Become a Contributor

Videographers and Photographers Are you looking for a way to earn extra income from your ever-growing collection of videos and photographs about weather, nature, climate and the environment? After you shot that great cloudscape, the perfect tornado, or the most thunderous hail storm, would you like to see your great footage and dazzling images used in TV science specials, educational DVDs, in lectures at schools and universities around the world, or help spice up a website or even a commercial? Our Site provides a simple and straightforward means to do this without all the hassle of dealing with licenses, billing, collections, reformatting, account management and the like. We make it easy for you to find additional markets for your favorite clips and photos...allowing more time to chase that "perfect storm"...or the prettiest sunset, if you are into nature's calmer moments.

Researchers Maybe you are you a researcher who has unique imagery or footage that you wish to provide to the media and educators without all the hassle of constantly responding to requests from the producers, editors and teachers, the granting of permissions, and keeping track of usage? Our Site is designed as a vehicle to allow those holding unusual and exciting video, computer simulations, photographs and the like demonstrating their exciting discoveries to provide these to producers and educators from K through 16, science centers, museums, publishers, and many others. You can now easily repurpose these assets to contribute to both formal and informal educational activities worldwide. In the process, we provide the opportunity to allow monetization of these assets for your institution. Be sure you coordinate your submission and designation of payments with your organization's Intellectual Property Officer since it is unlikely that you can do this as an individual unless you are certain you own all copyrights.

What We Are Looking For

• Footage, photos, and even computer graphics, which illustrate and illuminate atmospheric processes which create weather and climate, and their impacts.
• Some Site visitors may just be looking for pretty scenes that have the sky and weather as the central theme. We also like those, but are especially interested in any imagery that explains or illustrates how the atmosphere works. A good shelf cloud, a fall streak, hail pounding, eclipses, floods raging, snow drifting, or melting, waves crashing, tornadoes churning, air pollution, storm damage...it's a long list! Go to our search categories to get an idea of what we are looking for (though even this list is not exclusive by any means)
• We prefer HD and especially 4K footage, including that shot using DSLRs. And we are now offering 4k footage. But if the imagery is especially interesting, unusual or of historical interest, we will certainly entertain submissions originating on HDV, miniDV, and even VHS (if the footage is rare or unique). Clip lengths of 10-30 seconds are typical, but longer if the subject demands it.
• Stills preferably should at least 1-2 mp in size, preferably closer to 5 mp and up.
• We will accept 35mm transparencies if they meet our subject matter criteria. We will cover the cost of scanning and digitizing for any slides that we agree to offer for licensing online.
• The production values must be good. The tripod was invented over a century ago, but is still seemingly unknown to many chasers and weather videographers. "Shaky cam" was effective for the Blair Witch Project, but unless the footage really works as a "run and gun" shot, we generally prefer footage that has been taken with a locked down camera or using a smooth fluid head tripod. (Now if you were driving in a car right towards a humongous hailstorm or funnel...OK, maybe we can go with the shaky cam).
• We would appreciate sufficient supporting information on what is in the scene, such as the where and when it was shot and anything you wish to point out that makes it a more interesting shot.

Key Items to Remember

• You must be the sole copyright owner of the contribution, or have the owner be the party to the agreement.
• If your contributions are obtained while working for someone else, these are a "work for hire," and copyrights are likely owned by your employer. University researchers may have similar issues. You can still submit these, but the license agreement must be signed by and payment made to the authorized party at the institution who manages intellectual property rights, i.e., for the actual copyright holder.
• If images contain recognizable faces, or certain buildings or properties, it is likely that a model release and/or a property release or other permissions will be required. These forms are easily obtained from web sites. You would be required to produce such releases or permissions to any eventual licensee upon request. If releases are not available, photos and videos can still be utilized for news and education under editorial usage.
• We wish to avoid showing corporate logos or trademarks (a big Coca Cola sign, a huge Ford emblem on a truck). In some cases, we can remove or obscure such, but in general, images containing such are of lesser value (though may sometimes be suitable for editorial usage only).
• The royalty free licenses we provide to the customers are non-exclusive, in perpetuity (forever), all media, worldwide, and non-transferable. These are pretty standard terms, but you should be OK with this.

Business Arrangement

• Once you submit and we accept a contribution, we make it available for licensing via the Site.
• We take care of all reformatting (to Photo JPG, ProRes, SD PAL, .wmv, ,flv, poster frames, stills, etc.), resizing, enhancements, watermarking, licensing, billing, and all the other busy work.
• We cannot guarantee any level of sales, but whenever an item is licensed, you will be due the agreed-upon commissions (33%) on any revenues collected (exclusive of taxes, shipping and handling and special service charges).
• If your total commissions reach $100 in a calendar month, we will pay you by the 15th of the next month. Otherwise any payments and reporting will be due 15 days after the close of each calendar quarter.
• We will determine the offering price for any item, but welcome your input as to what you believe the fair market price should be.
• This arrangement is non-exclusive. You may sell these same items yourself or through any other stock service. (You cannot, of course, sell the contributed asset for exclusive use to a third party.) We also may submit selected assets from our site to other stock in order to increase visibility and sales. This action would in no way impair your copyright ownership.
• Either party may cancel the agreement altogether or withdraw specific items at any time upon providing suitable notification.

There is a Digital Assets Content Provider Agreement, the DACPA, which is what we will both sign. It does have a plain English summary at the start, but you probably want to go over the details just to be sure you are comfortable with the terms.

How to Submit While the mega-stock sites accept millions of clips and photos with automated downloading schemes, we prefer a decidedly more low-tech approach when it comes to submission. Contact us by email or phone and let us know what you have and why you think we may wish to represent it. We may ask to you to send us a low-resolution version via email for our evaluation. In any case, if we together decide to add your Digital Assets (that's the fancy name we use for what you contribute) to the online offerings, then we will work out the best way for you get us the highest resolution files (without any watermarking) via ftp, DVD, hard drive, etc. Other than possible postage or shipping, there is no charge to you for us to process your digital assets in order to make them ready for online sales.

Contact us by email: Contributions@WeatherVideoHD.TV

Or

FMA. Inc. /Sky Fire Productions, Inc.
Attn: Dr. Walt Lyons, CCM
4022 Rock Creek Drive
Fort Collins, CO 80528
Direct Line: 970-567-9495 (voice)

We would prefer if you could restrict your calls to Mon-Fri, 10 am - 5 pm, Denver time. If we are out on a shoot or otherwise not available, leave a message, and we will get back to you.

We look forward to adding your great shots to our ever-growing collection!