Small Print
General
The following points shall apply to all signed or mutually and informally agreed upon (via agreement over email or the paying of a deposit) contracts except in the case of an alternative contract being produced and signed by both client and photographer. I will email a contract to you before the shoot date and, by undertaking the shoot, you are agreeing to the contract as sent. It is the responsibility of the client to make themselves aware of the terms laid out in the contract and here on this page. Fees for shoots may be paid in up to two installments. Half the agreed fee must be paid to book your shoot. This payment is non-refundable. The remainder of the shoot fee is due on or by the day of the shoot except by prior arrangement
I reserve the right not to deliver prints/CDs/put data up on the World Wide Web for general use until the fees are paid in full. Unless specified by the client before the shoot, all images will be available for the photographer to use for promotional purposes through website, Facebook, Flickr etc but the photographer will not make money from any prints from a shoot without express permission from the client. Except by specific prior agreement shoots do not include any prints. All chosen and worked up images will be delivered digitally via an online gallery. CDs or DVDs are available for $10 each. Under no circumstances will un-optimized images be delivered to clients (please ask for details). Prints can be ordered directly from your gallery as well as other products. All of these are of very high quality and reasonably priced. If you are a photographer and want to buy all the RAW format images that can be done so. Please ask for details and costing. If you do want all the images as JPGs you will need to pay for me to post process them all so that low quality images aren't out in the world with my name on them. Think of unprocessed images as sketches. When I'm long dead and gone those sketches will be valuable(!) But for now it can only hurt my business. Thanks for understanding.
Unless otherwise agreed the photographer will choose the images to post process and deliver to the client in a gallery of finished pieces. For events such as weddings and parties clients should expect to receive, on average, fifty final images per shooting hour. For most portrait shoots you should anticipate receiving between 15-25 final pieces. The client will not have the right to see or obtain the images that the photographer did not choose to process except by express prior agreement.
If you do arrange to see the raw images, when making your choices of images to work up please allow five business days for each ten chosen images. Post processing is a time consuming and artistic pursuit and I want to make sure you receive the best possible images to take to print.
For events such as weddings and parties I cover the event in an artistic manner rather than simply ensuring I get a photo of each person in attendance (that is simply not possible. Some people tend to fade into the background and others prefer not to be photographed and so on). If it is important to you that there are more images of one person than of anyone else or that EVERYONE at the event has at least one photograph please consult with me in advance so we can work out a strategy to do so. This will incur an added fee.
In the case of disagreement or abuse suffered by the photographer or if the photographer does not feel safe working with the client, the photographer reserves the right to cancel the shoot and the deposit will be forfeit. If the potential client feels that this was unfair they may resort to a small claims court.
The choice of clothing and location is entirely the responsibility of the client. The photographer will do his best to provide guidance (please feel free to ask) but ultimately it is the client’s decision how and where to present themselves in terms of clothing, make up, hair style etc. If a reshoot is needed because a client is dissatisfied with the location, clothes etc that they chose another fee will be required. The same goes for children. If you want children to pose in photographs I will do my best to corral and jolly them along but the ultimate responsibility for the pose and expression of the children will fall on the client. The same goes for props for shoots. I can offer advice and even provide props if I have them but the responsibility is ultimately the clients' to provide props.
The client shall have the right to use all the final processed images for personal purposes but will not sell any images in any way or use them to make money in any way except with express written permission from the photographer. The photographer shall have the right to use the images in portfolio, on his websites or in books which may be sold for profit. He will not have any right to sell on any of the images directly or individually for profit in forms such as cards, postcards or prints except with express permission of the clients.
The photographer will have the right to choose the final post processed 'look' of the images except by express prior arrangement. Please speak to the photographer before the shoot if you have special requirements for image looks. Part of hiring a photographer is hiring their skill and judgment regarding the looks of images and his artistic vision.
In all cases (excepting circumstances covered in the proceeding paragraph) the photographer will always be Phil Rose himself. I never subcontract to other photographers. In case of the photographer being unavailable for absolutely unavoidable reasons (a situation which has never arisen as yet) I will try to find a replacement photographer from my local network of high quality photographers to shoot at the same price quoted. If they cannot do the job at that price it will be the responsibility of the wedding couple/liaison to negotiate with that photographer and to pay any extra required. If no photographer can be found at all then all fees will be refunded with an additional compensation of $100 for stress and inconvenience caused. No further money will be owed or asked for in these circumstances.
Before the shoot the client may be asked to research images that are in the style that they like and to send these on as links along with a few words about what they like about the images (e.g. “I like the colors here” or “This composition is great”). In the case that the client is not satisfied with the images taken the client and the photographer will do their best to come to an agreement which may be a re-shoot or a refund of up to the total fee paid. Under no circumstances will a client be entitled to a refund of more than the total original fee including sales tax.
Raw files chosen by the client for finalised work-up are archived and kept for one year. CDs/DVDs may be purchased from the photographer but Phil Rose Photography makes no guarantee of the availability of photographs past the delivery of chosen images. The recovery and delivery via online gallery of archived images will be charged at $75/hour and usually involves one hour of work. Online galleries are also guaranteed to remain available for one year. I have galleries that have been up for fourteen years but I can only guarantee that for one year and so it is recommended that you download your images as soon as possible and back them up somewhere safe.
In the case of a no-show by the client or a cancellation with less than twenty four hours notice, 80% of the agreed fee will fall due and a new contract will need to be signed. A rearrangement may be charged at 60% of the original fee at the photographer’s discretion. If the photographer has traveled more than 30 miles to get to a shoot and the client is a no-show then the fee will fall due in its entirety.
