hypothetical situation

magicbastarder

i am rich. really rich. i approach you with a view to buying all your photos from you; copyright included. all or nothing; you can keep copies for your own use, though.

what's the minimum price you'd sell for?

rymus

sell my copyright? I'd rather stick pins in my eyes

Calina

Quick question: all the photographs I ever take, or just all the photographs I have taken already?

Cos if it's the former, then the answer is no, if it's the latter, nine trillion euro should do it. I reckon I could buy a Mark III and take even better photographs into the future plus a nice pied a terre in several locations which I particularly like and particularly like taking photographs of which you wouldn't then own cos they'd be outside the scope of the agreement.

magicbastarder

all the photos you've already taken.
i'd say a hundred grand would be a rough ballpark i'd start at; if you could argue it was the result of a year's work, a hundred grand a year is not too bad.

magicbastarder

also, my enjoyment of photography is tied mainly around the act itself; not necessarily going back through photos i've taken. so this wouldn't affect that.

Calina

Depends on the number of photographs though. I took about 11000 photographs last year.

Morlar

Everything so far for a 1ds mark II - the L catalogue of lens's, a digital hasselblad. And a fully kitted out studio. And a beachfront property in a warm country and a car. That'd be it.

rymus

I suppose it depends entirely on the back catalog of photos you have under your belt. Some of the photos I've taken over the years have been messing around, just stuck them on flickr and was really taken by surprise when some of them sell for various reasons. You never really know what's going to turn into a goldmine down the road, which is why I intend on keeping the copyright to every single photo I take.

If I had sold the copyright to a few very popular photos years ago, I wouldn't be able to proceed with a project I'm now currently involved in. Benefit of hindsight I suppose. It'd probably be a different situation if it were a specific commission of photos for a person or company that wanted to use them without paying you for each and every use. There would have to be some extreme circumstances before I'd even consider signing any of my photos away.

I think it stands for most of us to say what you've said above "my enjoyment of photography is tied mainly around the act itself" but there is an element of protecting your investment and not allowing whoever to do whatever with your photos.

100k would be cheap really, especially if you've got tens of thousands of photos (both the keepers and the rest of the crap that sits on all our hard drives). You'd want to pick a figure that'd make it worthwhile... say a kajillion squillion pounds sterling.

Calina

Man you're cheap Morlar. I'd be insisting on sufficient for independent income for the rest of my life as well as all the accoutrements I wanted up to and including a concert grand piano.

magicbastarder

Calina wrote:

Man you're cheap Morlar. I'd be insisting on sufficient for independent income for the rest of my life as well as all the accoutrements I wanted up to and including a concert grand piano.

based on photos you've taken as (i presume) a hobby over how many years?

Calina

That's a nasty question. Probably since I was 18 but I've been taking photographs since I was 11.

and that's more than twenty years.

Calina

not all of them are good, mind. My Ford Anglia pictures from 1985 spring to mind.

magicbastarder

Calina wrote:

That's a nasty question.

certainly wasn't intended as such...

ThOnda

If you were rich, I would sell you all my photos in a minute!!! I know my pictures :-)
To be honest, everybody has her (his) own price and pride. Show me the money and we can talk.
There are more important things in my life than the pictures I've taken.

Fenster

Money isn't everything, there's no way I'd part with photos of my family.

ThOnda

I have almost no photos of my family :-P

magicbastarder

Fenster wrote:

Money isn't everything, there's no way I'd part with photos of my family.

as stated, you still have them for your own use too.

Quackles

Simple answer is that I wouldn't sell them. I've taken photos of my son, niece and nephew, wouldn't sell the rights to those, who knows what would be done with them.

sineadw

Well obviously barring the photos of the kids, I think I'd make a cheap date on this one! Mind you I've only been doing this semi-seriously for a year or so. A 5D and a few L lenses and you could have the lot