Commercial Photography - Private Land

Silva360

Hi,

I'm a short time lurker and first time poster. So I'm sorry to jump straight in with a query but you all seem to have bucket loads of knowledge on everything photographic related!

I hope one of you might be able to throw some light on this for me.

I have been taking photography very seriously for the last five plus years (landscape and wildlife mainly). I do it purely for the love of the outdoors and the joy of getting the shot. However, recently I've thought about selling a few of my photos. Not as prints, but as cards/postcards. The problem is, at least two are taken on Coillte land and two more are taken on church property. I'm guessing that the answer is that I need express written permission to use those photographs for commercial purposes. I've looked on the Collite Outdoors website and they refer to certain recreational activities as requiring permits. On the drop down menu it lists 'photography'. They also mention that there is a price for these permits. I suppose I could ask them myself, but I'm guessing I would be waiting around a long time for a reply to a general query. I was wondering if anyone has had any experience with this type of thing, or indeed Coillte specifically. Do you know how such requests for permission are normally addressed? If anyone has used a photo taken from Coillte land, did you need to pay anything to use it commercially?

The photos themselves are of ruins, which would only be relevant to people in specific local area. I'm not talking about nationally (or internationally) renowned sites and the idea is to print no more than say a couple of hundred cards.

Any advice or input would be gratefully received. Thanks in advance...

artyeva

you'll probably get better and quicker advice if you pick up the phone to Coillte tomorrow morning. why would you assume you'd be waiting ages for a reply?

as for the ones taken on church property - i suppose you should really have asked first but again a quick call to the local priest/rector will tell you all you need to know. even if a church appears to be in ruins, it may still be owned by a parish and they can differ greatly in their views on things like this.

Hugh_C

In theory you should get a Property Release signed before shooting, you could always try to get it retrospectively.

Silva360

artyeva wrote: »

you'll probably get better and quicker advice if you pick up the phone to Coillte tomorrow morning. why would you assume you'd be waiting ages for a reply?

as for the ones taken on church property - i suppose you should really have asked first but again a quick call to the local priest/rector will tell you all you need to know. even if a church appears to be in ruins, it may still be owned by a parish and they can differ greatly in their views on things like this.

Thank you for taking the time out to respond.

As I've only ever taken photos for personal use, and am only in the early stages of considering extending that a little, I never believed that i would require permission to photograph anything. This is the reason I have not asked in advance. The photos are a few years old now, so this is well after the event. I guess I was hoping someone might have some personal general experience.

I live overseas and I'm unable to make personal calls at work. But yes, it does make sense to go direct to source. I'll fire off an email and see how I go. Cheers.

Silva360

Hugh_C wrote: »

In theory you should get a Property Release signed before shooting, you could always try to get it retrospectively.

Thanks Hugh. Do you happen to know if email permission from, let's say a priest, would suffice or would I need to formalise it with a property release form???

I guess if I offer both entities a 'credit' for the permission on the cards, and perhaps a few freebies, they might be more persuaded?!

Gumbo

Maybe talk to the priest and agree a small donation base on sales on the image to the local parish?

Silva360

Just a little update.

I managed to get contacts for some of the sites from someone who writes a newsletter on the area. Apparently, the sites are administered by 'society's' but the sites are public. Still, I think it's safer to get permission from the relevant secretary's. I believe that the people that administer them are elderly and don't do modern technology. What concerns me there is that if I present them with the template property release linked above they might be worried about all the jargon. Does anyone know if there is a less detailed template available? Or is it safest to use this one? I suppose I could draw one up myself for a limited use licence if this would cover me???

Any ideas?

Silva360

PS. Does anyone know what 'consideration' is usually given in this sense? Does this need to be money or monies worth or can it be a credit as in 'kind permission of ......'??

DaireQuinlan

Silva360 wrote: »

I managed to get contacts for some of the sites from someone who writes a newsletter on the area. Apparently, the sites are administered by 'society's' but the sites are public.

In the legal sense of being allowed to take photographs and then sell them commercially (stock libraries, non fine-artistic or editorial use) public access != public (at least not necessarily)

artyeva

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

In the legal sense of being allowed to take photographs and then sell them commercially (stock libraries, non fine-artistic or editorial use) public access != public (at least not necessarily)

really?! even where the site is privately owned but they've just granted public access?

Silva360

This whole area seems to be a bit of a legal minefield... I'm not sure how best to proceed. And I thought the getting up before dawn in freezing conditions and walking for miles was the hard part....:(

Stereomaniac

Just make the postcards and sell them on, say nothing. Ah no, ask Coillte and ask the owners of the sites, priest/rector. After that, no need to go any further I'd say. Just do it.