What to do ??

[bigdazzler]

OK firstly Im not stressing over this ..... much ...... yet ......... but am curious as to how others might handle it.

I have a photographer friend in Sydney who runs a reputable business offering all things photographic. One of his things is he runs courses and workshops for beginners right through to advanced photographers, including basic DSLR workshops, Wedding Courses, Studio/portrait courses etc ...

Now quite often I help him out on some of these, and am paid for my time, particularly when he has large groups and multiple workshops running at once. I often do the studio/portrait/flash workshops with him. There is no pre arranged agreement that I will provide any images I take on the day to anyone, despite being paid to assist.

Now to the point. I did one of these very courses with him the other day, and we shot a whole bunch of models that came to specifically to pose for the students on the course. These are effectively a TF arrangement where my mate supplies any images he takes from the days shooting to the models for ports, books, galleries whatever, in exchange for their time.

I do the same. I always, at the end of the day, give the girls a business card and get them to get in touch and I will supply them with a few retouched images for their time. I dont mind as I use the images for my book, and so do they.

Today, I was perusing a modelling agency site, and discovered that three of my images have been used on the official agency contact card for one of the models that I shot on the day. So far Im OK with this, as I still consider this the model using the images for self promotion, which is typical of the spirit of TF arrangements.

This is the bit that is bugging me just a little bit. I went onto read on the site that the agency is charging the models a fee to have their contact cards produced. Now Im not sure about this. If the agency is making money from that card that I saw on their site for this particular model, which clearly consists of three of my retouched images ... It hardly seems right that they should be prospering from my work, when I have supplied the images to the model only under the terms of TF. I have no arrangement with the agency at all.

Now, before it is bought up, there was no contract or anything put in writing. This was a fun, casual day at a workshop.

After seeing my images being used in a way that may be financially advantageous to the agency, and me effectively not getting my piece of the pie, it just got me thinking is all ........ mmmmmmmm.