By Staff
January 21, 2015
BURLINGTON, ON
The city web site is getting a serious make over.
Council was given a quick preview of what the public will see in the very near future. It is going to be a much more useful web site. In the past when one did a search you often got documents that were as much as ten years old but often not the one you wanted.
One of the “public involvement” aspects will be a photo submission. The city decided they didn’t want to use “stock” photos – so they are going to the public and asking anyone to submit a photograph.
The City will determine which photographs submitted will be used. They will select photos for use based on overall quality, scenic shots and community in action shots.
The photos selected will help to promote our community and may be part of the new City of Burlington website. The decisions of the City with respect to all aspects of the submission are final. All photos must have been taken in the City of Burlington and be submitted in one of the following categories:
• City of Burlington Arts and Culture
• City of Burlington Council
• City of Burlington Festivals and Events
• Living in Burlington
• City of Burlington Recreation
• City of Burlington Waterfront
• City Programs
Photos on the website will be changed on a seasonal basis – they will be looking for photo submissions on a regular basis.
It`s a good idea. You have to put up with all the baffle gab the legal department put in – just say yes to whatever they ask. When you see words like: irrevocable, perpetual, you know there was a lawyer in the room.
By submitting your photographs, you accept and agree to abide by these terms and conditions. If you are under the age of 18, then you must have the written permission of your parent or legal guardian to submit your photographs and your parent or legal guardian must accept and agree to abide by these terms and conditions.
If your photograph is chosen for use, you hereby grant The Corporation of the City of Burlington and any other parties designated by the City the irrevocable, perpetual, worldwide, transferable licence to use, edit, alter, reproduce, distribute, and publish your photograph in any manner and in any media for promotional matters or purposes of advertising, trade, display or exhibition. The City will not pay you or others any royalty, licence fee or any costs for such photograph. You also waive any moral rights that you may have in the photograph in favour of the City.
The City may or may not include any photo credits with the use of your photograph. That is really kind of cheap and mean spirited – if someone goes to the effort to submit a picture – the east the city can do is give a photo credit.
By submitting a photograph, you represent and warrant that the photograph you submit is an original work by you, that you own or control all of the rights in and to your photograph, and that such rights are free and clear of any and all third party claims or rights. You release the City and any other parties designated by the City from any liability associated with your submission. You understand that the City has no control over, and is not responsible for, any further use or misuse of your photograph by others. You agree to indemnify and hold harmless the City and any other parties designated by the City from all liabilities and losses arising out of or related to your submission or the rights granted herein.
If an individual appears in your photograph, you are responsible for obtaining the consent of that individual to have his/her likeness displayed and published by the City. The City may request Photo Consent forms from submitters.
By submitting your photograph, you consent to the use of your name and address (city and province/territory) without further compensation to you.
If you want to be part of animating the city`s web site and you can take a decent picture – join the parade.
Click here to submit a picture.
Dear potential photo buyer,
If you have been directed to this page, it is likely that you have requested the use of an image or images for free or minimal compensation.
As professional photographers, we receive requests for free images on a regular basis. In a perfect world, each of us would love to be able to respond in a positive manner and assist, especially with projects or efforts related to areas such as education, social issues, and conservation of natural resources. It is fair to say that in many cases, we wish we had the time and resources to do more to assist than just send photographs.
Unfortunately, such are the practicalities of life that we are often unable to respond, or that when we do, our replies are brief and do not convey an adequate sense of the reasons underlying our response.
Circumstances vary for each situation, but we have found that there are a number of recurring themes, which we have set out below with the objective of communicating more clearly with you, and hopefully avoiding misunderstandings or unintentionally engendering ill will.
Please take the following points in the constructive manner in which they are intended. We certainly hope that after you have had a chance to read this, we will be able to talk again and establish a mutually beneficial working relationship.
Photographs Are Our Livelihood
Creating compelling images is the way we make our living. If we give away our images for free, or spend too much time responding to requests for free images, we cannot make a living.
We Do Support Worthy Causes With Images
Most of us do contribute photographs, sometimes more, to support certain causes. In many cases, we may have participated directly in projects that we support with images, or we may have a pre-existing personal relationship with key people involved with the efforts concerned. In other words, each of us can and does provide images without compensation on a selective basis.
We Have Time Constraints
Making a leap from such selective support to responding positively to every request we get for free photographs, however, is impractical, if for no other reason than the substantial amount of time required to respond to requests, exchange correspondence, prepare and send files, and then follow-up to find out how our images were used and what objectives, if any, were achieved. It takes a lot of time to respond to requests, and time is always in short supply.
Pleas of “We Have No Money” Are Often Difficult to Fathom
The primary rationale provided in nearly all requests for free photographs is budgetary constraint, meaning that the requestor pleads a lack of funds.
Such requests frequently originate from organisations with a lot of cash on hand, whether they be publicly listed companies, government or quasi-government agencies, or even NGOs. Often, it is a simple matter of taking a look at a public filing or other similar disclosure document to see that the entity concerned has access to significant funding, certainly more than enough to pay photographers a reasonable fee should they choose to do so.
