Why should I pay or credit the photographer?

So I have been taking photos for local and national sports teams for sometime now in Switzerland and have been published by National and local press in Switzerland and France, as well as being publish Swiss Federation Rugby, Rugby Europe and Rugby World web sites.
I previously gave content free of charge when I was starting and indeed posted it online on social media such as Facebook and Instagram without much thought and am sure many other people do as well.
People liked the images and even commented to me both online and in person how much they enjoyed seeing them. However there are those that don’t credit the photographer or even remove the credit.
In the instance below they cropped my copyright (left) and didn’t credit me either having done so.
I will give them some credit as it’s only the printed form where the copyright is cropped but they never credit the photographer in the French newspaper.

Posting on social media is basically giving your image away, some people think by adding a comment on their Facebook page saying Facebook you can’t use my images without permission makes a difference, it doesn’t.
The truth is that the minute you signed up you gave your images to them for their use and its in the terms and conditions you agreed to. In fact all meta data held within the photo is also removed, that includes date, location, camera settings and even data you have added like copyright. So the truth is your photo is probably being used by them to help AI tools learn and ultimately manipulate and create images.

Adding a signature to an image is the same as it can be removed, either by cropping it out or by using the AI generative tools like Adobe Firefly. In fact you can using Adobe tools highlight the area the watermark is located and type ‘remove watermark’ or ‘remove text’ and it does just that very well!
Adobe you should know better than allow a phrase such as remove watermark without checking what is being removed!

Why this post then you may ask?
Well like any creator you want to be recognised for your work and people to understand you don’t just point and ‘click’.
I am often asked for 10-15 images of a rugby match, do I take 20 and then leave to choose 15? No I remain at the game in hot sun or pouring cold rain, to capture the action and represent what the game was like, focused for 80+ minutes.
Then the work begins to deliver the images that for me can be twice as long as the single match if you want to produce a complete set of match images. Even 10-15 images represents time, effort and of course the money invested in the camera and lenses.

So please, next time you ask a photographer who clearly is passionate about their craft and clearly produces good images as you would like one.
Offer to pay them something, you may get more than you thought, as a sign of appreciation normally goes a long way.
If you then post it on social media tag and promote them as by doing so you indirectly help them in a world that is full of people that have camera phones and regularly say ‘anyone can take an image’!
These devices take good images but we all want that moment of action so as not to forget.
This photographer has maybe 1 team image for each season played and would pay to have a few more but we were not so lucky years ago. We did pay for them though and hold them in our hands and hearts.
Can you spot the photographer below in the Horsham RUFC 1979-80 season Under 10s?

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