The gang over at Lightchasers photography blog have an amusing article about a “photo contest” being run by CalTex (Chevron to us Yanks).

The contest pretty much tells you what photographs they want and you’re not even guaranteed to win the prizes (”a chance to win…) even if you win the “contest”…

Some may think that this is a good way to get their photos used by an International Corporation (we all know about Big Oil’s profits these days) but it really points out something to the uninitiated that many companies nowdays are running similar “contests” just to get free-photography ( did I mention Big Oil’s profits?). Think any (many?) of these Companies will come back to the winners to shoot their multi-million dollar ad campaigns? Think the Easter Bunny’s real?

More and more of these contests and other scams for free-photography are surfacing every day. It’s not a new scam by any means, but the ease of digital-photography and the internet has made this a good way for companies (not just Big Oil companies) to get 1000s of free-photos from which to choose and use in their advertising. Be famous, be happy!

Now if at least they offered to buy me a D3 with the lens of my choice, it might be more palatable, but ya know, it’s tough these days of rising gas prices for a multi-billion dollar company to survive. Maybe we should start a charity fund for the Big Oil companies lest they miss their next meal. Sniff…sniff (insert photo of sad-looking, large-eyed oil exec here, with a bowl in his hands and a single-tear on his cheek).

Of course, the winners forfeit all-photo-rights to the company (what would you expect for free?) and the funniest part is that one of the “suggested photos” is of a Uniformed CalTex employee standing in front of a Station holding the door open (off duty of course). They won’t even pick-up the tab for the employee’s time! They probably would heap any responsibility and liability on the photographer if anything happened to the employee too.

So, if you think it’s a good idea to shoot free ad photos for companies making Billion$ of dollars profit, have at it, but check out the Lightchaser’s article here first!