The Baby Photography Scam

A photographer's job is to take pictures.  Am I right? You pay them to perform a service, the service of taking pictures. Why do the photographers retain the rights to images of me or my child?  They then ransom additional copies of those images to you.  Images that you have already paid him or her to take.  Some may sell you the rights [to print] (for an additional charge) to those picture, many will not.  Wal-mart and many other photo labs require a letter granting you authorization to reprint YOUR photos taken by professional photographers.

Everyone wants pictures of the biggest events of their life, which usually includes their wedding and their children growing up.  My wife and I had a photographer at our wedding.  The photographer was part of our wedding package.  I didn't learn the  photography business model until after the wedding.  You can pick out a few pictures as part of your photo package. If you want additional copies of those pictures or prints of any of the other pictures taken, you must order them from the photographer. Most wedding photographers will refuse to sell you the negatives until at least a year after the wedding.  Baby photographers have a similar model, but most will sell you the negatives or digitals when you purchase their premium-est of packages.  For this reason, my wife and I have mainly avoided baby pictures taken by professional photographers.

Admittedly, this type of arrangement may have made since before digital photography and before you could have film developed at the grocery store.  Unless you had your own dark room to develop film, the photographer was the obvious and often only choice to obtain copies of your pictures.  Holding on to the negatives/originals just facilitated things.  Film costs money, so does photo paper and the chemicals used to develop film and make prints.  However, with digital, there is no film. The cost of storage for each pictures if marginally zero.  Anyone can take their pictures to FotoMat (just kidding, there hasn't been a FotoMat booth in probably two decades) or have them printed from online.  This is even if one wants actual prints instead of just the digitals, which can be posted and shared on Facebook or other social media sites or placed in digital picture frames.

I have a programming background.  If you're hired for a contract job or have a long term employer, whatever you produce while on that job, including the intellectual property (IP) rights, belongs to the company that paid you. You were paid to perform a service (creating a program or code). You don't own it, the employer does.  If you use a Realtor to find a house, she doesn't get to maintain possession of the house and charge you rent to live there.  She was paid for the service of finding you a house only.

Reflections on the World My Son Was About to Enter

Just before and just after my son Clark's birth, I had several encounters with strangers that left me wondering what I should or would do in a similar situation in the future.  There were three encounters and each involved a vagrant or panhandler.

The first incident occurred a few weeks before Clark's birth.  Clark's Mom and I were walking down the Las Vegas strip on a warm Spring Sunday morning.  Clark's mom was obviously showing at 9 months pregnant.  She was wearing a custom t-shirt with our last name on the front and mommy on the back with a number like a softball jersey.  We walked pass a woman on the sidewalk with her young daughter beside her.  She was holding a sign (with wording I can't remember) and panhandling.  

My wife was greatly disturbed by the encounter. She told me that she felt bad flaunting her pregnancy with the t-shirt, while another woman was so desperate as to panhandle with here child at her side. I found the child being involved distasteful.  It didn't really bother me too much, as there was no direct contact and we had passed a number of other panhandlers on our walk.

Mere hours before Clark was born, my wife, in early labor, and I visited a certain big box retailer - O.K. "The Big Box retailer."  We were finishing last minute (literally) preparation of the nursery. As we exited the car, we were approached by a young woman holding a little girl. She then said, "Can i ask you a question?"  Coming from a stranger, I knew this conversation was not heading anywhere positive.  The question was, "Could I spare $5?"

The "Big Box Store" was in a pretty nice neighborhood, but starting at $5 was pretty ballsy for a panhandler.  They normally ask for spare change or maybe a dollar.  I responded that I didn't have any cash on me (because I don't usually carry any).  She then went on to solicit others in the parking lot.  As she walked away, I could hear the little girl had a bad hacking cough, but that's not what the woman was requesting assistance for.  It probably should have been.  I felt very bad for the little girl.  Admittedly, being directly accosted made the situation feel more personal.