I'M FAMOUS, AT LAST!!

andy_fozzy

andy_fozzy

SPAM Merchant
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Name
Andy!
Edit My Images
Yes
Ok, no big deal perhaps, but I got a message recently from somebody from Schmap saying they'd like to use one of my shots in their Southampton guide. She made it clear there would be no payment, but that doesn't matter to me.

Up until today, I was just waiting to see if it got accepted. And got another message today saying that it has been!!!

Made my day anyway :D

Check it out, it's the Netley Abbey one:

Famous Fozzy :D
 
Well done! :) Everyone seems to be getting published these days....it's quickly going to go out of fashion...I hope :lol:
 
WAHAAAY my mates famous:razz: ....well done Andy well deserved:clap: ...my turn soon I hope:naughty:

:clap::clap::clap::clap:
 
Nice one congrats :thumbs:
 
You do know it's a scam, don't you? It's just a programme that sends out thousands of emails to Flickr members and those who reply are the ones whose images are "accepted". I had one in their guide for Glasgow, credited to "Giza Blawjoab" :naughty:


Sorry, Andy :(
 
Congrats on getting a picture used because they can get it for free - don't think so. They are making a profit out of mugs who give there work away for an ego boost. Pathetic really.
 
awp said:
Congrats on getting a picture used because they can get it for free - don't think so. They are making a profit out of mugs who give there work away for an ego boost. Pathetic really.
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Well I don't really care WHAT you think. I'm pleased, scam or no scam.
If it boosts my confidence, then is this really such a bad thing.........
 
Flash In The Pan said:
You do know it's a scam, don't you? It's just a programme that sends out thousands of emails to Flickr members and those who reply are the ones whose images are "accepted". I had one in their guide for Glasgow, credited to "Giza Blawjoab" :naughty:


Sorry, Andy :(
Click to expand...

b****r :'(

Never mind, I'm still pleased!! (little things please little minds eh :D )
 
andy_fozzy said:
Well I don't really care WHAT you think. I'm pleased, scam or no scam.
If it boosts my confidence, then is this really such a bad thing.........
Click to expand...


We've all gotta start somewhere I've given images "away"
and I bet there are a hell of a lot more that have if they're honest :thumbs:
 
andy_fozzy said:
b****r :'(

Never mind, I'm still pleased!! (little things please little minds eh :D )
Click to expand...

The fact you havnt been paid is irelevant, bottom line is if your image was **** they wouldnt want it in the first place.

I had one used last year for a leeds guide, at least they ask, rather than just steal them, :lol:
 
awp said:
Congrats on getting a picture used because they can get it for free - don't think so. They are making a profit out of mugs who give there work away for an ego boost. Pathetic really.
Click to expand...

Well I am sure we are all very pleased you have never given an image away.



Andy, if it gives you just a little pleasure, then its worth it. We all need that boost once in a while ;)
 
Cobra said:

We've all gotta start somewhere I've given images "away"
and I bet there are a hell of a lot more that have if they're honest :thumbs:
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris.
And while we're on the subject, I've just given away at least 20 images to the company I work for, for them to use for whatever they wish.
And they are very happy with them (well they would be for free :D ).

It's not about money at the moment, but a bit of recognition.
Maybe one day in the future (as they have asked for more) there may be suggestion from me for a little 'donation'.......

I had fun taking them, I get a bit of recognition and my work gets used for potentially ALLOT of people to see.
That's a good payment for me, for now.
 
Monkey said:
The fact you havnt been paid is irelevant, bottom line is if your image was **** they wouldnt want it in the first place.

I had one used last year for a leeds guide, at least they ask, rather than just steal them, :lol:
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Absolutely mate, absolutely.

Anyone can have/use any of my images. They just need to ask ;)
 
Yv said:
Well I am sure we are all very pleased you have never given an image away.



Andy, if it gives you just a little pleasure, then its worth it. We all need that boost once in a while ;)
Click to expand...

Thanks Yv.
It has certainly given me a little boost!
 