To make matters worse, it is apparent that all too often, of all the parties involved in a project or particular effort, photographers are the only ones being asked to work for free. Everyone else gets paid.
Given considerations like this, you can perhaps understand why we frequently feel slighted when we are told that: “We have no money.” Such claims can come across as a cynical ploy intended to take advantage of gullible individuals.
We Have Real Budget Constraints
With some exceptions, photography is not a highly remunerative profession. We have chosen this path in large part due to the passion we have for visual communication, visual art, and the subject matters in which we specialise.
The substantial increase in photographs available via the internet in recent years, coupled with reduced budgets of many photo buyers, means that our already meager incomes have come under additional strain.
Moreover, being a professional photographer involves significant monetary investment.
Our profession is by nature equipment-intensive. We need to buy cameras, lenses, computers, software, storage devices, and more on a regular basis. Things break and need to be repaired. We need back-ups of all our data, as one ill-placed cup of coffee could literally erase years of work. For all of us, investment in essential hardware and software entails thousands of dollars a year, as we need to stay current with new technology and best practices.
In addition, travel is a big part of many of our businesses. We must spend a lot of money on transportation, lodging and other travel-related costs.
And of course, perhaps most importantly, there is a substantial sum associated with the time and experience we have invested to become proficient at what we do, as well as the personal risks we often take. Taking snapshots may only involve pressing the camera shutter release, but creating images requires skill, experience and judgement.
So the bottom line is that although we certainly understand and can sympathise with budget constraints, from a practical point of view, we simply cannot afford to subsidise everyone who asks.
Getting “Credit” Doesn’t Mean Much
Part and parcel with requests for free images premised on budgetary constraints is often the promise of providing “credit” and “exposure”, in the form or a watermark, link, or perhaps even a specific mention, as a form of compensation in lieu of commercial remuneration.
There are two major problems with this.
First, getting credit isn’t compensation. We did, after all, create the images concerned, so credit is automatic. It is not something that we hope a third party will be kind enough to grant us.
Second, credit doesn’t pay bills. As we hopefully made clear above, we work hard to make the money required to reinvest in our photographic equipment and to cover related business expenses. On top of that, we need to make enough to pay for basic necessities like food, housing, transportation, etc.
In short, receiving credit for an image we created is a given, not compensation, and credit is not a substitute for payment.
“You Are The Only Photographer Being Unreasonable”
When we do have time to engage in correspondence with people and entities who request free photos, the dialogue sometimes degenerates into an agitated statement directed toward us, asserting in essence that all other photographers the person or entity has contacted are more than delighted to provide photos for free, and that somehow, we are “the only photographer being unreasonable”.
We know that is not true.
We also know that no reasonable and competent photographer would agree to unreasonable conditions. We do allow for the fact that some inexperienced photographers or people who happen to own cameras may indeed agree to work for free, but as the folk wisdom goes: “You get what you pay for.”
Please Follow-Up
One other experience we have in common is that when we do provide photographs for free, we often do not receive updates, feedback or any other form of follow-up letting us know how the event or project unfolded, what goals (if any) were achieved, and what good (if any) our photos did.
All too often, we don’t even get responses to emails we send to follow-up, until, of course, the next time that someone wants free photographs.
In instances where we do agree to work for free, please have the courtesy to follow-up and let us know how things went. A little consideration will go a long way in making us feel more inclined to take time to provide additional images in the future.
Wrap Up
We hope that the above points help elucidate why the relevant photographer listed below has sent you to this link. All of us are dedicated professionals, and we would be happy to work with you to move forward in a mutually beneficial manner.
I would like to add to Glen’s list by stating that some of us offer freely our time and skills so readily that we don’t consider them “volunteering”. They are just what we do as artists and active community members. I have offered free services to at least six organizations in and outside of Burlington including being a Board Director, consultant, committee member, chaired meetings and much more over the past four years. Going further back brings more time given freely to our cause of sharing our love of arts. I would guess tens of thousands of hours volunteered to the arts community and community at large over my career.
Glen, you make good points.
