Christmas Sale Girl Playing In Spray, Nyc Accessory [IDaF7lHr]

Excerpt from Not About the F-Stop:

Everyone will tell you that you should always get model releases. This is absolutely true. I never get model releases.

Why? Because I have no intention of selling any of my images with people foråÊadvertising, annual reports, or stock of any kind.

Mainly, though, I never get model releases because I made a choice some years ago.

The choice was between getting pictures or getting model releases. I'm talking about street shooting here. I could shoot about 300-400 people on a good day. If I got model releases, or tried to, maybe I would get 20-30 people.

When I was doing advertising, there was one person whose sole job was to get releases from everyone I shot.

By the way, if you do get model releases, here is the proper way to do it (trust me on this, it took me a long time to figure it out):

Once you decide to photograph someone, get the model release first. No point in shooting first and then having them say no after you photograph them.

Okay, you've photographed them already and have gotten them to sign a model release. Next step, give them the signed model release, have them hold it under their face and photograph them and the model release together. If you do this, nobody can ever come back and say, "I didn't sign this." Most importantly, you will have a record of who goes with which model release. Otherwise, you will have file folders full of model releases and have no idea who the people are in the signed releases.

The girl in the spray I came across in my neighborhood, on the corner of Prince and Elizabeth St. Remember the location, it's important.

What happened next is what drove me nuts. Someone who worked for me sent this picture out on a stock call to Nikon. Unfortunately, they bought the image.

Why unfortunately? You guessed it. I had no model release. It should have been marked as such and never been sent out.

I called Nikon to explain the problem. "Sorry, they said. It's a done deal. It's in the works, it can't be stopped." I now have to find the kid and get a model release from the parents.

Now, this was Little Italy 25 years ago, an enclave not really open to outsiders.

I had only lived there about 22 years at that point. I was still an outsider. I showed the picture to everyone.

"Do you know this kid"

"No"

"Look at the picture, please."

At the corner grocery, "Hey! Maybe you know this kid. It was shot right here at Prince and Elizabeth."

"Never saw her in my life."

It went on for weeks. No one had ever seen this kid. I thought, I gotta find a go-between, but I didn't know how.

Finally, I asked a kid who said "I don't know her, but my grandmother has lived here for like a 100 years. She'll know her. Finally!

Grandma takes one look and says, "Yeah, that's so and so. She and her mom and pop live over the grocery store on Prince and Elizabeth."

I trudge back there, negotiate the hallway, knock on the door and blurt out,"I took a picture of your kid and I need you to give me permission to use it. I'll give you $200 to sign a model release."

They look at me, then look at the kid and they say to me, "Can we have that picture, too?"

"With my blessings!"

Get releases or don't sell pictures.