Congratulations Andy, I've just had a picture selected for publication and it's a great feeling isn't it? I'm not getting paid and I don't care because it's going to charity anyway.
 
Well done Andy, I've just had one added for Ely Cathedral in the Cambridge guide and it's given me a little boost too. It's nice to be asked to use a photo and they link back to the bigger image in Flickr as well, so people may browse your other images too - also for free of course ;)
 
Andy (& others)

Another nail in the coffin of genuine professional photographers :clap:

Do you not think that the people who produce these guides must think that photographers are mugs? Giving away their "work" They make good money from these guides on the back of no costs for the images.

Andy I understand the feel good factor in seeing your image and name next to it, however I assure you it's a much better feel good factor when a cheque accompanies it :)

I do not know what you do for a living but if a pro tog came in and did your job for nothing how would you feel?

When I first started I never gave any images away to commercial concern, yes I gave some to GENUINE charities, last year I did a commission for a large firm of solicitors who ran a charity day, I charged them for my services and at night I gave away to raffle off for the charity an A3 mounted print of Tiger Woods and it raised £185 for the charity :love: that was a nice "feel good" factor.

So all you guys think who you are giving your images to out there and ask yourself the question "are they using it on technical merit or because its for free?"

Chris Gill:shrug:
 
Good luck to you Andy. I'm sure it is a good feeling. Its situations like this that will always arise when a hobby clashes with someones livelihood.
I get it. Uncle sam next door fitted my discs/pads for me free of charge. I dont like it. But ***** happens in life.
I look at it this way. I dont own any of my customers. They are free to use who/whatever means they want to have their cars repaired. If I show them that I do a good professional job at a fair price, then I'm in with a chance. We have built on that for 16 years now and have 4,000 customers who use use regularly.
So without getting into major rows/discussions (happening far too often on this forum just lately) lets just let Andy have his moment of feeling that his work is progressing and someone appreciates it.
Sorry for the rant. No offence intended to anyone. Woke up touchy. :D
Just a thought though. I gave Pete (Dangermouse) an image of mine for free and he runs a photography business. Does that make me an even bigger prat? :eek::D:lol::lol:

Kev.
 
Nice one Andy - I've had two images schmapped - I considered the 'free' element too and I questioned schmap - I got a polite reply from a human being (not a robot :)) and in the balance I agreed - they only publish them as thumbnails and there was a small thrill seeing them in the online guides as up to that point I'd had nowt published - both linking back to the original flickr page and with a credit to me.

These I was happy to let go for free - however with the chicken timer that was a different story :)

Its all up to the individual and so, all-in-all, well done that man :thumbs: :)

Do you have a link to the image they selected?
 
ChrisGill said:
Andy (& others)

Another nail in the coffin of genuine professional photographers :clap:

Do you not think that the people who produce these guides must think that photographers are mugs? Giving away their "work" They make good money from these guides on the back of no costs for the images.

Andy I understand the feel good factor in seeing your image and name next to it, however I assure you it's a much better feel good factor when a cheque accompanies it :)

I do not know what you do for a living but if a pro tog came in and did your job for nothing how would you feel?

When I first started I never gave any images away to commercial concern, yes I gave some to GENUINE charities, last year I did a commission for a large firm of solicitors who ran a charity day, I charged them for my services and at night I gave away to raffle off for the charity an A3 mounted print of Tiger Woods and it raised £185 for the charity :love: that was a nice "feel good" factor.

So all you guys think who you are giving your images to out there and ask yourself the question "are they using it on technical merit or because its for free?"

Chris Gill:shrug:
Click to expand...

Completely agree.

Totally schizophrenic attitude: my work is so good someone wants to use it but I value it so little I'll give it away for bragging rights on a forum and a warm fuzzy glow.

Meanwhile, across the board, because budgets for buying images is not being used, those budgets will be reviewed and next year they will be cut.

So when all the aspiring pro togs on here do make the jump and go for it, there's b****r all to be made, and they will wonder why.
 
ChrisGill said:
Andy (& others)

Another nail in the coffin of genuine professional photographers :clap:

SNIPPED
Click to expand...

