Sports equipment catalog wants to use my photo on the front cover

bobcool

Here's a good one.

A mother of one of the youth football players I shoot action for on spec (no jokes please) works for a major sports equipment supply company. She has asked me to "let her use" a photo of her son to be put on the front cover and I would get photo credit - wow thanks! This magazine has over 200,000 subscribers and had sales of over $250 million this year and has over $20 million "cash on hand," according to their corporate information on their website.

So, I whip out my http://photographersindex.com/stockprice.htm favorite and calculate the average price of a cover photo:

$1,000

Now, do any of you honestly think that she'll agree to that? I have my doubts, so we'll have to wait and see. I just sent the reply. Here's the pic in question:

Angelo

questions:

is the boy a minor?

do you have his or his parent's signed release?

if you don't you could be in a Catch-22 situation. She wants the pic but doesn't want to pay. You want to charge a fee but can't without a release.

bobcool

Great point, Angelo. The parents sign a model release when they sign up the boys for the season on the application. If the deal actually goes through, I may have to get a separate model release since his face is somewhat recognizable on a commercial publication.

I'll keep you posted!

johng

Stick to your guns. "Mom" wants her son on the cover. You've got the goods. No reason you shouldn't get the going rate for a cover photo. Now, I can't speak to that figure and whether the publication in question pays that rate so the amount may fall between the $0 of the initial offer and the $1000 you requested.

urbanaries

I was in a similar situation earlier this year. Since the marketing publication (circulation 200,000) was "free" (so irrelevant) and other people had given photos in the past, they expected to pay nothing for the use of a photo and my client thought it was odd that I would charge, since she'd already paid me for the photo session.

I stuck to my guns but they never offered me a dime or attempted to negotiate, and my client was heartbroken that her daughter wasn't going to be famous, because I wouldn't just give her the file. Lost a client. YMMV.

Sam

I have a little different view here. Is mom the CEO, or worker bee? Makes a huge difference.

If she is a worker bee, she probably has no experience with photo usage costs etc. The only thing she sees is an opportunity ti have a photo of her son on the catalog cover. How cool is that!

Perhaps if you calmly explained all the issues here, she could go to bat for the both of you.

It's the companies policies, and decisions, not hers, she is just the enthusiastic mom.

Sam

PeterLyons

I would definitely ask for the $1000. Photo credit is not payment.

nipprdog

Sam wrote:

I have a little different view here. Is mom the CEO, or worker bee? Makes a huge difference.

If she is a worker bee, she probably has no experience with photo usage costs etc. The only thing she sees is an opportunity ti have a photo of her son on the catalog cover. How cool is that!

Perhaps if you calmly explained all the issues here, she could go to bat for the both of you.

It's the companies policies, and decisions, not hers, she is just the enthusiastic mom.

Sam

Good point.

Biffbradford

So, the family of the player signs the model release, and you get your $1,000 for your cover shot. Now, what percentage of that does the 'model' get?