
and i wouldnt even attempt to do photography as a career, even though i love it.

soryr to be negative! just what i have seen and do see regularly...
 
i love his photos, got loads from him of me and Ruby and various other horses, he took good shots and was pleasant to deal with.. I have known him be grotty towards people at shows with high end digi cams, so how can you win? if you take your own camera the tog dislikes it, and if you go to a show sometimes there is no tog. I doubt being a weekend or show equ tog pulls in the bills so surely they diversify and do events and other photography.
It seems a shame where some people have to spoil it for the rest of us, who wants to display a pic with a COPYRIGHT image across it?!

I do pull pics off sites, but only to enlarge to show my mum, they are low qual and copyrighted anway!

Theres people on here who have copyrighted images in their signatures, I mean, cheap or waht...
 
This really annoys me - if someone absolutely loves the photo, they will buy it, not just take a awful quality copyrighted. As the copyrighted photo usually has the photographers website address, it is advertising? A good thing? If the person only likes the photo, they're not going to buy it, so what difference does it make if they put it on FB or not?
 
solitairex said:
This really annoys me - if someone absolutely loves the photo, they will buy it, not just take a awful quality copyrighted. As the copyrighted photo usually has the photographers website address, it is advertising? A good thing? If the person only likes the photo, they're not going to buy it, so what difference does it make if they put it on FB or not?
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So if you go into a shop and buy a top because you really like it and steal the one you don't like as much because it isn't worth spending money on it that's ok then because I don't see any difference between what I have just said and you paying for the good photo and stealing the not so good photo so that you can use it on the web
 
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photo_jo said:
So if you go into a shop and buy a top because you really like it and steal the one you don't like as much because it isn't worth spending money on it that's ok then because I don't see any difference between what I have just said and stealing the not so good photo and paying for the good one
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Well, personally, I think this is completely different. I just fail to see it as 'stealing'... I am going into this career myself and I will not have a problem with people putting them up on facebook and will look at it positively as advertising as I know its not going to be stopped. There is absolutely NO difference between someone putting the link to the photograph on the website, to putting hte photo on your facebook with the adress on the photo?
 
personally in your eyes it may be totally different but in the eyes of the law it is not! Its the same with music. You will pay to download a track you think is excellent but not one which is ok, you will download that one illegally from a file sharing website. If everyone thought that song was meerly alright the artist would never receive a cent of income. Fair? I think not. There is a reason why there is so much being done at the moment to stop illegal file sharing.

I'm only an amateur photographer but to see my images stolen by others is frustrating to say the least and I have had multiple images removed by facebook as people had copied them without permission. I don't sell my images and a simple 'could I' message/email would have been sufficient for me to allow them a copy but instead they just took them, so I got them removed as I am perfectly within my legal rights to do so.
 
solitairex said:
Well, personally, I think this is completely different. I just fail to see it as 'stealing'... I am going into this career myself and I will not have a problem with people putting them up on facebook and will look at it positively as advertising as I know its not going to be stopped. There is absolutely NO difference between someone putting the link to the photograph on the website, to putting hte photo on your facebook with the adress on the photo?
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It will be interesting to see if you change your view when you are trying to pay the rent or mortgage and feed your horse/family plus you will be paying tax as well. I am not knocking your attitude but when you need the money rather than it being an extra it does change attitudes a lot.
I think if you buy a print you should be able to use it on facebook or for adverts with a small credit to the photographer but if its good enough to be stolen its good enough to pay for. One of the best photographers near me does pretty good discounts on multiple purchases especially if you are a regular and will also do a cd or memory stick for whatever horses I have ridden that day but she must still have problems with theft because she has a a pretty offputting text across all the pics on the site.
 
crabbymare said:
It will be interesting to see if you change your view when you are trying to pay the rent or mortgage and feed your horse/family plus you will be paying tax as well. I am not knocking your attitude but when you need the money rather than it being an extra it does change attitudes a lot.
I think if you buy a print you should be able to use it on facebook or for adverts with a small credit to the photographer but if its good enough to be stolen its good enough to pay for. One of the best photographers near me does pretty good discounts on multiple purchases especially if you are a regular and will also do a cd or memory stick for whatever horses I have ridden that day but she must still have problems with theft because she has a a pretty offputting text across all the pics on the site.
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Yes but one of my main points is that if they love the photo, they will buy it, they won't if they only like it. If they only like the pic and put it on facebook, its not like they would have bought it anyway, and it is advertising for the company. There is one photographer local to me that is absolutely RUBBISH and I think they are blaming this facebook thing completely when it is their incompetence that means they are not selling anything.
 