Hiya Chris. Nice to 'meet' you :D

Not disagreeing with you at all mate, and I understand completely where you are coming from.

BUT :D

Just answer me this, if you would please?
How else am I supposed to get my pictures and name 'out there'?
 
Dark Star said:
Nice one Andy - I've had two images schmapped - I considered the 'free' element too and I questioned schmap - I got a polite reply from a human being (not a robot :)) and in the balance I agreed - they only publish them as thumbnails and there was a small thrill seeing them in the online guides as up to that point I'd had nowt published - both linking back to the original flickr page and with a credit to me.

These I was happy to let go for free - however with the chicken timer that was a different story :)

Its all up to the individual and so, all-in-all, well done that man :thumbs: :)

Do you have a link to the image they selected?
Click to expand...

Thanks John. It was this image they used:

3137581659_3c7b561867.jpg


And before anyone else says it, it's not that great a shot.
But who cares?

If I'd have said to them, yes you can use it, but I want £500, it wouldn't have been used, and I'd have still no credit for my work.......
 
Well Andy, i'm pleased for you mate :thumbs: I have one of Arundel Castle in schmap too.

As for the nay sayers, i have absolutely no intention of pro togging, and just do what i do for fun. If someone wants to use an image (so long as i get a credit), fine. If someone wants to buy one, even better. But i'm not going to lose sleep over it.
 
andy_fozzy said:
Hiya Chris. Nice to 'meet' you :D

Not disagreeing with you at all mate, and I understand completely where you are coming from.

BUT :D

Just answer me this, if you would please?
How else am I supposed to get my pictures and name 'out there'?
Click to expand...

Andy, nice to meet you :|

I will try to answer your question in a positive mode :)

My first sale was an approach from Canon Europe asking if the could use an image I had uploaded onto a Canon Gallery through the UK website, they licensed it for use in theier magazines for 2 years and paid me 500 Euro's (£333 in those days!) It was in several magazines with full picture credits.

My next sale I remember very well!! It was a Vauxhall Motors North Conference match I sent in three images for use which they wanted to use FOR NOTHING I called them back and asked them why? they said they don't pay for any images used in the paper but will give me a credit. Iqueried why they had not got their staff tog there on the day their reply was he was busy and could not get there (I would not have wasted my time sending the images in if I had spotted him anyway) One of the shots was the winning headed goal and they really did want that I could tell!

So literally 30 minutes before the deadline they offered me £10 for the image, after bargaining with them I got £30. The morale of the story is that for three years they paid me £30 for every image they used, Andy you just have to ask and not give away your skills and time

I now specialise in golf images so do not cover the games but use the same lessons learnt to charge for commission shoots, I was at the British Open at Birkdale last year and a chap approached me with his family and asked me (I had media accredition and was badged up!) to take some shots of them "at the Open" I obliged business cards were swapped and I got £215 for three A3 images printed on Hahnamule Photo Rag paper. You have to be confident in your ability to charge such a price (BTW he was delighted)

My thoughts are if you go in a nothing that positions you as "not a great photographer" to a potential client, it depends what your medium/long term objective is I guess.

I will go to a photo shoot with circa £12,000 worth of gear and circa £5,000 worth of computers,software, printers etc. The public do get that confused with their "point and shoot" cameras.

Sorry to be long winded but there are two sides to users on this Forum amateur and professional and they do get wrangled up sometimes :'(

Hope I have made myself clear and I certainly have not called anybody a prat (KevShore)

Chris Gill :thumbs:
 
No Probs Kev :thumbs:

Chris
 
Thanks for taking the time to reply Chris.
It was a very interesting reply too! And I enjoyed reading it.
You have done well, and I envy people like you.

My intention is to get my images out and about, and I'm currently putting together a series of my best shots to send away to magazines, websites and just about anywhere else that will take them.
If need be, I will continue to supply images for free, for a while.

I will not however, have the p**s taken out of me.
If there's a chance that somebody somewhere wants an image, and I can make a few £££ then I will.
Schmapp made it quite clear that they don't pay for images, but I get full accreditation for the image. So my name is next to the picture, and clicking it takes you to my flickr page.

