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Do religious structures like mosques and temples need PR?


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I have tried to searcharrow-10x10.png for this answer but I have not found any. Do religious structures like temples, mosques or monasteries need PR? I just had my test file all pass QC and am filling in the attributes. In the pull down menu it asks "Does this image contain property that needs a release for commercial use?" Do these types of buildings need a PR?

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There is no universal rule--different countries have different rules . . . however, I can't image the local vicar or his/her superiors being too happy about the local church being used in an advertisement for say . . . Scien*ology, so I'd always assume one is needed, mark my images of local churchest etc as needing on for commercial use, then noting whether or not I have one.

 

dd

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Loco Cubano, I am the proud producer and owner of many outstanding images of St. Peters Basilica in Rome. These very holy snaps have been sitting in my collection for some time now, but I've yet to make a single sale or even had a single zoom. Hey, this is the most important church in the vast Catholic world. 

 

I wanted to make these images RF, in case Burger King needed something inspiring to promote their bacon cheeseburgers, but I made them RM and Editorial Only instead. I called a priest I know who works at the Vatican, a friend of a friend or a friend of a friend of the Pope, and asked if il papa might send me a written permission allowing me to sell my pics for ads. I was somewhat surprised to discover that people in the clergy used so much profanity. 

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I was commissioned by the Catholic church, (why me, a devout atheist I don't know), to take a whole series of photographs of a special statue of 'Our Lady of the Taper' for a holy shrine in West Wales. One of my photographs of this was actually taken to Rome and presented personally to the then Pope. I guess even I don't have permission to licence those as RF even if I wanted to or could be bothered. The catholic church has been making billions in commerce from its churches for centuries. "Buy a (rights managed of course(!)) indulgence my son / daughter and the kingdom of heaven is yours". 

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Interesting questions. There are probably millions of unreleased images of churches, mosques, etc. on microstock agencies. I've leased images of churches on Alamy, always for editorial use, though. My guess is that God probably doesn't have time to sign model releases. I always check that a MR is needed anyway.

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I have quite a few images of churches but they just do not sell.

 

I think it would need to be of a very famous church indeed to even have a sniff of a sale. That or your images is one of a church which burnt down recently, or some other newsworthy item.

 

Allan

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I have quite a few images of churches but they just do not sell.

Nor have they for me and I have 745 returns for 'church.' That's a bit of a revelation and a timesaver. thanks, I may still stick in the odd village church though.

Not strictly true, the one on Glastonbury Tor and a Greek lion outside Treviso duomo have sold.

 

Sold a couple of gravestones though, but they were Winston Churchill's.

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I have quite a few images of churches but they just do not sell.

 

I think it would need to be of a very famous church indeed to even have a sniff of a sale. That or your images is one of a church which burnt down recently, or some other newsworthy item.

 

Allan

 

The few that I've leased have been of cathedrals and well-known churches in Latin America. I have some of local churches in Vancouver, but I think it would take divine intervention for one of those to sell.

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In my experience church photos are, by and large, a waste of space, but cathedrals, that's another story.

 

I still occasionally take and upload church photos, largely because I like the look of them, and, you never know, one day so might a buyer. 

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I sold a picture of a little local church sans PR, but only - I believe - because of the connection between the village location name and the company name.

 

Use: iQ sale: Corporate Package Use – Internal use and external non-advertising use.

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Is promotion of tourism considered commercial use? I would assume so, but that it also is fairly innocuous compared to promoting fast food or whatever. Do the same rules regarding releases apply?

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I've sold 13 images from a cathedral in town, a couple of them exteriors but the rest interiors, mostly of statues or mosaics.

 

When I bought my Canon 5D in early 2006, I took it downtown for practice, at the cathedral and at a couple of major Masonic sites. The Masons got me about as many sales as the Catholic church.

 

All RM unreleased, of course.

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In my experience church photos are, by and large, a waste of space, but cathedrals, that's another story.

 

 

I've had half a dozen sales of ordinary churches, some of them quite ordinary photos too.

 

Alan

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I have quite a few images of churches but they just do not sell.

 

I think it would need to be of a very famous church indeed to even have a sniff of a sale. That or your images is one of a church which burnt down recently, or some other newsworthy item.

 

Allan

 

I was lucky enough to have some of Leicester Cathedral online when then they found King Richard III's remains nearby and reburied him inside. It's generated several sales with more expected (I've found publications).

 

But none of my photos of lovely village churches have sold, they very, very rarely get searched and only get views if the village is being searched. No idea why, everything else seems to get views.

 

I've marked all as containing property that needs release with no release available so they're all RM, even the exterior shots from public land.

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The catholic church has been making billions in commerce from its churches for centuries. "Buy a (rights managed of course(!)) indulgence my son / daughter and the kingdom of heaven is yours". 

 

Only thing they forgot was to limit the licence period to a few years - could have made even more billions in renewals.

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I was commissioned by the Catholic church, (why me, a devout atheist I don't know), to take a whole series of photographs of a special statue of 'Our Lady of the Taper' for a holy shrine in West Wales. One of my photographs of this was actually taken to Rome and presented personally to the then Pope. I guess even I don't have permission to licence those as RF even if I wanted to or could be bothered. The catholic church has been making billions in commerce from its churches for centuries. "Buy a (rights managed of course(!)) indulgence my son / daughter and the kingdom of heaven is yours". 

Like yourself a non-Catholic, I was also commissioned by the Church some years ago to shoot a book on Catholic churches - again, as in your case, it was eventually taken to Rome and I have somewhere a picture ( courtesy of the Vatican PR department) of it being presented to His Holiness (the last one). He never wrote to thank me though.

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But none of my photos of lovely village churches have sold, they very, very rarely get searched and only get views if the village is being searched. No idea why, everything else seems to get views.

 

 

 

 

My apologies if this is a bit of a tangent and off-topic.. a newbie question.. but how do you know that an image is being searched for and viewed?

I can see in my metrics that I have 4 views.. but have no idea which images were viewed.

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