solitairex said:
Yes but one of my main points is that if they love the photo, they will buy it, they won't if they only like it. If they only like the pic and put it on facebook, its not like they would have bought it anyway, and it is advertising for the company.
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I give up - no wonder there is so much crime in this country when you cannot see the wrong in the above:mad::mad::mad:
 
photo_jo said:
I give up - no wonder there is so much crime in this country when you cannot see the wrong in the above:mad::mad::mad:
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I am not being niave, I understand your point, just disagree with it; it is blaitently not going to stop, and IMO is no different to posting the link as your status... say a photographer puts the copyrighted image with their address on the photo, then you take that photo and put it on facbeook, saying 'photo by bla' and the link to the website below, I just fail to see it as stealing...
 
I bought a good quality but 2nd hand SLR digi camera last year, with the aim of being able to take photos of my horses at events. To get some practice I went to a riding club show in the summer and basically just took loads and loads of photos of anything and everything (from horses to dogs and even leaves on trees). The "resident" photographer was not at all pleased, was quite agressive asking what I thought I was doing. Even after telling said photographer that I was just getting practice in for my own use and would download the photos to see what had worked and what hadn't and what settings worked best - I actually hoped he would give me some tips but he didn't - he made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I haven't even downloaded the photos and haven't used the camera since. This particular photographer didn't display the name of his website anywhere on the show ground, although I do remember him from previous years when he didn't have a digi camera, and wasn't that impressed with his photos.
Sorry this has turned out to be a bit of a rant with no real purpose.
 
supagran said:
I bought a good quality but 2nd hand SLR digi camera last year, with the aim of being able to take photos of my horses at events. To get some practice I went to a riding club show in the summer and basically just took loads and loads of photos of anything and everything (from horses to dogs and even leaves on trees). The "resident" photographer was not at all pleased, was quite agressive asking what I thought I was doing. Even after telling said photographer that I was just getting practice in for my own use and would download the photos to see what had worked and what hadn't and what settings worked best - I actually hoped he would give me some tips but he didn't - he made me feel extremely uncomfortable. I haven't even downloaded the photos and haven't used the camera since. This particular photographer didn't display the name of his website anywhere on the show ground, although I do remember him from previous years when he didn't have a digi camera, and wasn't that impressed with his photos.
Sorry this has turned out to be a bit of a rant with no real purpose.
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How rude of them, alot of these photographers have bad attitudes which puts you off even more. Luckily one of the local ones I might do some work experience at actually helped my mother and I with camera settings once and it helped loads. And so when your said photographer goes bust, I bet he will blame it on 'facebook theft' :L
 
Can I just say that if photographers had the option to buy a 'facebook' image. Smaller, middle quality with photographers name at bottom for a lot less (say £3 an image) I think it would be really quite popular?! You don't know if you don't try and even if it is just trialled!
 
rotters13 said:
Can I just say that if photographers had the option to buy a 'facebook' image. Smaller, middle quality with photographers name at bottom for a lot less (say £3 an image) I think it would be really quite popular?! You don't know if you don't try and even if it is just trialled!
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I am changing mine to do just that-high or low res digital images and prints as a last resort!-Luckily I won't have to worry about Solitairex nicking them as far too far away to cross paths
 
I often take stupid amounts of photos at events for practice of anyone and everyone but don't sell them and don't give them out free willy nilly to anyone that asks although I do to friends as well they are my friends!!

I have had a few photographers question me politely but when I explain I am just trying to improve as an amateur I haven't had one complain. I infact stayed all day chatting to a pro (between taking photos of course!) at one BE event this year whilst snapping away :D
 
photo_jo said:
I am changing mine to do just that-high or low res digital images and prints as a last resort!-Luckily I won't have to worry about Solitairex nicking them as far too far away to cross paths
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Hmm, nobody will as I have never actually done it myself before; your petty, snipey comment was not necessary.
 
As said before, why would I spent £10 on an okish photo (what most of them end up as tbh), when I could have ten to choose from on my phone or a video? Unless there's an amazing picture there, I don't bother. Mine are free, after all! I'd be happier to pay for a video of my round/test if there was no-one there to take it for me, as that shows me what went well and what didn't for next time. However, it would really bug me (and I wouldn't bother buying it), if I wasn't then allowed to share that online with friends etc. I think I'd happily pay a few quid to watch my round, and a bit more to download it with the option of putting it on the web. The world of event photography needs to change, as the old way isn't working. I'm sure someone soon will figure all this out and pave the way for a new future!
 
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