Company in South Africa to use my images...

[ChristopherCoy]

I just got this email this morning:

Dear Christopher

Greetings from Cape Town, South Africa.

I wanted to get in contact for permission to use one or two of your images.

We are 60 layers of cake, an integrated ad agency in Cape Town. Our client is SA MAST they are a charity helping dogs and cats in underprivileged areas in South Africa. They\'re a highly successful and well know charity within South Africa and have won many awards for the work they do.

We have been asked to help them raise funding by designing an email template to be sent to their database. In time, we will also design a new CI, ads and website. All our work is done free of charge. They are a great charity helping thousands of dogs.

I have uploaded our concept to link removed using your shots.

We ask your permission to use the images? We can accredit all shots and put you on the website as a supporter.

If your answer is no, we will never use your shots without permission.

Please check out the SA MAST website (SA.MAST | South African Mass Animal Sterilisation Trust) they are truly inspirational people making a huge difference.

Kind regards, Michael

I thought this was a scam until I clicked the link SA.MAST | South African Mass Animal Sterilisation Trust , and then checked out the .pdf this person sent me. I AM FREAKING OUT!

What do I do??!??

[ChristopherCoy]

This is the ad agencies link...

60 layers of cake

[ChristopherCoy]

I thought it was a scam, but they aren't asking for money, and they aren't asking for me to cash travelers checks and send it back. They simply want permission to use the photos for the charity.

[mmuhlenkamp]

It sounds like a professional group and might be able to get your name out to designers that would want to use your work for non-profit stuff. It's overseas, but it can't hurt to have more contacts. I think it could be easy advertising for you, the work has already been done (they are using existing photos) so why not?

Maybe express that you will have to approve how they use the images (just to make sure it's never used for anything foul), but otherwise I think it's cool deal. Also, it's a donation, you could get a bit of tax write-off.

[pbyd]

Chris,
What can you lose, they are not asking for money at this time and at the most it seems you would be donating images to what might be a great cause. My studio does pet charities often.
With that said, after more years than most in this business, I have become very jaded and question every thing. I would want to know how they found my work and why it is being chosen over a world full of images of pets that are out there. I have a much smaller ego than most in this business and find it hard to believe that some large company with the ability to work with many different photographers would want to pick one local Houston area photographer to ask for free images.
Just saying,
Wayne
Photography by Design

[ChristopherCoy]

Wayne,

I totally get it. And while I want to know the same thing, I don't want to jeopardize the chance of having my stuff used. Should I email them back and ask them these questions?

[ChristopherCoy]

I just emailed a friend of mine, who actually live in Cape Town South Africa. She is a glass artist that I have known for a few years. She is checking out the animal charity, as well as the design company for me.

[revjvegas]

"When I found out I was pregnant again, I howled myself to sleep"

Very catchy. Scam or not, I like what they put together.

[ChristopherCoy]

I emailed the guy back and asked how they found my work, and how it will be used. This is his response.

Dear Christopher,

Thank you very much for responding so quickly.

Our creatives found your work by googling the following key phrases:

* Dog photography
* Pet photography


The basic concept of the email template campaign is that the "Dog" is making a statement about the problems in his live. We use these email templates to send fund raiser mails to an existing database of people that have voluntarily subscribed to their mailing database. Your imagery will be used at the top of the mails as per the lay-out that I attached in the previous mails. We will be more then happy to make mention of you as the copyright holder of the images and to make that an active link towards your website.

We could use the images that we've pulled from your website but we believe that we could bring probably more detail and essence of your work forward if you could provide us with some higher resolution files. Either way would work. We're happy to follow your recommendations.

Please don't hesitate to contact me if you've got any further questions.

With kind regards, Michael

[d2creative]

I'd be flattered.
I love animals so I say go for it. I don't see any downside for you.

[Jeff_Green]

Chris, jump on it! It's awesome to see things happening for ya, and as quickly as it has... Pretty cool stuff! If for nothing else, it is good on the resume!

[Comanche]

Generally speaking, I am against giving away images - but something similar happened to me when I was published in Viet Nam. I got the credit and I know nobody is going to send me contracts from the other side of the world, so I gave them permission.

Oh yeah - the magazine is listed on my client list and I've had people ask me about that. If nothing else, its an attention getter.

Enjoy -

[corralup]

Breathe In Breathe Out. This doesn't sound like a scam at all. I think you can relax and know this will only benefit you. Congrats. But one thing is certain...I think a contract should be drawn up so only you can release the images they are interested in and not the ones they can take from your website. My question would be how are contracts done up overseas?

[ChristopherCoy]

I removed the link from the original post. I don't want to jeopardize things if they see that I posted their template to the general internet public.

[DEMDeepEllumMusic]

Chris about a year ago I was contacted by the British Branch of PETA to use some of my photos on a story that they were doing on the exotic skin trade. Since they were PETA and I did a quick check I let them use them in the print publication that ended up being sent all over Britain (they sent me a couple copies of the magazine for my files) and I didn't charge them anything either. (To me the exposure chance was worth more than the reasonable fee I would have charged them).

So to me it looks like they may have several photographers lined up and they are trying to find one who is willing to release a couple photos for their use for free and since it is a total charitable action (ad agency isn't pocketing a big fee) I would do it for the exposure also. With the internet nowdays the whole world is your market not that someone will fly you over to Paris to shoot their managerie (well Paris Texas maybe).

You may want to email the charity/trust and ask their marketing person if they are being helped by this ad agency to confirm that end of it. You may mention that you were contacted by them and would just like to confirm the relationship.

But it most likely isn't a scam and your doggie pic won't end up as a poster in the background of a slasher flick where the slashers eat pets.