Why We Introduced a Fee for Photo Downloads

Since 2012, we’ve been photographing races and uploading the photos to our Facebook albums so runners could freely find, tag, and download their race moments. For the past 13 years, this has always been our way of giving back to the running community.

Over time, however, the way photos are shared and discovered online has changed.

Why Facebook No Longer Works Well

In recent years, Facebook has introduced stricter rules around photo uploads and tagging. From our end, uploading large numbers of photos often results in our account being blocked or limited. For runners, scrolling through thousands of images has also become increasingly inefficient—and friends can no longer tag you in photos as easily as before.

We knew we needed to find a better way – for both runners and photographers.

A Better Experience for Runners

Earlier this year, we discovered our current photo platform and decided to give it a try at the Conquer the Wall Marathon. After testing it, we were genuinely impressed.

The platform allows runners to search for their photos using facial recognition or bib number detection, and the accuracy truly exceeded our expectations. Our hope is that this makes finding your photos faster, easier, and far less frustrating.

 

Photo credit : Dave Poh

Why Free Downloads Are No Longer Sustainable

As much as we would love to continue offering free downloads, the new technology comes with unavoidable costs:

  • The platform charges a monthly subscription fee for storage and access.

  • Each uploaded photo must be processed by a recognition API, which incurs a cost per image.

  • The platform also takes a commission from each download.

  • On top of that, online payment providers charge transaction fees, with a minimum credit card fee of $0.50 per transaction.

In practical terms, for every $1 paid per photo, less than 30% actually comes back to us.

Despite this, we believe the improved experience for runners—and the smoother workflow for our photographers—makes this change worthwhile.

Photo credit : Tan Tick Hock

Supporting the People Behind the Camera

Our photographers are volunteers. They travel to races, give up their time, and often endure heat, rain, and long hours just to capture your moments. Over the years, we’ve never promised them anything beyond the opportunity to share their work on our platform and the quiet satisfaction of contributing to the running community as unsung heroes.

From 2026 onwards, we hope to offer them a small token of appreciation to help cover basic transport costs, as a gesture of thanks for their commitment and effort.

Updated Pricing Structure

To support these changes, we will be making small adjustments to our pricing:

  • $5 for up to 10 photos (That’s just $0.50 per photo—and we encourage you to share downloads with friends!)

  • $2 for up to 2 photos. This still works out to $1 per photo, with a revised minimum transaction amount to help cover payment processing fees.

Thank You for Your Understanding

We truly appreciate your understanding and continued support as we adapt to new tools and changing realities. Our goal has always been—and remains—to serve the running community in the best way we can.

Thank you for being part of this journey with us.