Photography Frequently Asked Questions

The most common question by far (so please don't ask) is when will people get their photos after the event. We try very hard to get them edited within a month but it can sometimes take 2 months for everyone to get their photos in. Just to explain why it takes so long, I want to detail my process. During the event, the photo team of 3-5 photographers shoot an incredible amount of photos. I usually come back from an event with 4000-21000 photos. Once we come home, it is back to our day jobs and life. I spend almost all of my evenings and weekends editing. Once the photos are edited, I will then go back through them all and ensure that those who haven't signed a release and have an appendage that made it into the photo is totally unidentifiable and anyone in the background is blurred. While shooting, we ask photographers to take a photo of the wristband for later verification. I then go through them all one last time to make sure that I can confirm that every identifiable person in the photo has the right colored wristband to show that they signed a release. It is an incredible amount of effort but we all take the privacy of those who do not wish to be in photos very seriously.

When all of that is done and the other photographers get Russ their photos, He reviews them to ensure backgrounds are blurred well, those in the photo have signed releases, generate the web pages, and post them. Once that is done, you will get an email sent to the email address that you registered with. It will come from greg@darkodyssey.com so make sure that they aren't marked as spam or junk. If you have not received the email with the info on how to view the photos, email info@darkodyssey.com with your registration info to get it resent. You’ll also see people posting on Discord that the email went out. We will also try to make a post on here once the photos go out after each event so that you know when to go digging for it. There is also a chance the gallery will be posted on Discord first so make sure you join it!

In that email, the prices of the photos will be listed but I wanted to break it down a bit more. We have all agreed to common pricing of $10 for one photo, $5 each additional photo to a maximum of $100. For example 10 photos would be $55 and 19 or more photos would be $100. To order pictures, contact the photographer who took the picture(s) with the numbers of the pictures you'd like to order. Please use the numbers embedded in the bottom of the photo. Ex: TVWF23-3608. Each photographer handles their own sales directly so you will need to purchase photos from each one separately. Their email addresses are on the gallery page. If they don’t reply in a few days, please send them another email.

They are your photos so feel free to post them wherever you want. We ask that you keep the watermark in photos that you post on FetLife and other social media that you are relatively out on. This is for multiple reasons. It obviously helps promote the event some but also gives the photographer proper photo credit. We have all worked very hard to shoot the entire event and spend even more time editing. It shows that you respect the photographer’s work. We completely understand that most people can’t post the watermark to vanilla social media and that is fine. The other main reason is that we take unauthorized photography very seriously. Having the event/photographer’s watermark on it lets us know right away that it is an authorized photo. You can ask the photographer for a copy without the watermark if posting it somewhere with the watermark would out you. If you need a higher resolution copy for printing or the like, contact the photographer and you can negotiate that with them. We don’t have standard pricing on this since it is rare.

Another concern that people have is appearing in photos when they have not signed the waiver and do not wished to be photographed. We take this very seriously which is why we are so strict about not allowing anyone to take photos at the event unless they are a staff photographer and those photos are reviewed by us. If a photographer accidentally takes a photo of someone as the main subject who hasn't signed a release, they will delete the images immediately. Unfortunately it is impossible to control the backgrounds of each of our photos and there may be some times that someone is in the background who did not sign a release. When shooting, we use various techniques to try to ensure that only the main subjects that we are shooting are in the photo and clearly visible. Most of us shoot tight in on the main subject so that there aren't people off to the sides that do not wish to be in the photos. Another thing we do is shoot with a very shallow depth of field so that if someone is in the background who didn't sign a release, they are not in focus and can be even further blurred out in the editing process to ensure they are not identifiable. We vet our entire photo team carefully for both their technical skills and also their commitment to respecting the privacy of attendees.

A lot of attendees want to take their own photos or videos of things. Please respect the privacy of everyone and don't take photos or videos while you are at the event outside of a selfie station which may be setup. The only times we might let it slide is if you are taking a still photo in a tent with solid walls, a cabin against the wall, or in a hotel room to ensure that no one can possibly be in the background. We have to be very strict about this and enforce it evenly across the board. Please understand that this is very, very important to a lot of people and can seriously compromise their lives if they end up in the background of a photo or their voice captured in the background of a video. It has happened at other events. That is why we must strongly enforce this. The current photo policy in the program reads, "Photography Policy: Privacy and confidentiality is of utmost importance to the attendees of Dark Odyssey. Therefore, photography in all forms is prohibited in all public areas. The only exception is that of the Staff Photographers who will be clearly identifiable and who will not photograph you unless you have signed a model release form and are wearing an appropriate colored wristband. If you appear in the background, you will be cropped out or blurred beyond recognition. Please alert a staff member if you become aware of anyone breaking the photography guidelines. Attendees discovered taking unauthorized photography will be asked to surrender their camera equipment for the remainder of the retreat and their film or other recording media will be destroyed. This policy also extends to cell phone cameras. If you are found taking pictures, we may ask you to leave the event and no refunds will be granted."

