[stince]

Bravo.

We all yell at a league that has given you years of free passes, and now wants help when it needs it the most.

A majority of you have been shooting paintball for sometime. Either A, talk to a reputable company that has vendor pass that, is in need, or may need, photos for their marketing campaigns… Or B, stay at home, enjoy the webcast, and make a fresh batch of Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn. (May I recommend the Caramel – It’s quite tasty)

You want everything for free. The sport is dying. Sure, I don’t agree on, nor will I, contribute my photos for free to a league to use in marketing/advertising. But I would support the small $75 charge if it really came down to it. Most of you guys hire teams to shoot at each event. Ask for more, or hire 1 more team. I’m sure that will pay for the small fee you’ll need to pay.

Lately the pro sidelines are filled with more photographers than the event has teams. It’s ridiculous. When I go out there and see Bobby-Jo-Buckles-Photography-and-Design-Studio-Creative.com out there with his Iphone 4 or Point & shoot, I literally want to kick the kid out of my way. I don’t take time off work to get paid little-to no money after travel to shoot an event, only to have someone like this stand in front of me, walk around standing up taking pictures, hell, even using flash.

I back up a majority of Chris’s comments. But I would like to hear the NPPL’s reasoning behind some of the things. Example: DVD of images.

If I was working at the NPPL, I wouldn’t want 30000 images of soft, and sometimes out of focus shots of players, but would want some of the magazine photographers 20-30 tack sharp shots… Let alone have to look through all of them for the random gem that may stand out.

I’m sure others agree with some of my statements.

Jeff Stinson.

[Pakistani]

Originally Posted by stince

Bravo.

We all yell at a league that has given you years of free passes, and now wants help when it needs it the most.

A majority of you have been shooting paintball for sometime. Either A, talk to a reputable company that has vendor pass that, is in need, or may need, photos for their marketing campaigns… Or B, stay at home, enjoy the webcast, and make a fresh batch of Orville Redenbacher’s popcorn. (May I recommend the Caramel – It’s quite tasty)

You want everything for free. The sport is dying. Sure, I don’t agree on, nor will I, contribute my photos for free to a league to use in marketing/advertising. But I would support the small $75 charge if it really came down to it. Most of you guys hire teams to shoot at each event. Ask for more, or hire 1 more team. I’m sure that will pay for the small fee you’ll need to pay.

Lately the pro sidelines are filled with more photographers than the event has teams. It’s ridiculous. When I go out there and see Bobby-Jo-Buckles-Photography-and-Design-Studio-Creative.com out there with his Iphone 4 or Point & shoot, I literally want to kick the kid out of my way. I don’t take time off work to get paid little-to no money after travel to shoot an event, only to have someone like this stand in front of me, walk around standing up taking pictures, hell, even using flash.

I back up a majority of Chris’s comments. But I would like to hear the NPPL’s reasoning behind some of the things. Example: DVD of images.

If I was working at the NPPL, I wouldn’t want 30000 images of soft, and sometimes out of focus shots of players, but would want some of the magazine photographers 20-30 tack sharp shots… Let alone have to look through all of them for the random gem that may stand out.

I’m sure others agree with some of my statements.

Jeff Stinson.

Stince, the cost has never been the problem for most, if not all, of us.
I think a lot of us were confused by the policy, but as i understand it now, most team photographers will have to pay the $75 charge and be exempt from submitting DVD's. i'm probably not far off when i say that most people here probably figured that the $75 fee for shooting teams would be accompanied by the submission of a DVD. for team photographers, everything should be business as usual.

[ionshooter93]

I don't mind the charge and it makes sense. Its just that they want rights to use our pictures too which is upsetting.

[96 Ls lnteg]

What about the $40 some people paid for for at HB?

[no_caffeine]

I just caught back up which was a headache and a half. I'm curious tho-what is KGB-Khrome's affiliation with the league and why is he defending them to the death? Also, can someone just put a legitimate, established paintball photographer in charge write these policies/run things? Does that not make sense to anyone else? I feel like the problem is the people writing up these rules / policies have absolutely no idea what goes on behind the lens.

[TheHef]

Just go photgraph NFL games, I'm sure they will let you in for $75.

[***MINIONS*** (Banned)]

Originally Posted by TheHef

Just go photgraph NFL games, I'm sure they will let you in for $75.

you sir are a day late and a dollar short.

[NkdMangina]

We had a photographer/video guy for HB & Chicago but I can understand why they've put these rules in place.

[=DaveP=]

Two things.

The photographs in APG are mostly garbage. I have two different recent copies next to my crap throne and honestly I dont know If I should look at them, or poop on them.

Also, I was wondering if you guys could also charge the NPPL webcast tech crew to do their work. So maybe they'll do more professional and relavant work too. Just saying.

[El_cubano]

i dont think you people are getting the idea. the images shot that most of these photographers shoot are for the players so they can post them up or save them for the memories. but whatever.

[Citrus_Maximus]

Sorry to kick up a semi-dead thread. But this policy is not out of line. I personally have hired photographers for paintball and non-paintball jobs. Some of whom have actually posted in here. Understood supports the paintball media 100%.

But there is a big difference in being a working photographer who is self employed or employed by a manufacturer and a media person.

I think the bigger issue might be the misunderstanding of what constitutes "media."

A true credentialed media photographer would not be selling their images to teams or otherwise profiting from them in any way. They would be on assignment or freelancing for a specific publication and not have to worry about cost or DVD, since they receive a pass for free.

If you are a "working" photographer you specifically putting forth that you earn money with your photography and not a media person.

There is no reason that one business cannot ask for compensation from a person wants to profit from their business.

I personally would love for the NPPL to let me come out earn my living for free by piggy-backing on their work. Smartly, they do not and they ask for compensation from my company in order for me to profit from their work (which is running NPPL tournaments).

This is exactly what they are doing for photographers who wish to attend and event and earn money plying their trade. In return they ask for the rights to a set of your work product to use as they see fit. This may seem unreasonable, so they offer a solution: pay double.

That honestly seems fair to me. If you are telling me I could pay HALF what I pay now for a booth and all I would need to do is donate 1 of each of the products I sell to the NPPL for them to use as they see fit? Sign me the heck up!

Complaints that it is hard enough to pay for the travel to the event and a media pass and whatnot. You are right. Business can be hard, perhaps you need to adjust your model to make it a profitable endeavor. I'll make you a bet there are quite a few companies out there that need photos from the event and would pay for them. Heck I can think of 1 right now.

Nowhere in the rules did I read that if you pay the $150 the NPPL can go to your site and take your images and use them as they see fit. That I would have an issue with. All you are paying for is a permit to do your work within their business. That is not an unreasonable request. Its up to you to figure out how to make it a profit center.

Other sports have much stricter guidelines. Take a look at the ESPN X-Games media site.

Remember we're not talking about press here, the NPPL is talking about self-employed photographers.

Anyway, sorry for the rambling, but this thread really irked me.