Our American partner Mary Phelps posted a significant article today about the importance of the equestrian photographer and their copyrights. We would like to share this story with the Eurodressage audience as well.
I would also like to add that an amazing trend has occurred in Europe. Due to dropping prices of basic semi-professional camera equipment a multitude of amateur photographers has been popping up like daisies destroying the business of many professional photographers. These amateurs go to shows and take photos from the bleachers and give them away for free to riders, stallion owners and even magazines.
Especially the latter have no scruples to print an ugly low-quality photo with the wrong timing as long as they don't have to pay for it all in the name of the "credit crunch". These amateurs, either consciously or unwillingly, have pulled away the professionals' bread and butter. It ruins the livelihood of those professionals who want to keep the bar high by presenting high quality prints either taken from special angles or with the right timing!
Mary Phelps wrote the following: "We have basically “retired” from the horse show photography portion of our business. After 35 years, the time has come, and the debt load and sore back have eased. We still attend several shows a year to gather media images for our websites, and will be off to Aachen in July. But for the people trying to make a living from the expensive, exhausting and backbreaking work, it can be a heartbreaking career path. Our colleagues continue serve the industry with their hard work and talent."
Phelps recited a story her colleague Sharon Packer told. "Sharon copied me an e-mail about a Dressage rider who copied images from Sharon's photo gallery, used them on Facebook and on their website. A photographer's website is a service for viewing images, not for stealing them. In this particular case, the offender was not a client, never even purchased a print from Sharon, yet felt they could help themselves to her images in spite of all the copyright information she had posted. The consequences of copyright infringement could be as much at $250,000 and 7 years in jail."
Sharon herself mentioned this on Dressagedaily.com: "Earlier this year, I informed a rider about copyright infringement when she posted 6 of my photos from a show which I had in my viewing (only) gallery. Her "reasons" included not enough time, not enough money, everyone loved the photos, etc. I offered her a discount if she could not afford the images and gave her the photo she indicated as her favorite for FB use only. She never followed through with a purchase as she said she even with discounted image it was not affordable for her. I insisted she remove the stolen images because of what it said about her character in addition to the photos being my property.
Official Photographers have a significant role in dressage shows. This blatant theft is forcing many to consider not covering shows. I would greatly appreciate your help in addressing this issue for all of us who stand in the heat or freezing cold rain for as much as 14 hours a day during shows, sit at a computer for 16 hours - 18 hours a day for 7 - 10 days there after, and have a great deal of overhead expense just to provide photo documentation to riders. What does this trend of stealing say about some of our riders?"
Read the full story on Dressagedaily.com
Eurodressage has been working together for years with the best professional equestrian photographers in the field: Dirk Caremans, Mary Phelps, Arnd Bronkhorst, Terri Miller, Ridehesten, Barbara Schnell, and newcomer Leanjo de Koster etc.. Think of them if you want good photos of your beloved equine!
By the way, Eurodressage photos, which are always labelled with a ©Eurodressage.com copyright sign, are a testimonial of the professional work of the above photographers. Mary Phelps pushed a camera in my hands for the first time at the Parkfestival Dressur in Bad Honnef in 1999 and taught me how to capture the beauty of a horse. Mary and Belgian Dirk Caremans have helped me over the years and shared their experience and expertise with me, for which I am extremely grateful.
Photo © Dirk Caremans
-- Astrid Appels
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