http://www.infocado.co.uk/ and my images

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:11

I've never heard of this company before www.infocado.co.uk, but i received an E-mail from them the other day asking if they could use some of my images (taken in Derby) they had found on my flickr for a regional calender they are making.

They stated i would not be paid but they would credit me for any images they use, plus send me a free copy of the calender.

I said this was fine and today recieved another E-mail saying they want to make a whole calender dedicated to my work!?

Has anyone else come across this company before?

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:20

Because they stated they would not pay to use them.

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:23

It would be great to get paid, but they told me they could not pay and therefore wouldn't use them if i asked for a fee.

Cheeky by them yes, but my photos are just snapshots. Can't imagine anyone would want to pay to use them!

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:26

Like i said, if i asked for a fee, they wouldn't use them!

To be honest i'm not that bothered. Just nice for my stuff to get published.

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:28

What? You think they would have paid me if i'd have asked for a fee?

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:33

I see. To be fair to myself though, i am not a professional photographer and never will be.

I can understand why the cheek of companies who do this annoys people but I just take photos for my own enjoyment. If a company wants to use my stuff on a calender, then great. Can't say it bothers me much if they get them for free.

Sorry if that offends anyone.

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:34

A.N.Other said:
If you're really not that bothered about charging in the initial instance and if they honestly aren't going to move then as a minimum, ask (/demand) the back is printed with your information and website (get one set up sharpish!).

Yes, i already stated that was a condition of them using them.

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:39

neil_g said:
meanwhile another pro goes out of business.

Bit dramatic isn't in?

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:40

PiKe said:
What was the reason for this thread if you weren't getting paid anyway?

Were you worried they might go and resell your photo's for a profit? Oh wait...

No, as i said in my opening post i wanted to know if anyone had heard of the company.

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:41

neil_g said:
not really, if everyone gives images away then why will anyone pay for a pro?

Have you seen my images?! I doubt any pros will go out of business anytime soon if images of this quality 'flood' the market..

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:43

Paul11 said:
its not really fair to expect steve to care about pros going out of business

he is not a pro and the exposure to have his photos in print is understandable

whilst i understand the whole "dont give your photos for free" concept, you cant blame steve for wanting to do it

Thank you! Nail on the head! I was flattered that someone actually wanted to use my work.

My photos on a calender with my name and website address sounded like a nice idea. I was hardly going to tell them to do one to keep pro togs happy!

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:44

PiKe said:
Why though? In case they were trying to rip you off?

And no, neil_g isn't being dramatic, you're directly contributing towards screwing my sources of income.

Thanks!

Honestly, stop being silly!

Anyway, If you were that good you'd have nothing to worry about would you?

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 16:51

PiKe said:
Presumably the OP does have a job he's paid to do, what if one day someone walked in and offered to his job for nothing, how would he feel?

Just remind me why i should give a toss about you and your income again?

If i want to give away my work for free then that's up to me. Cry about it all you like.

Steve M · 22 Jun 2011 at 17:38

explicit4u said:
I'd let someone use some of my images for free if it meant I got some decent exposure (excuse the pun ). If it was a big company then I'd definitely bill them, judging from their website and a quick google, they should have really given you SOMETHING, even it was a tenner per image.

Do you have a link to the images in question?

These are some of them:

P1020852 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

P1010832 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

P1010691 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

P1010951 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

P1010459 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

P1020570 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

Darley Abbey Mills by Steve Millward, on Flickr

P908154211 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

1020980 by Steve Millward, on Flickr

Steve M · 23 Jun 2011 at 13:43

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
Nice pictures!

It is one thing allowing a picture or two to get some free publicity but TBH any more and it is taking the mickey.

Well i received another E-mail from them today confirming they had selected 12 of my images to use, so the Derbyshire calender they are producing will be entirely my work. They have promised to print my name and website on the calender.

As mentioned earlier in this thread though, at this stage i'm just happy for the exposure. Yes it's cheeky by them and of course it would be great to get paid, but they wouldn't budge. They told me if I wanted paying they would use another photographer..

If there is a next time, i will definately ask for a fee, but as this is the first time i've ever had any interest like this, I'm happy just to see my work in print with my website address attached.

I really do see why giving away work might upset some of the pros, but see it from my point of view. Also, some of the over dramatic comments in this thread from some about loss of earnings, screwing the industry ect, have been laughable and pathetic in my opinion.

Steve M · 24 Jun 2011 at 08:21

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
So they value the work of the OP enough to print a calendar but not enough to pay him??

Are they not going to pay you for ALL the printing runs or just the initial test ones. You need to ask them what the size of the first run is and if it is sucessful would it mean you get paid for subsequent runs.

Exactly this. This one of the replies i received from them when asking about a fee:

"This is the problem there is no budget available this time as it's a test run, we do run a main regional range which we pay for images as they are printed on such a large scale we have a budget to pay the photographers.

What we are hoping is that all of these test regionals will sell in 2012 which will warrant doing a large print run in 2013."

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
MAKE SURE YOU ARE NOT AUTOMATICALLY GIVING YOUR RIGHTS AWAY TO THE PRINTED PICTURES!!

Of course, I only agreed to the use of them for this calender only.

CAT-THE-FIFTH said:
You mean another free photographer.

Well yes, obviously. I thought we had already established that this company sources free images?

Steve M · 24 Jun 2011 at 08:23

Jaap74 said:
Well done to the OP, as for the people whinging, if you aren't making money get into another industry.

Thank you.

Steve M · 24 Jun 2011 at 08:25

D.P. said:
Indeed, everyone winging is either not taking high enough quality photos, is not differentiating themselves from amateurs or has a terrible business model. Instead of blaming others who are merely trying to increase their own personal rewards they should blame themselves and realize they failed to catch up with the 21st century where everyone can have a DSLR that can take stunning photos and put them online almost instantly. Funny how these so called professionals are all for illegal price fixing and against free-market economy.

Steve M · 24 Jun 2011 at 11:24

bigredshark said:
I have a problem with them giving them away for free, and caving to the 'if you charge we aren't interested argument', if nobody gives photos away for free they'll pay, if people do it's a race to the bottom.

But there will always be people willing to give their work away for free.

True, if everyone charged, then these companies would have to pay, but that's simply not going to happen. Reminds me of listening to someone banging on about global warming along the lines of 'if we all did out bit ect' but again, that's not going to happen either.

The point you are making is completely vaild, but unrealistic in the real world.

Steve M · 24 Jun 2011 at 12:20

mrmimz said:
I feel that you too need to sympathise with the professional photographers who train and spend the time you have possibly spent learning your craft, learning theirs, to be removed from the equation by an "amateur".

As i've already said, i understand why the professionals would be upset by this and it's perfectly reasonable for them to want to defend their industry but at the same time they cannot expect amatuers like myself to feel the same way about an industry i'm not in surely?

Take PiKe for example, who on the first page of this thread asked if he could bill me for loss of earnings. Am i to believe that if his car broke down and he had a mate that could fix it for free that he would decline this offer because he didn't want to take away trade from the garage business?