Late Cold-War photo resource

I think there is a huge problem with some of the photo libraries eg Flight/ Aeroplane/ Boeing in so far as the fees that they charge for their photos for publication are so high that people like myself who write articles for aviation magazines, simply can not afford to use them. The cost of two photos would often be more that the fee paid for the article. As anyone would know we don’t do it for the money but we can’t do it for nothing..
Sadly some individual photographers are also culpable. I was once quoted £200 for the use of a photo to accompany my recent RF-4C article. Needless to say I didn’t bother!

We need to be able to rely on one another. I for one have no hesitation in sharing photos with other enthusiasts and writers
Finally on a positive note: What a joy to discover that the BAe photo archives don’t charge for reproduction.

Although I’m not an aviation writer, I fully understand and support your post. Charging for pictures in this category means that they might never reach a researcher who could use it to complete his/her work. The whole idea of intellectual property and copyright has taken a ridicules turn, where everyone think their work represent a value and that they might be missing out on big bucks.

The truth is that apart from the original picture (either the negative or a paper version) which are traded and sold between collectors, pictures don’t really represent a value.

Personally I have uploaded my limited collection of aviation pictures to both Flickr and Wikimedia Commons as public domain. I would be delighted if anyone found some use for it commercial or non-commercial. If someone actually makes a few bucks writing an article/book and include my picture, I would think my percentage would be staggeringly small, maybe even infinitely small, and they would be more than welcome to keep it.

I think there is a huge problem with some of the photo libraries eg Flight/ Aeroplane/ Boeing in so far as the fees that they charge for their photos for publication are so high that people like myself who write articles for aviation magazines, simply can not afford to use them. The cost of two photos would often be more that the fee paid for the article. As anyone would know we don’t do it for the money but we can’t do it for nothing..
Sadly some individual photographers are also culpable. I was once quoted £200 for the use of a photo to accompany my recent RF-4C article. Needless to say I didn’t bother!

We need to be able to rely on one another. I for one have no hesitation in sharing photos with other enthusiasts and writers
Finally on a positive note: What a joy to discover that the BAe photo archives don’t charge for reproduction.

Kind of a ramble going on here :rolleyes:

With the large amount of public domain aviation pictures online, I’m curious as to who are actually buying such pictures. Really great aviation photographers might make good money producing photo books with their work, but does anyone make a business of stock aviation pictures?

Having gone through a good part, I must confess that there are a few fantastic pictures, although the majority is of the average garden variety air show snap (some even below that). The last category is due to letting everyone upload pictures. In my humble view that will ruin their business plan, as people are going to trawl through hundreds of poor pictures, just to find that one that’s worth paying for – takes too long.

There are 158 Spitfire pictures on Wikimedia commons alone, both wartime and current. Maybe people don’t know about those wonderful free media libraries.

Anyway, I can see people might pay to avoid any chance of copyright infringement, which could happen on public domain sites, as no one really checks if the pictures are truly public domain.

Has anyone here sold pictures through a stock photography website?

…which is quite funny as I think I’d pay ’em good money to throw some of ’em in the bin!

I know what you mean though – amongst the garbage there are some real gems even though they are ruined by watermarks.

I see what you mean, but the main purpose of that site is to purchase the images.

I understand the idea of watermarks 😀

Its just completely beyond me, why people are so protective of their snaps.

It’s not brilliant and there are better and less general sites, but there are some nice images on this one that I haven’t seen before.
The watermarks are to stop people stealing the images to post elsewhere.

Some nice images, but whats with the watermarks?

Personally I think you can find better on Flickr and most of them are public domain.