In the case that the client is more than 20 minutes late without contacting the photographer, they will be classified as a no-show and the photographer will have the right to leave. If the photographer has another shoot to go to, the time that the client is late shall be deducted from the shoot time or, where no set shoot length has been agreed, the photographer shall let the client know what time he has to leave.
In the case that the client is late or a member of the party is late causing the shoot to be extended beyond the agreed time, a fee of $100/hour or part of an hour will be added to the invoice.
If the client wishes to change the date or time of the shoot after the contract has been agreed to and the deposit paid and with more than 48 hours notice then the photographer will try to provide reasonable accommodation to attempt to do so but ultimately, if the date on the contract has been agreed to and then the client is unable to make that date then the deposit will be forfeit.
Once a print order has been placed by the client with the photographer, the photographer will optimize all those images and arrange for delivery of the prints within three weeks for the first twenty prints with an additional seven days allowed per ten extra prints. If the prints aren't delivered within this time frame 10% of all printing fees will be refundable per fifteen days or part thereof that the delivery is late. If prints are delivered more than sixty days past the scheduled delivery date as determined in the above paragraph then all fees for the shoot and printing will be refunded to the client by the photographer and the contract canceled leaving nothing owing by either party to the other.
The deposit (usually half of the fee excluding tax) is non refundable. Once the deposit is paid the date of the shoot is blocked out on my calendar so that I cannot book shoots with other potential clients. If a client agrees to a shoot and pays a deposit and the shoot then cannot happen due to circumstances beyond the photographer's control (weather, client or subject being unavailable within the required timeframe, act of God, war, disease, famine etc) the deposit will be forfeit where more than 24 hour notice is given and 80% of the total fee including tax will be due where less than 24 hours notice is given. If the shoot has to be canceled due to sickness on the part of the photographer the client will be entitled to the return of any money they have paid but under no circumstances will they be entitled to more than the amount that they have paid.
If the photographer comes up against a problem that means he will not be able to do the shoot and he is able to give more than a month's notice he will have the right to cancel and return all money that has been paid. For each week or part of a week closer to the shoot date that the cancellation falls the photographer will pay 20% more than the originally requested deposit (usually half the full fee). If the client has already paid the full fee that will be returned in full. Under no circumstances will the photographer refund more than the originally agreed fee.
Traffic
Traffic in our area seems to be getting worse all the time and I usually leave early for shoots in order to ensure I get there in plenty of time, however, the photographer will not be responsible for extenuating circumstances caused by traffic, wrecks etc. I have never been late to a shoot and don't intend to be and I will do my level best to be at the shoot site on time.
Mileage.
I do not add any mileage on shoots of up to 90 miles one way so any shoot as far south as Seattle will not incur any extra fees for mileage. If the client makes the photographer aware of the location before a quote is given the quote presented will include travel fees. If the photographer is not made aware of the location for the shoot before the quote is made up or the location is changed to a more distant one, travel fees will be charged at $1/mile one way so, for example, a shoot that entails a round- trip journey of 380 miles that originally would have only entailed a round-trip journey of only 180 miles (90 miles one way) would incur an additional fee of $100 (round trip of an extra 200 miles charged at $1/mile one way). Please ask for details if required.
In the case of a dispute the client and photographer will seek mediation though the Whatcom Dispute Resolution Center and the fees for such mediation will be split equally between the client and photographer. All quoted fees prices do NOT include sales tax which will be charged at the standard rate.
Drone work
It will be the responsibility of the client to ensure that it is legal to fly drones at the location where they want drone work done. Where that is not the case and the drone is inoperable due to the proximity or government, military or any other such structures, the fee for drone work will still be due even if the drone cannot be flown and no images are able to be gathered.
Commercial shoots in the field
If you are looking to achieve the look of stock photography please be aware that stock photographs of people working are not generally achieved by the photographer turning up on a job site and photographing people actually working but rather through a process of setting up lighting and shooting, in a controlled manner, people who are posing for the shots. Often the people will be professional models. Please consult with me about such shoots before booking so that we can achieve what you are looking for.
If the client assures me that the location is good and they insist that they want to go ahead with a shoot while work is being done then the photographer will not be held liable for poor results.
Under no circumstances shall the client be entitled to a return of money greater than the original shoot fee.
File Retention Policy
All your finished images will be uploaded and stored on a gallery which will be available for you to visit and download images from indefinitely (with a two year guarantee). I have ten year old galleries up there. Raw images will be kept for two years in case you need me to make changes to or choose other images than the ones initially chosen.
Turnaround times
Please allow up to a week for me to work on your images and get them back to you.
Number of Photographs for a Variety of Shoot Styles
A professional photographer will usually shoot many more photographs than make the cut to the final gallery. Often I am shooting at up to 25 frames per second just to capture the exact right expression or moment. After the shoot I will go through the (sometimes thousands of) images and create a gallery of all the chosen images to create an overview of the day or a set of great shots. These will be available to you for download. The client will not have access to the unchosen images although, under certain circumstances they may be able to see the raw images in order to choose a few shots or alternatives to choices made by the photographer but that would be at the photographer’s discretion.
Below is a list of the types of shoot most popular with my clients along with the number of images I tend to average. This is not a guarantee that your shoot will produce this number of images but rather where, in my experience, the number tends to fall.
Weddings- 50 images per shooting hour.
Portrait sessions- usually forty five minutes rendering 10-20 final shots.
Family shoot- Usually forty five to sixty minutes and 20-30 final shots.
Real Estate- Usually forty five minutes and 20-30 final shots.