Business Lessons

Just had one of those really good instant message conversations with one of my students, Daniel Shirey. He got a phone call from ESPN asking about using his image of Knowshon Moreno from last year. Here’s his part of the conversation …

Hey. I have some good news.

I sold a photo to ESPN yesterday.

I looked up some contracts online to make sure I worded things correctly but basically, one of the college gameday producers found my phone number via sportsshooter and called me

they’re using my knowshon photo in a segment they’re showing during the rose bowl where they go through the “best college football images of the decade”.

He originally wanted it for free and offered me credit, but I told him that I didn’t think I could do that, but got his email and said I would let him know. Then I called around, figured out a rate for the usage that he described and sent him an email saying that I could not let them use it for free, but if they changed their minds about a budget I would sell them certain usage rights for the rate I calculated.

Then the accepted my rate.

I figured that he was just trying to get everything for free that he could, and they would get everything else they wanted from a wire service like getty, us presswire or the AP, so I sent them a rate.

I guess the big thing there is not being afraid to say no, even if they offer to air your photo on national TV

That was a nice little holiday present to get over the chat window.