So... as a parent who does shoot a fair amount of photos of kids at games, recitals, etc., I think I understand what you are driving at. I do not want to be in the position of feeling taken advantage of, or taken for granted as the "community photographer." Especially since, I am a photographer in my community, and I would like people in my community to occasionally pay me for taking photographs. Here is how I approach photo-taking & sharing at these kind of events:
- Unless asked (paid) to shoot an event, I attend, and shoot, as a parent. I'm taking photos of my kid, and his/her friends. I shoot for the enjoyment, the family album, and the practice. Once or twice a season, I will try to get photos of everyone at the track meet, for example... just as a courtesy, or contribution, to the team/organization that my child is part of... I share a link to the photos on my website, in web-size, often with my watermark. Kids & families can share, link, download, post to facebook, whatever. They can order prints, too... which rarely happens, btw. -That should tell you something right there. Even well-executed photos of kids (or dancers) doing their thing, aren't really selling like hotcakes. (Unless you are a pro, hired to shoot the competition/performance, and you are hard-selling parents on prints before they leave the event. I'm not interested in that.) So, I don't spend a ton of time making these photos for others. -Often at these events, there is someone (a parent), who is in charge of getting photos of the team doing their thing... that's fine. (see above, why nobody buys photos) I try very hard not to be that parent. They are there at every event, shooting away, and then usually dump their images onto the team website. Those images are different than mine... they are fine snapshots, but not what you or I would want to show as representative of our work. (If I can say so without being arrogant) I like to think that how I share & present my images communicates that I value them differently. -For friends... actual friends... I will share digital files for printing, or send them prints. So... my advice to you (it's worth what it costs) is shoot as much as you like at dance events. Process & post as much as you want, as much as you feel it is worth. But no more than that. :) -c On Mon, Oct 7, 2013 at 3:29 PM, Larry Colen <l...@red4est.com> wrote: > On Mon, Oct 07, 2013 at 08:19:11PM +0100, Bob W wrote: >> Indeed. The point is - anything but the Larrathon... >> >> Sorry, Larry! > > Like I said, I started it way too late at night, I thought it was > going to be a couple of paragraphs. I posted it on facebook to > start a conversation about appreciating the work that goes into > being the unofficial community photographer. > > It was a lot longer than I intended, but I needed to go to bed, > so I just posted what I had. I thought that some people on this > list might be interested in the subject and discussion, because > they ended up being the parent that gets the shots everyone uses > of the kids soccer games, or school plays, or like me, in the dance > community. > > As was observed, I just copied it from facebook and pasted it into > my text editor mail client. > > > -- > Larry Colen l...@red4est.com http://red4est.com/lrc > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