I don't have, and probably never will have 17 grands worth of gear. Unless I really do get lucky and land a very well paid photography job. (You never know eh??!!).
My budget is VERY tight indeed. I work hard for what I have, and I appreciate what I have.

I would love to earn money from my shots, and as somebody who has only really been serious about it for about 2 years at the most, I'm not doing bad.
I don't have time to attend college and get lot's of fancy bits of paper.
So my way of getting my shots out and about are to maybe supply a few images very cheap. And hope for the best.
 
kevshore said:
I gave Pete (Dangermouse) an image of mine for free and he runs a photography business. Does that make me an even bigger prat? :eek::D:lol::lol:

Kev.
Click to expand...

What you done for Pete was a wonderful thing to do. I don't class you as a pratt. Quite the opposite actually.......
 
Congrats Andy :)

I have let them use my pics on schmap before and would quite happily do it again, the reason being that they dont really 'use' the photo in my opinion, they link to your flickr account with a nice size credit to boot. So all mine are credited to my website and obviously link to my flickr. All a nice free advert in my eyes.

Checking my flickr stats I get a fair few visits from there, not a lot but better than nothing, and the more traffic to my flickr the better, SOLD a fair few images for various usage through flickr now.
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
Congrats Andy :)

I have let them use my pics on schmap before and would quite happily do it again, the reason being that they dont really 'use' the photo in my opinion, they link to your flickr account with a nice size credit to boot. So all mine are credited to my website and obviously link to my flickr. All a nice free advert in my eyes.

Checking my flickr stats I get a fair few visits from there, not a lot but better than nothing, and the more traffic to my flickr the better, SOLD a fair few images for various usage through flickr now.
Click to expand...

Excellent Jimmy, and congrats to you too :D

Thanks for your support :thumbs:
 
andy_fozzy said:
So my way of getting my shots out and about are to maybe supply a few images very cheap. And hope for the best.
Click to expand...

Industries just don't work like that though Andy. Price yourself cheap, or even worse free, and that's exactly what people expect to pay. So the whole marketplace becomes devalued. The going rate becomes the currency of nowt.

I have a friend in marketing. You want to know how much they paid for pics of their product? £8K. Now, all of a sudden you come along and will do it for nothing, just to get noticed. How much will they be prepared to pay next time round? The budget is gone. But now you are charging so where do you get the work from? it's not there any more! And the pro who previously could have counted on the 8K income is where exactly? Or the reverse happens. The company value the pro and his £8K professional product and you still don't get the work. Reasuringly expensive I think is the phrase.

If you want to be noticed, take yourself and your product seriously and get out there and pitch your work to the people who pay the bills, don't sit around waiting for the phone to ring because it seldom will.:)

I know it's nice to get an image out in the public domain and if it serves your purpose then well done you, just be careful what you wish for :)
 
Well done Andy. I see one of Mr Kiddles is on there as well. I really dont see that a sight like this is a threat to a Pro tog now is it! So why not let Andy have his moment.

Pro's and amateurs will always clash in photography. Chris, you are more than welcome to come and have a go at my job for free :)

Well done again Andy.
 
AliB said:
Industries just don't work like that though Andy. Price yourself cheap, or even worse free, and that's exactly what people expect to pay. So the whole marketplace becomes devalued. The going rate becomes the currency of nowt.

I have a friend in marketing. You want to know how much they paid for pics of their product? £8K. Now, all of a sudden you come along and will do it for nothing, just to get noticed. How much will they be prepared to pay next time round? The budget is gone. And the pro who previously could have counted on the 8K income is where exactly?

If you want to be noticed, take yourself and your product seriously and get out there and pitch your work to the people who pay the bills, don't sit around waiting for the phone to ring because it seldom will.:)
Click to expand...

Thanks for that. It's a good point, and good advice.
I'm being honest here, I really have no idea where to start with selling images :thinking:

My images are FAR FROM pro level, but I have a few that are pretty good, and I'm prepared to have a bloody good go at getting better.
 
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