Property and model releases

[pippin]

So I primarily photograph horses, their people, as well as horse shows, dog shows and other animal portraits.

Here's my usual MO - as part of the paperwork my clients receive is a model release for themselves, as well as property release - well that's what I call it for lack of a better term to cover said animals I may be photographing.

This little story goes back a year or so, well, since my first visit to this particular stable when I first moved to Denver. This particular day I was visiting and meeting someone I met online for the first time and to photograph her horse. After photographing her horse we went on a little sojourn around and was introduced to the important folk, being the trainers, and the owner of the stables so that they'd know if they saw me not to be concerned. They were fine with it, and am even welcome now just to hang out. It's rare actually now that I've got a camera with me unless it's for one of their shows.

Anyway, I was confronted by one particular owner of a horse telling me to NEVER take a photograph of her horse as a friend of hers apparently had a photograph taken of her horse and it ended up in a magazine for an advertisement. I said I don't take photos unless I ask or am asked, and walked off.

Flash to last year - I started taking photographs at shows, one of them being with people and sponsored by said barn. I was asked to photograph, so I came supplied with price lists, model releases AND property releases to cover horse and rider.

Tonight I get a phone call from one of the resident trainers, who actually has turned out to be one of my good friends - said woman saw some photographs of her horse (which I'd never seen before since she was nowhere near her horse when I was first confronted by her three years prior so I had no clue what her horse looked like) on my website with one of my friend's clients on it.

She wants the photos taken down as she doesn't want her horse displayed. So I asked for the name, and what the horse looked like - surprise surprise, it's a bay - which I've got many a photograph of various bay horses with no markings like this one described. I'm more than happy enough to take them down since I've been requested to, and I asked my friend in passing what her name was so I can check my records.

Turns out at one of the last shows I had done, this particular person requesting the pulling of the photographs signed both a model release and property release for her horse. But there's also more photographs of her on my website from some shows, and now there's been no contact from her about pulling those images.

I'm not going to fight this particular battle as I prefer keeping peace and I don't want my friend really having to deal with this woman - who has a nasty reputation anyway - but in case I have further issues similar in nature, what would you do if they had signed a release for both horse and rider?

As for what these releases say it's generic stuff, for display on my website, or for advertising purposes, but with a statement that if anything else were to come up (say I was asked by a third party to purchase the image for a magazine for their use, or I wanted to enter a competition I'd ask first and have a more specified release for said purpose), I'd ask permission first.

[ronocnikral]

our model release covers anything we want to use the images for-advertising, competitions, selling to anyone we please. we may extend a professional courtesy to let an individual know we are entering an image in which they are portrayed, but it is just that, a courtesy.

we also go as far to say we can manipulate the images however we like. i could melt their faces, paint mustaches on them and do whatever we like with them. we never have had a problem with anyone signing them.

you're running a business, right? you need to make a business decision about this. one image may not kill you, but if 3/4 of the people in your images asked for this, you may have a problem. where do you draw the line?

[pippin]

see there's my issue. I'm just deciding that this one really isn't worth the battle. Yes, really I could keep them up, but my friend (the one that was confronted by this woman yesterday) said she's got the reputation of being the stereotypical show queen when it comes down to her personality involving her horse.

And we also figured it probably wasn't necessarily the case that her horse was displayed, but it was not her on the horse, but one of my friend's riders instead, yet she allowed her horse to be used for lessons.

The majority of my clients and the majority of the people at the barn really don't care that I take photos or use them, they know if I want to use them for advertising I'll ask them first, and they'll more than happily sign releases and such, but it's just those one or two that get irritated. Yeah I could consult my attorney, but I just don't want to battle this particular person at the moment.

[TxTowman]

She and her horse could be part of the witless protection program!