By all accounts, this was an amazing session. 3 incredibly knowledgeable Santa’s shared their experience as well as their contracts, marketing materials and more.
There are answers to additional questions, downloadable files, links to the panelist’s websites and more below.
The first guest Santa is “Santa for Honolulu” Santa Marty. Santa Marty has added weeks to his season and thousands of dollars to his income, 
sometimes as much as $1,000 per day, by working with photo studios. He will share how he started working with studios, what he does to “keep the magic alive” for hour long photo shoot and much more.
The second Santa is Santa Patrick Faulds (SC Santa). SC Santa has a wealth of experience to share, He’s worked in studios ranging from Sears & Walmart, in fact he was THE “Sam’s Club Santa”. He’s done high end settings with award winning 
photographers, he’s done commercial photo shoots… SC Santa is a wealth of resources.
Santa Claus CLIFF SNIDER. Santa Cliff works with professional photographers in their studios producing portraits and Christmas cards for their clients. His work as Santa with all of these talented artists has placed his image into the homes of more people than any other Santa, earning me the distinction of being “the most recognized Santa Claus in America.”
We can ALL learn from Santa Cliff!
I, Santa Ed Taylor, will round out the panel sharing my experiences of working with a Larry Hersberger (Kissing Tree Studios) in Southern California as well as my experience working in Walmart & Sears studios and doing “commercial photography” work.
ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS & ANSWERS:
Q. Are there any other caveats about posting pictures of yourself with kids from a studio shoot and using them on own website?
A. The photographs and the rights to them are owned by the studio. Check with them, or include something in your contract that covers your usage.
Q. Would the photographer also include a mall-type sitting with a photo company?
A. In this session the Santas were talking about studios, not mall sets.
Q. Does anyone get residual money on sales from their studios?
A. No, at least not as a direct result of “package sales”. Santa Cliff is involved with different “licensing agreements” in which he gets a royalty on certain sales.
Q. News Photographer may take your picture at a public event, would that have non-compete issues?
A. No.
Q. Do you charge by appointment or by how many hours you work?
A. Typically by the session for the longer (1 hour) sessions and by the hour for the short sessions.
OTHER ATTENDEE COMMENTS:
Joe ‘Santa Jeaux’ Pridgen added…
Halloween is on Saturday this year … so kids could be available in the morning of Halloween in costumes with Santa … I call it Santaween … this is my first season of trying it.
I actually found 3 of the 7 studios that work with through GigSalad requests.
A Facebook Conversation about rates in 2017
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
Santa Patrick Faulds marketing postcard and sample contract
Sample Studio Contract-2014 with formatting
Santa Marty Model Release & Photo Agreement
The Photo Studio vid was one of my favorite so far. There is great info and resources on this page.
Loved watching this video… Being a very new Santa, everything is NEW! I have so much to learn and looking forward to it! One of the first things I intend to do is take professional photos for my business cards and other communications. AND… I want to work with other photographers in their studios. I hope to tie in both activities to benefit us both.
THANKS
Good morning Santa Ed!
The video is not here at this time. Where do I go to find it ?