SmugMug

I will be selling my photos for the first time this year. I had planned on using my .mac account but it has turned out not to be the best for selling photos. I want a site to be professional and easy to use. I have been scoping out many different sites. I am looking for a site that allows me to price my photos without them taking a huge chunk of it so that i can keep prices low, a site that allows for digital downloads, a site that has prints available along with other merchandise for people to purchase. A site that again looks professional and does justice to the photos.

I finally found a site that encompasses all the things I was looking for www.dschoppe.smugmug.com The thread links directly to my site (no photos yet). I just started with the free account so I could get a feel for the site and make sure it was everything I could hope for. During the sign up process I came to the typical "Terms & Agreement" page, I read through everything only to come across a section that reads:

Notice for Professional Account holders: Uploading more than 500 photographs of participants in a single sporting event may require a License from PhotoCrazy, Inc. To avoid patent infringement, please contact:PhotoCrazy, Inc.Attn: Peter Wolf509 Raindance StreetThousand Oaks, California 91360-1219Email: peter@photocrazy.com

It turns out that this guy has two patents on the process of Taking photos, uploading them to a site, organizing them by bib number, and then selling them to the public. Who would have thought?! I sure as hell didnt think you could patent something like that.

I reviewed my photos from the prior two years and I definately had more then 500 shots at every event with all the different classes. I can post up to 500 without being licensed, with that being said, the last two years I didnt filter out any photos. I posted up every single shot I took. My options for this year are:

1. Get licensed with Photocrazy to avoid patent infringement, but by doing this i will need to raise the cost of the photos to cover the portion that photocrazy will take from each sale.

2. Weed out photos to drop the number below 500

3. Only offer the high resolution electronic copy of the photo, people will just have to email me the photo number, pay at a race or via pay pal, then I will respond with the photo.

None of them sound to appealing to me, I guess get the photo count below 500 is probably the best option.

I have signed an NDA with Peter Wolf from Photocrazy and I am working on obtaining additional information to determine if I would actually be infringing on his patent. I also have a patent attorney reviewing Photocrazys two patents to determine if this is something I should be concerned about.

Can anything be easy these days?

You know what can be easy to do, blow money! I shouldn't say blow money because I am buying a sweet new toy that I really want, but its alot of dough. I will be staying home for a couple months to cover this expense. Its been raining presents this year, this will probably be my last along with a nice pack for all my camera gear, then its paying off my latest toy, because this one I dont have the money for right now. I know, I know I should wait, but Guess What, Im not going to. That stimulation check will cover a nice portion of it, then hopefully people will buy my photos.

So here it is:

Perfect timing it is indeed, the lens came in today. I will be picking it up around 6 oclock then heading over to Buck Hill for the first race of the season. Woot! Hope to see you there. Tomorrow is trail work, Saturday is Trail work, Sunday is the first race of the MNSCS series and my first official photo op. Yeeehhhaaaaa!