The Business of Architecture Photography - Q&A No. 1
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- Опубликовано: 8 дек 2022
- Questions this go-around are related to pricing, licensing, and copyright infringements. If you have a question you'd like me to address in a future video, drop it in the comments with "business question" at the beginning.
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My name is Matthew and I'm an architecture & interiors photographer based in Kansas City.
IG @matthewaphoto - / matthewaphoto
www.matthewaphoto.com
Business Question: What are some mistakes you made when you were transitioning from real estate to architecture? Can you tell a little more about why you made that decision and how you started marketing to non-real estate clients?
Brilliant question! 👆
HA - your face during my name call out, classic. Thank you so much for doing this and answering my question! This is really awesome and I am really grateful for you taking the time do to this! Thank you.
Thank you for these resources! I really appreciate your time to put these together. I hope this series continues to be worth your time and effort to make.
Matt (can I call you Matt?),
You’re the best. Your consistent uploads with the details that we want to know are great. Just found you recently and you and Anthony Turnham are my go-to guys for the questions I have.
Much appreciated.
Thanks so much Daniel! That means a lot...seriously 🙂 I hope the information helps out one way or another
Great content - thanks very much for all the insights
A few years back at the PFRE conference, Rachael Breinke (sp?) AKA "The Law Tog" said something like "stolen work is stolen income." I wish I could remember what the actual statement was, but yeah, go after them if they won't take it down. I've addressed this on my channel from time to time as well. I agree with you in general that it's a pain in the butt, and that sometimes it isn't worth it, but if G.E. or Kraft foods or such is using my image without license you bet I'm going to dig in.
Love your videos. I have watch about 2 hours of your content today
*Copyright:* Matt’s right on-point about copyright registration! If a non-Fair Use, non-judgement-proof (aka, the infringer has money) US-based copyright infringer is exploiting your photographs without your written permission AND you want them to pay you money damages, your infringed images typically must be *“timely”* registered EITHER *before* the copyright infringement began OR registered *within three-months of their FIRST-date of publication.* A timely registration gives you the right to pursue statutory damages ($750 to $30,000 and up to $150,000 for *willful* copyright infringement) and the infringer may have to pay your attorney fees & legal costs (at the court’s discretion).
If you miss either of these two very time-sensitive windows to register, you can ONLY pursue *“actual damages,”* typically the missed licensing fee (usually what you would have charged), and the disgorgement of profits the infringer made (if any!) from reproducing your work. Importantly, you’re responsible for your attorney fees and other legal costs! As a rule, any money damages received from an out-of-court settlement or via trial verdict will NOT cover your attorney fees, making it, too often, UNECONOMICAL to pursue copyright infringers without having a timely registered copyright in-hand.
If your actual damages and/or the infringer’s disgorged profits are SUBSTANTIAL (and enough to cover your attorney fees), like an infringer exploited your photograph prominently in its advertising campaign, on a (Campbell) soup can, on apparel/merchandise, and in other commercial media, then you may not need a timely copyright registration to obtain money damages.
US photographers help *“presumptively PROVE”* their photo copyright creations & copyright ownership claims to a federal judge, publishers, social media & selling platforms, copyright infringers, and others, by registering their images as an unpublished work or registering them within five-years of first-publication, as that STATUTORILY grants them “prime-facie” evidence of their copyright creation & ownership claims. It’s not necessarily a RAW or original file that proves your copyright creation, but rather the issued-copyright “Certificate of Registration” that the US Copyright Office will mail you; it’ll be affixed with the official United States government date stamp of your photo registration (creation).
So, when someone challenges my photo copyright creation, I show them my issued copyright Certificate number (NOT my RAW or original files), and that shuts them up!
FYi: Something like 98% of all copyright infringement dispute are settled out of court, as the cost to litigate (attorney fees) to trial can be enormous. Consequently, by having a timely registration in-hand can provide your copyright attorney/litigator with the necessary leverage to PUSH non-Fair Use, non-judgement-proof infringers to settle out of court. If the infringer chooses not to settle and you prevail at trial, the infringer is now liable (responsible) to pay you (enhanced) statutory money damages and most importantly, your attorney fees & legal costs. To mitigate their financial exposure risks, most all copyright infringers who are facing a timely registered copyright claim will want to confidentially settle out of court and (quickly) put their infringing actions behind them.
There are copyright attorney litigators who will take your infringement case on a contingency, but ONLY if your photographs were timely registered + the infringement doesn’t fall within Fair Use + the infringer is not judgement-proof.
I’ve listed just some of the legal and monetary benefits of timely registering your photographs with the US Copyright Office.
*“Publication” Definition:* Publication typically means the photograph has been released and made available to the public for licensing, selling, sharing, downloading, or for further distribution (either for free or for payment). As well, the day you list (on selling platforms, in a store, etc.) or deliver your photographs to your client or stock is likely their official date of first-publication. If you’re just “displaying” a photograph on-line (like on a website portfolio) and not selling or sharing it, then the work is likely un-published. To me, when you post/share your images on social media, that’s publication, as you have to agree to Facebook and other’s licensing agreement. See Circular 1 (Copyright Basics, page 7) for the legal definition of “Publication”: www.copyright.gov/circs/circ01.pdf
Thanks Matt! Business questions. As an established architectural photographer what is the best marketing strategy. Not necessarily the specific actions but more along the lines of what is your approach to keeping your name out there in order to keep your brand in front of existing while also attracting new clients?
THIS is a fantastic question!!! I’ll talk about this in Q&A number 2 for sure
Business Question (kinda): As a architectural photographer, do you use polarize filters? Curious of your thoughts on the subject. Thank you. Love the channel.
Business question; do you need property and mode releases in order to own copyright with the right to sell and distribute for commercial licensing
Do you do HDR for your business?
Business question. Photographer Assistant contract/stipulations. I have not used an assistant yet, but enevitably will need to in the future. Are you using, or is it even common, to have your assistant sign a "non-compete" contract?
Thanks for the videos.
(Business Question) Hi Matt, I’m just starting out in Architecture photography and Videography and have also recently moved to a new island in Europe where most if not all Architects,property Developers use computer renditions of there projects. They haven’t shown an interest in using real photographs or videos to showcase there projects when I have contacted them.
Have you had to deal with anything similar or have any suggestions?
Many Thanks
Alexis
How do you research what these images are worth to these companies?
Business Question - How do you interact with new clients? If someone reaches out to you asking for informtation do you have a set of saved templated emails that you use? Do you prefer to just talk on the phone with them? I feel like I am currently spending an excessive amount of time typing out long replies to email inquiries that are providing similar information and I am looking to streamline the process.
Such a good question. I’m definitely going over this in Q&A number 2
First, I like your videos, including this one. So, please don't misinterpret what I'm about to say, which is in this video, during your discussion of copyright infringement, you emphasized the importance of registering your photographs with the Library of Congress as a means of protecting your copyright. Then you followed up by effectively saying that most photographers have little to no chance of successfully imposing a financial penalty on anyone who infringes on that copyright. Frankly, I don't know if that's true or untrue. But, I find it inconsistent to advise people to protect their work and then say they effectively have no way to enforce that protection.
At the 12:19 mark I say "some instances". It has to do with the type of businesses that are using your images w/o your permission. There's a saying "you can't get blood from a turnip". You can protect your work all you want, but the (unfortunate) reality is if (for example) some small time blog or fly-by-night company is using one of your photos...the chances of you seeing any $ by 'going after them' is slim-to-none.
@@MatthewAPhoto I totally agree with what you just explained. Unfortunately, I somehow missed that statement in the video. Thanks for the reference; I'll have to review that.