Yesterday's TAM nosegear issue was another example of opportunities that come up for spotters to sell their photso in news events, and I wanted to tell you guys what can be done to help improve your chances of selling a photo...because who doesn't like making a little dollarage in our hobby?
What happened yesterday has happens often... someone gets a shot of something cool, it ends up on NYCA, and various news agencies come to NYCA wanting your photos. Of course, we do not own your photos and cannot sell them for you, so it's our goal to get that info to you so you can get the sale/publish. You don't have to SELL it, but the below can also just help you get published.
COMMUNICATE. The best thing to do is visiblity and communication. When you see something cool, reach out to Matt and I at [email protected]'s a distribution that both of us get (if you have my number, text or call me..ANYTIME. I mean that). Let us know what happened and that you have photos. We will likely put it out on Twitter, which often sparks the interest of news agencies.
SHARE. Then, get your pics to us or make a thread on the forums! We can link to teh forum and we can also make an article out of it and share that around, giving the photo a lot more exposure. Some people want to send it to Airliners.net right away, which is great for enthusiast exposure, but news agencies specifically follow NYCA more than anyone else so if you have something newsworthy and have an interest in getting it publish, bring it here.
As for selling it, if you are nervous or uncomfortable, I have no problem acting as your agent to sell the photo for you. Unless you were out there as an NYCA correspondent, we will not take a cut or anything...but we will help you sell it and negotiate. Otherwise, I simply forward emails or contact info right to you so you can contact the news folks yourself. If the request is from an agency we have worked with in the past I will provide intel on how much they tend to pay.
UPDATE YOUR PROFILE. Always make sure that the contact info in your NYCA forum profile is accurate so I can reach out to you. There have been several occasions where someone is interested in buying a photo, and when I try to reach you via the email in your profile...it doesn't reach you because it's outdated. Go check your profile!
Also keep in mind that whenever someone takes your photos from NYCA illegally without permission, we WILL hunt them down as much as we can. We do not take that stuff lightly. I kid you not I would have no problem showing up at an office and threatening people in person when it comes to theft.
If you have questions about the process, let me know.