First of all I would like to remind Marco that although he is entitled to his free press opinions about starving artists but he forgot to mention that these same dedicated individuals contribute thousands of hours of volunteer time to city functions and venues on an annual basis. Educational art based workshops for adults and children, the Annual Day in the Life of Burlington project and contributions of artwork to the Art Gallery of Burlington’s Annual Art Auction to mention a few. So we are are proud citizens of Burlington and do support local government. Having said that your comments about Jim Riley are unwarranted. To shout out his name in a public forum makes us wonder if you have a personal axe to grind. As T.S.Elliot once said; ” Let’s not be narrow, nasty and negative. “
Marco’s comment about “starving artists” should be looked at as cultural bigotry similar to racial, ethnic and religious bigotry. His statement about local government being about community and being a part and contributing to your proud city. Marco needs to realize that the city does not expect nor ask its staff of carpenters, lawyers, city councillors, city Communication Manager etc. to contribute their services for free like a slave. The city should not consider it a matter of pride to mistreat artists, steal copyright and moral rights of it artist citizens. A proud city promotes itself as insuring that the artists are paid for their service regardless of their status (amateur, emerging, mid career or established artists) CARCC license fee for internet use of each fixed image for non profit (like a city) is $49 per month or $200 per year. https://www.carcc.ca/fee_schedule_2014_3_advertising.html#B42
The call for artists asking for free images with or without credit lines is totally unacceptable and quite insulting to all local photographers in Burlington. The old attitudes of images for free days are gone. For years artists were exploited through contests and various programs that made you feel like they were doing YOU a favour by publishing your art and if you were lucky they would give you a free T shirt or mention your name on the lower half of pg 36 between advertisements for Johnson’s baby powder and Swanson TV dinners. The city of Burlington states on one hand they’re trying to promote local artisans with respect and dignity while on the other send out this public involvement announcement asking us for freebees and if you’re lucky may give you a credit line. Oh, lets not forget they will let you retain all rights to your images. Pardon the Pun but what’s wrong with this picture. May I suggest that the unknown person ( doesn’t mention their name just ” Staff ” along with any other individual involved donate a day of their working salary towards this program so that the artists contributing images to the new web site are compensated … Well we know that’s not going to happen! Have to follow this and see who donates work and if they are paid for doing so !!! Totally unethical request.! Shame on them !!
Apropos …. ‘Students up in arms about being asked to design 150th anniversary logo for Canada … ‘ via Huffington Post. ~ https://m.huffpost.com/ca/entry/6510432?utm_hp_ref=tw
David Newman I agree with you in part that the city is doing a Call for Submissions(using art language). It would therefore be a competition. LETS TREAT BURLINGTON ARTIST WITH RESPECT. Whether a winning photo is from a Burlington professional artist or a child they should receive a cash payment respecting the artists copyright and moral rights to their image. None of this nonsense about cameras and prizes. Treat all artists as you would a doctor, lawyer, plumber and not “gift” them a camera…Pay them the going scale (see CARFAC https://www.carfac.ca/tools/fees/ Do not try to steal their moral rights to their image.
And here come the crying starving artists. Local government is about community and being a part and contributing to your proud city. I assume Jim Riley will chime in soon, one of the most vocal.
“The City may or may not include any photo credits with the use of your photograph. That is really kind of cheap and mean spirited – if someone goes to the effort to submit a picture – the east the city can do is give a photo credit.”
Pepper, do YOU give or mention Photo Credits on your website?
Editor’s note: If the picture comes from someone – we give a photo credit. We tend to take most of our own photographs – and we do note that we see them popping up elsewhere at times – the city website and some of their reports. It happens. We have had artists submit pictures for which we give credit. We have also paid artists who we send out on assignments.
Unfortunately, with these terms and apparent lack of respect for the art or business of photography; i cannot recommend any of my friends or colleagues to submit. Credit, compensation and acknowledgment go a long way for all business branding. Burlington needs to consider what message it is sending to the professionals that live here.
If the city wants some Burlington photos – below is a link to a photo stock service – let them at lest pay somebody for their efforts than being so cheep, and discourteous to those who try and make a living, or just cover their own expenses..
https://www.shutterstock.com/cat.mhtml?searchterm=burlington+ontario&language=en&lang=en&search_source=&safesearch=1&version=llv1&media_type=photos&media_type2=images&search_cat=&searchtermx=&photographer_name=&people_gender=&people_age=&people_ethnicity=&people_number=&color=
Perhaps we should ask staff to work for less than gratis –
No more griping.
It would be better having competition of sorts, organized with the winners being compensated with cash, camera equipment, plus the reconciliation and retention of the works, something other than spending your time on a variety of locations – different weather conditions and times of day, maybe for less than nought!
I’ve no problem sending in photos of pot holes, the traffic being back up on Lakeshore Road between maple and Guelph line etc.
The city is definitely NOT using Best Practices. (correction)
The city is acting unethically with this request for photos. It seems to be aiming for amateurs to submit images.
Although copyright laws have just changed, I don’t think that moral rights can be waived without signing them away. Moral rights are rights of creators of copyrighted works generally recognized in civil law jurisdictions and, to a lesser extent, in some common law jurisdictions. They include the right of attribution, the right to have a work published anonymously or pseudonymously, and the right to the integrity of the work.
Burlington’s staff is acting ignorantly. Last year it was a drawing “contest” of historical buildings without compensation to those selected. Now, “free” photos for the city promotion. It is a good idea to open up access for artists but the city has a lot to learn about treating its artist citizens, properly.
This is definitely Best Practices. It is treating artists like fools. Some amateur artists may foolishly sign away, copyright, moral rights, no payment and no acknowledgement credit. The city on the other hand needs to improve its behaviour. I thought that they now had staff knowledgeable about such matters? Who ever came up with this idea must not have had it approved by the Cultural Manager? SHAME on Burlington.
Really? No Payment and No Recognition? Am wondering if the City of Burlington Is following ” Best Practices”