StagePics.co.uk
 

About StagePics

I am Alan Potter, and have for many years enjoyed participating in amateur musicals. In addition, I am a keen amateur photographer.

Early in 2006 I started trying my hand at taking photographs of the dress rehearsals of various local amateur musical groups, then post-processing the photographs and showing them on a web site. Members of those groups started asking for CDs of the pictures, and I realised then that I was running into difficulties - I had no way to give people access to the pictures. Thus StagePics was born. It is a way for you to get photographs taken at your dress rehearsal, allows you to use them for Front of House publicity and allows your members to buy CDs containing those photographs.

At this point, I want to emphasise something:

I am not a professional photographer. Professional photographers are better at photography than I am. If you currently use a professional photographer, and am considering "dumping" him/her, don't call me; I am not interested. I do not want to damage anybody's livelihood. Similarly, if you are thinking about starting to use a professional photographer, please don't call me.

But if you currently do not have a professional photographer covering your dress rehearsal, and you have no plans to hire one, then maybe we can do something together.

StagePics has two standard packages:

Plan One

  • I come to your dress rehearsal and take photographs
  • I go home and put these photographs together into a ZIP file, then tell a contact within your company where this ZIP file may be downloaded. You are then free to use these photographs for front of house publicity. Note that these pictures may have a www.stagepics.co.uk "watermark" in a corner of the photograph.
  • You publicise the fact that the photographs will be available from the stagepics website within the company, and add a link to www.stagepics.co.uk in the company website (if the company has one)
  • Over the following few weeks, I post-process the photographs. I aim to put together a collection of around 100 of the best pictures from the show.
  • I put a small version of these pictures on the StagePics.co.uk web site. Visitors to the website are then able to buy CDs of the pictures using PayPal.
  • Roughly three months after the photographs are posted on the web, I send the company a cheque for £1 per CD ordered (ie 10% of the takings).
  • If the company wishes to use the photographs for purposes such as its web site or future programmes, it must buy its own copy of the CD. Up to twelve photographs may be used on a web site or programme (unless by separate arrangement). An acknowledgement of the source of the pictures (www.stagepics.co.uk) should be provided unless space or context makes this impracticable.

Plan Two (Possibly more suited to larger companies?)

  • I come to your dress rehearsal and take photographs
  • I go home and put these photographs together into a ZIP file, then tell a contact within your company where this ZIP file may be downloaded. You are then free to use these photographs for front of house publicity. Note that these pictures may have a www.stagepics.co.uk "watermark" in a corner of the photograph.
  • Over the following few weeks, I post-process the photographs. I aim to put together a collection of around 100 of the best pictures from the show.
  • I put the photographs into a non-public area of the website and give the company contact a link to that location.
  • The company can then make a single payment of £200. This buys the company the rights to all of the post-processed photographs and all of the originals. The company is then free to exploit the photographs however it wants.
  • If the company does not confirm its intention to buy the photographs outright within two weeks of the photographs being posted, the pictures may be publicised and sold as if they were "Plan One" photographs.

With both plans, I am still free to use the photographs on my website and for my publicity (so long as I do nothing to bring your company into disrepute, of course!)

Children
If you ask me to take photographs of shows that feature children, I shall assume that you have already obtained suitable permission from the parents or guardians of those children for them to be photographed, and the photographs used as described above. This is your responsibility!

If you are interested in discussing either of these options further, please contact me by clicking here.

Return to the stagepics homepage by clicking here.

 


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