If you have signed a release but do not want photos of a certain scene taken, cover your wristband with a cuff, bandanna or the like. If you think that a photographer got photos of a scene that you didn't want shot, please feel free to ask them. If you don't know which photographer may have gotten photos, please contact Russ at twistedviewphoto@gmail.com and he will make sure that they are taken out. Also feel free to contact Russ if any of your photos make you uncomfortable and you don't want them in the gallery or used in any promotional material.

Some people would love photos but don't want DO to be able to use them for promotional use. I get it. Some events have a third option where the photos are only available for you. I tried that when I ran photography at an event with about 1000 attendees and 8 or so photographers. It was a tremendous amount of work and stress to make sure that people were categorized correctly especially because wristbands are not always visible in every photo and so there can be a lot of searching back to find which band a certain person was. Then there is the problem of group scenes where some people are public and some people are private. Of course the default goes to the more restrictive of the two on the event side but the attendees who are used to sharing their photos publicly may forget later on. There are a few other reasons I don't feel like getting into publicly but overall, it just isn't something that DO wants to do nor do most of the photographers have the time to ensure it happens correctly after the event without burning out. If you have had your photo taken at an event and do not want it used anywhere, as I said above, email twistedviewphoto@gmail.com with the photo numbers and I will take care of removing them from any future use. Overall we put the safety and comfort of the attendees first.

If you would like to see if you might be a good fit on our photography team, please email Russ at twistedviewphoto@gmail.com with links to your portfolio. It is a lot of work but I find it very fun and rewarding. Right now we are pretty full but sometimes people can’t make an event for one reason or another or we want to give others a chance and experience. You will need a decent camera that can take low light photos, possibly a fill flash, and a decent lens that can give you a shallow depth of field or zoom in tight to control the backgrounds. We look for people that can capture the energy and passion of the attendees, show how much fun people are having, and create artistic images that give people FOMO. We value the diversity in the team and also the diversity in shooting styles.

We can post the model release as well as an in-depth explanation of the language in it on the Discord before each event when asked so that you will have time to read it before arriving and make an informed decision. You’ll get an invite to the Discord as soon as you register and it is a great way to connect with people, introduce yourself, find scenes, and post requests for scenes to be photographed so I highly suggest joining it.

The vast majority of photographers both kinky and vanilla do not give out raw files. That is because the raw file does not look like how the photographer wants their work to be seen since it isn't developed / edited yet. It is just the raw data. People would edit it in a way that doesn't align with the photographer's style. Even in the days of film, the photographer was choosing the film for the overall look and making adjustments in developing / printing to produce the image they were going for. Today it is the editing on the computer. In the case of DO events, it is more for attendee safety and privacy. Raw files straight from the camera might contain someone who hasn't signed a release but was cropped out or further blurred out in the final published photo.

The photographers put in a ton of work to capture all of these memories. Most of us are there the full event and are shooting 8+ hours a day then editing in any free time they have for a few weeks after each event. Add in the wear and tear on professional camera equipment and their bodies. DO does not pay the photographers anything to be there and they deserve to be compensated for their hard work. We have worked hard to keep the prices as low as possible for a very long time. The pricing has only gone up twice in 15 years. We deeply appreciate each and every person that gets their photo or photos.

We get it. Times are really tight for many of us. While we believe that we deserve to be paid for all of the work that goes into covering the event and editing the photos for weeks after the event, we don't want the people in them to not be able to share their wonderful memories. These are deeply personal moments of joy, excitement, and intense moments in time that are captured. We want you to be able to share that with others and remember those fun times. Please feel free to reach out to the photographer who took the photos and see what can be worked out.

Please feel free to send us a message here or at twistedviewphoto@gmail.com and I’ll get back to you as fast as possible.