JohnoUK1

It is illegal to copy professional work regardless of whether or not you paid for a copy of it. You own the print, you do not own the image. The image belongs to the Photographer unless he gives up the right to it. It's called "Copyright Release".

Using an image of someone in an ad is a different story. If you're referring to the scenario where the folks got the card through the door with the image of their Grandkids then it is perfectly legal for the Photographer to use that image without asking permission. Cruise lines have legal disclaimers on their passage contracts that state any still or video images that are captured on board the vessel can be used for any purpose without permission. If the images were shot specifically for use in advertizing them they would have obtained model releases, but in this scenario, legally, they are not required.

In the above scenario, these folks simply copied an image that they hadn't even bought in the first place and it's still sitting in their living room in a frame! It still doesn't belong to them!

As far as a spa comment goes . . . . . well . . . . . apples to oranges again.

Everyone has a choice. Don't try to cheapen the product because you personally think it's expensive. Relative value is purely up to the individual. It's not for everyone. If it were, everyone would drive the same cars and live in the same houses!

Scanning professional photos is illegal. Enjoy your stolen artwork. :mad:

An 8x10 is $0.89 at Costco, and I assume Costco is making a heavy profit even there. Double that cost to put it on a ship, then double it a few more times to make HAL a profit and Black Label (whoever they are) a profit - even if the cost was $5 or $10 per 8x10 I'd never leave a cruise without a dozen of them.

 

 

 

 

 

This kind of comment just shows a lack of understanding. You're all missing the point:

 

When you go to Costco you're paying $0.89 for a piece of paper with one of your own images on it. In that respect your simply paying for the materials.

 

Oil paint and canvas cost very little but people routinely pay thousands of dollars for pieces of artwork that are created with those materials.

 

It's just the same here. You're not paying for the $0.89 piece of paper, you're paying for the experience, and the artwork that is created by the photographer who has himself spent years perfecting his craft and has also been trained by the person who developed the Black Label program.

 

It's interesting to see that not one person here has said they don't like their pictures. Every single person said there's no way they'd part with them and they're a fantastic memory of themselves or family at a certain point in their lives.

 

So it seems that people want incredible images, they just don't want to pay for them!

 

Some of you hit the nail on the head . . . . you can spend the same amount of money on a tour that lasts a day and what do you have to show for it? A tee shirt and a few snapshots maybe?

 

These images are nothing like the ones you'd have taken at any other point in a cruise. They're not souvenirs, they are designed to be the kind of images that you'd treasure and frame and put on the wall in your home. I guarantee they'd be the first ones that people notice when they walk into your home. You can't put a price on something like that.

 

The quality of this photography (I have seen it) is outstanding. It is definitely far and away better than all but the very best high-street photographers, who would charge just as much and still hit you with a huge sitting fee. At least here, you can go to the sitting and you don't pay for it and you never have to buy anything. Try doing that at any half-decent studio!

 

Most of the major lines are doing something like this these days and they're all around the same price points. It is designed specifically for the few people in each voyage that want something like this and are willing to pay for it. It's no different than an Art buyer or a Casino High-roller. It's not intended as a mass-market product, so making the prints $10 would do nothing but ensure the entire experience is cheapened.

 

I have a Black Label style image from my wedding in a very expensive frame hanging over the fireplace in my house and every day I look at that picture and it makes me smile. I have about $1,000 in that picture and I would pay the same money all over again to get something that good again. Next time I cruise I'm taking my now 5 year old daughter to have her images made and you can bet that one of them will be hanging next to her Mom and Dad soon after.

 

You can't put a price on that.

I was a crew member on the Azure Seas (Photographer) for 4 years between 1986 and 1990. Prior to that I worked for a year on her sister ship, the Emerald Seas, also as a Photographer.

Overall I spent 10 years at sea, and worked on 20 different vessels, but the Azure Seas was far and away my favorite ship. I even met my first wife on there who was a Dancer at the time!!

I recently saw some pictures of the Azure being scrapped and it was completely heart breaking. There were also a lot of images of several other old vessels meeting the same fate, many of which I'd worked on before, including the Bermuda Star, Amerikanis, SS Rhapsody, Dolphin IV, the Norway, and a bunch of others.

It was so sad to see all these lovely old ships looking so beat-up and meeting their end.

I still work in the cruise industry and I'm now in my 24th year, but I still miss those old days back int he 80's during the real renaissance of cruising. Back then, the staff members used to have almost as much fun as the passengers, and it showed. I think the passengers used to get a real kick out of that too because it meant there was always a happy and positive vibe on the ships (this was especially true of the Azure Seas).

Things are just not like that any more, and even though our big huge ships are amazing and beautiful, they're just not the same, and that's a sad thing.

The Azure Seas will always remain among my fondest life-long memories. Oh the stories I could tell!!!!:D