Please comment on any issues that currently affect the way you source and use photography

"All our photos are taken by volunteers and associates and are to do with the actual work and places that we are engaged with and do not concentrate solely on poverty and deprivation. They are to do with normal life situations in the Developing world."

"Cost effectiveness. Overseas pictures taken mainly by staff on working visits abroad. A few photos taken by partner organisations are also used"

"We have had trouble finding suitable pictures of people at work in developing countries, i.e. working in hotels or factories, apart from women or child labourers!"

"We are a relatively small charity, so cannot afford to commission professional photographers very often. However, we have accepted that good images are absolutely essential, and our communications manager goes at least once a year to Africa to obtain stories and pictures. We also try to ""piggyback"" on trips undertaken by professionals for larger organisations, buying a day or two of their time when they visit relevant countries."

"Small organisation with limited resources. Cost is a major issue and so usage of commissioned photographers is limited and generally local to particular country as this is cheaper."

"The term commissioned has been used loosely, we have come across a very supportive photographer, who is quite prepared to let us use the photographs/slides he takes, though the copyright remains with him. We also use partners' photographs, but there is no category for that above"

"In practice we have not used any non-staff photographer since 1995, the ticks above therefore reflect what we would do if ..."

"We seek to to use highly emotive pictures."

" We are hoping to have our own photographic library for use internally and also as an online database."

"Cost is the major factor. Staff members are therefore asked to take photos in the field and given guidelines as to how to do so. However, this means that quality is variable and some projects are not adequately covered since the staff member responsible may not be interested, confident, or competent!"

"In relation to 9 above: we take a free licence for organisation's use of the images not shared copyright; we allow the photographer to choose their preferred colour medium (slide or print); we will accept digital files if hi-res and there are imperative operational reasons for use of digital camera."

"All of our work in sourcing new photographers, briefing them, subsequent use of imagery, and sourcing agency pix is governed by the image style we are seeking to help develop a clear brand image for the organisation. Picture usage is at the heart of the brand development work."

"We visit our partners many times during the year and take photos during these times, so we never comission photographers. We sometimes share our photos but on the proviso they are acknowledged and use our caption."

"As a (small to medium size) charity we have a very small budget for photos."

"Not sure about 9: we require rights of use, but copyright and therefore rights to market remain with photographer. We share original material, which we scan, hold and use digitally. Some is from slide, some from colour neg and a little still from b/white neg."

"The change for us has been in sending writers and photographers to work together. There are few people who can do both well, and keep focused. We usually, but not exclusively, use in-House writers to travel with professional photographers, local if possible."

"Our brand requirements have become more focused in recent years, and we have tried to bring a wide range of published materials into brand line. This has also had an impact on the photographers we choose to use, and on the briefs we give them."

"Asserting a 'brand image' is not easy because Oxfam GB is a diverse organisation, with significant authority vested in different Divisions at HQ, and also in recently established 8 regional offices worldwide. The expanding use of internet also makes it easy for disparate parts of an organisation to publish materials independently on regional or departmental sites, and a lot of effort has, and will, go into managing the output. We have also seen in recent years a coalescence and harmonisation of the 'Oxfam family' of independent NGOs as Oxfam International: this includes eg Community Aid Abroad = Oxfam Australia, NOVIB in Holland, Oxfam America, Oxfam Canada, Oxfam Quebec, Oxfam Hong Kong, Oxfam Ireland, Oxfam India and others."

"We have an extensive in-house photo library which has been built up over several years by members of staff and volunteers. This accounts for almost all of the images we use in our literature, on our website etc."

"Cost is a major issue so if, for example, a professional photographer volunteered to take photos for us at no cost, we would be more flexible over issues of copyright, format etc than if we were paying for the service completely.
We have been very lucky as Ducati photographer has done a huge photography project for Riders in Zimbabwe and has given us copyright over all the pictures. The BBC has done a similar thing for us in the Gambia. We do have guidlines and we are in the process of writing them down."

"Cost is important - so I look for as much free as possible as long as the quality is good. In our Institute, it is very important to have a choice of global images in the area of environment and development."

"Our requirements for images are being changed to some extent by increasing use of photos on our website. We are making more use of locally sourced photographs which can now be emailed as scans by our regional offices, members and partners."

"We have an extremely small budget and are reliant on our Volunteers and staff for pictures, in the main"

"Nearly all our photos are now on digital files, due to greater ease of sharing images with other field offices worldwide.
I've made the main point earlier, but will add here that we had originally no policy at all on the use of images, and we still haven't really formalised our policy (we were formed earlier this year from the merger of two organisations, both of which had their own policies but neither of which was entirley satisfactory)"

"Unfortuately with budgets being very tight we are very dependent on our consultants to provide photographic images for us. In a sense this is good because it is quite efficient, but sometimes the quality of image is not as good as it could be. In addition HealthProm has some issues trying to establish ownership of these images- I have tried to get round this by issuing consultants with disposable cameras paid for by HealthProm. "

"Cost. Appropriateness. Relationship to people being photographed."

"Cost is an important factor but mostly working with a photographer who understands very well the type of photos we need."