Photography Question

HEA123

Hi, I have a question in regards to a photography contract. It states that in case of an emergency, illness, casualty, etc they will not be able to provide the service, they reserve the sole right to appoint a substitute. Is this something any of you have come across? I am not completely familiar with the photography industry. In my mind I thought if that should happen we should hire a new photographer. We want to make sure we like their work and they have solid business practices. Thoughts? TIA

thesuninherhead

If there's a last minute emergency the day before or day of, there's no way that you would want the responsibility of hiring a new photographer to fall on yourself. You'd probably be completely unable to source anyone at such late notice, let alone pick a new person based on their work. So in other words, their contract sounds fine to me.

thesuninherhead

(you could always question who they will appoint, though, if you were concerned).

apple_green

I hope it's okay, because that's what my contract says too. If you're concerned, you can ask who they'd appoint. Sun's right though, you'll be too busy to find a replacement. IMO them doing it is best for your sake.

tidetravel

It's actually a pretty standard practice in photography. IF something happens last minute, you want SOMEONE to be there, right? And you're not going to be able to hire a photographer a day before the wedding. If it is worrysome, ask your photographer who their back up is. Many independant photographers have friends/collegues that they trust to cover for them. If you're signing with a photography company that has a lot of different photographers, I would be more worried, as they have more of a tendancy to substitute photographers of lower quality last minute (ie. thepros). Try to get the substitute's name in writing if you can.

mmm_080809

For sake of argument, let's say something happened to them the morning of the wedding - or even the night before the wedding. While it's one thing to say that you would want to hire the new photographer yourself, what if the timing is so bad that it would be nearly impossible to do so? Do you really want to have to book a new photographer for your wedding at the last minute yourselves, or would you rather trust your photographer's judgment on calling one of their colleagues, who likely they know and trust, to fill in? Our contract had a similar clause in it, but it was also followed by a written guarantee that any replacement photographer would be of comparable quality or better and have equal or more experience than our original photographers. If something along those lines isn't in your contract somewhere, I would ask to have it added in. Otherwise, it sounds fine.

Amaryllis619

that wording is also in out photography contract. i think it's pretty standard. i did ask our photographer about it, and she said it's only happened to her once, and that she has a network of local photographers who sort of "cover" for each other. GL