Maybe that's where the confusion lies, I'm looking at it from an 'event scenario' POV. No offence taken btw, we're all grown ups
Completely understood Phil. The horse world is a strange one when it comes to photography and the unwritten rules can be a bit of a mine field in terms of ethics or manners!
OK just to clear up some confusion I'm going to copy a post that I made on Tori's Moral Dilemma thread, which might help:
There's been a growing trend in certain equestrian sports over the past few years (BD and BSJA particularly) of people turning up, shooting, and then flogging their photos either directly out of the boot of their car with a Selphy battery powered printer (or similar), or leafleting every lorry in the park with a flyer and a website address.
The real problem here isn't people like Tori who get asked 'that's a nice snap, can I have a copy?', it's photographers trying to set up an under-the-counter business at an event thereby half inching the official photographer's business.
Let's face it, the woman handing Tori her email address isn't likely to assume that she's a working photographer expecting payment, but rather someone who is a keen hobbiest and happy to share her images - as is the norm now-a-days.
Horsey events tend to attract a lot of medium to high range kit because, although every equestrian always claims to be poor, there's a lot of money floating about in the market. Considering the scale of some events full policing would be nigh on impossible but that doesn't mean that notice isn't taken of those hefting around a 300mm or similar.
From an organisers point of view, at my own event I'll know who the official photographers are, who the accredited press are and more than likely who is a 'team photographer'. It's fairly easy to spot who is following one particular set of riders and who is covering everybody in the ring. Likewise their shooting style and body language will normally differentiate between a happy snapper and someone who really knows what they are doing. That's in open park of about 350 acres with 400 horses and upwards of a thousand people.
Anyone who ticks all the wrong boxes will get quietly, but politely, asked who they are photographing for. Give the wrong answers and they will be asked to pack up their kit and desist. Push it further and they will have their entrance fee refunded and removed from the site, including unaccredited Press in the past.
In conclusion, low volume photo-sharers aren't something that the average event photographer can do much about. They threaten the industry by reducing the number of purchases as a whole, because the potential customer has their FB photo (they're rarely printed unless exceptionally good) and is happy with that regardless of quality. As Ade points out, the only way to overcome this threat is to make your images quantumly better than anything that they can achieve themselves, and with competitive pricing.
The more immediate threat is the under-counter merchant, and there are plenty of those about. There are two basic ways of preventing them from operating:
i) Report to the event organiser when they are on site and request their removal
ii) Get their commercial website details and report to the organisers post event. BE own the IP rights of all photographs taken at an affiliated event, suborned to the organiser of that event and thence to accredited press and official photographers. Hence they have the right to issue a take down notice for any commercially available photographs where an agreement hasn't been signed. This hasn't been exercised as yet, but it's sitting there waiting in the wings.......
Here's who I would and wouldn't worry about:
No:
Joe public happy snapping.
Team followers/photographers - from digicam, mobile and P&S users through to high end kit inc broadcast quality video.
The official photographer + assistants.
Yes:
Press - accreditation required (Non acc Paparazzi can be a problem)
Anyone offering open on or off site sales other than the official photographer.
Commercial shooting for stock/advertising etc - licence & permission required
Anybody attempting to shoot from a moving vehicle.
Anybody from the Yes group who is clearly incompetent around horses.
Anybody taking photographs that are out of the norm - ie remote cameras on fences, close up wide angle on the course etc etc
Grey area:
Independent photographers who charge a commercial rate for bespoke shoots- ie covering one horse, combination or stable for payment. There are plenty of set ups that offer this service, either to get images that the official photographer is unlikely to be able to get, or for sales/promotion purposes. I would expect this type of photographer to at least drop an email off to the organiser so they are aware of their presence - otherwise they are likely to get questioned.
Hopefully that gives a slightly better understanding of what's happening.
This mainly applies to Showing, BE, BD and BSJA style events rather than racing/P2P where the rules are different. Polo is another kettle of fish entirely!
Kipax, maybe you should spend less time announcing to the World that your here and concentrate more on just being here.
That comment is bang out of order. Tony is incredibly helpful, and God alone knows how he has the time to point prospective sports photographers in the right direction on here considering the volume of work that he does.
An apology might not go amiss.
