Booking details and conditions - please read fully

Once we have your booking

We will confirm that a place is available, and let you have details on how to find us etc. Information on B&B and other accommodation locally can be found on the useful links page.

Once we have accepted your booking we will not cancel due to numbers attending. If we have to postpone for any reason we will give you the choice of a refund or a place on another date.

Transportation and arrival

If you arrive by car, you will find us easy to locate and free parking presents no problem. 

If you arrive by train or coach we can collect you from and return you to the train or bus station, we are only a short distance away, providing you plan to arrive at least an hour before the course is scheduled to start, or from a local B&B or hotel. We ask you to tell us in advance that you will need to be collected and then call us on your arrival at the station.

While with us we provide any transportation required on the course.

Please plan to arrive at least 10 minutes before the course is scheduled to start, and it is helpful if you let us know if you are delayed while getting to us. Even with major hold-ups and arriving very late, we will always do our best to make sure that you make the most of the day, even if it means running on later for you.

Courses are scheduled and planned to finish at the time indicated, but in the case of bad weather and a trip to another location, we will extend it, to at least partly recover transport times if everyone can do this. If possible do not book other appointments that will make this impossible.

If you cannot attend we will give you a voucher that you can use to cover part or all the cost of any other course:-

Normal bookings:

• If you let us know more than 4 weeks before the course date, the voucher will be for the full value paid,
• If over 3 weeks before, the voucher will be for 80% of the value paid,
• If over 2 weeks for 50% of the value,
• If less than two weeks 20% of the value,
• Non attendances on the day do not qualify for any voucher.
• Vouchers cannot be converted to cash refunds or transferred to others.
• Alternatively you can sell your course place on to someone else, for example on eBay, but you need to tell us you are doing this before advertising it, and again when it has been sold who is going to attend. We may need the person who is going to attend to have proof of identity.

Last minute 'one to one' bookings:

• If you book within 10 days of attending a 'one to one' we call this a last minute booking.
• If you are then unable to come due to a serious health problem or a person closely related to you, we will give you a voucher for 100% of the amount that you paid, that can be used to book another 'one to one', as long as you book more than 2 weeks ahead. A doctors letter will be required.
• If you are unable to come for any other reason we will give you a voucher for 20% of the value.
• Non attendances on the day, without any notification, do not qualify for any voucher.

If the weather is bad

Although we often think of Britain as a wet place, in practice there are few days when we cannot take any photos. It also often rains in one place but not another, so we can work around it. Weather forecasting is not reliable enough to be of practical help.

Most of our courses have bad weather alternative segments, for example in the studio, or utilising shelter such as a gazebo. Most days even if we have rain, it does not rain non stop, so we can still get some practical in outside. Some have alternative places to visit, but where everyone agrees we will extend the day to at least partly cover travel time involved. 

With panoramas, railway and Cotswold villages, if we have the chance that we can proceed at least partly as planned we will, but with more tutorial or editing practice, when we are held up by the weather, or if the day turns out on your arrival to be too wet to be likely to achieve much at the beginning of the day, we will offer you the choice of the following:-

• To transfer to another identical course on another date (or new available date)
• An alternative course of our choice suited to the weather, plus a 20% voucher for another course later. The course offered will be chosen that is most likely to appeal to the group attending, and not one that anyone has already been on.
• You can select any other course that is suitable for proceeding with in wet weather.
• A photographic trip to Slimbridge wetlands centre, which has large hides that are weather proof and we can move between hides as the weather permits, if this option is chosen, we will take you, and cover entry costs, but any refreshments you have you will buy yourself.

Location

We plan to hold all events at the locations indicated, but reserve the right to move them to another location if the need arises, and will do our best to let you know as early as possible.

The areas we operate in are near crime free, safe locations, and we have never experienced any problems. You will always be accompanied while on our courses.  While with us we provide any transportation required.

Sliding The Day

In some cases on one to one day's you may wish to move the training day backwards or forwards therefore starting earlier or later. We have no difficulty in cooperating with this in most cases and make no additional charge. A slightly earlier start on multi-day one to one sessions is now quite common and in particular on the last day where a person wants to get away and drive home. In cases where a considerable difference in the start time is required, for example photographing summer sunrises, we do need to know in advance so we are fully prepared. Where the day is slid backwards or forwards the day course is still the same length.

Equipment availability and failures

With all courses we confirm we will be able to have all the equipment we need available to us well before the date set, plus some spare items, but items can go wrong, or other situations arise where some pieces are unavailable. We will do our best to either obtain a replacement or to use an alternative piece, but where it is essential but unavailable, we will have no option but to postpone the course to a later date convenient to you. If a piece of equipment fails while a course is in progress, we will work around it by using similar equipment.

Non smoking policy

All our courses are completely non smoking, and this also means no fag breaks. The risk of fire and damage, effect of smoke, pollution in the work space, ash in cameras, as well as lost time while we wait for people to run in and out, makes it a non starter of an idea to make exceptions to this. If your addiction is so bad that you cannot manage a day with us without a cigarette, then sorry but these courses are just not for you.  Anyone who did smoke while with us would be asked to leave, see unacceptable behaviour below.

Unacceptable behaviour

We have never had to ask anyone to leave, but we reserve the right to, if the action or behaviour is offensive to others on the course, or us, puts others, themselves or any equipment at risk, or their behaviour is disrupting the progress of others. Where possible we would give the person concerned a warning before telling them to leave. Anyone who smokes or takes other than prescription drugs while on a course with us will be asked to leave immediately.  Anyone who is asked to leave will not be eligible to any refund and no future bookings will be acceptable from them, any future bookings that exist will be voided for them, they may however still sell them on to others as long as it is sold to a third party unknown to them, as in the case of selling it on eBay on the same conditions as above.

Responsibility for damage

So far we have never had to invoice anyone, probably because everyone has treated the equipment as they would if it was their own, and were aware that they had responsibility for its safe return.

The equipment we use is expensive and does not bounce. It has to be treated well and in line with the instructions that we give.  Accidents that are not your fault, for example a camera strap snapping causing the camera to fall or faults that develop in the equipment is not your responsibility. You will be held accountable and invoiced for damage that you cause or occurs through your actions, or carelessness, therefore you should always have the camera strap around your neck when in use and make sure the lens in use is fully connected. With some actions such as climbing railway embankments where you may slip, you will need to decide if you wish to hand the camera back to the instructor until you have reached a stable position or if you are personally taking the risk. You are also responsible for any parts that are lost through falling off the camera while in your possession such as monitor protectors and right angle viewfinders.

Copyright of photographs

All photographs that are taken by you on any or our courses belong to you, however they fall into three groups.

• Those that do not include people or our base,  you own the outright copyright of and may do with exactly as you wish, and have all the reproduction fees associated with the sale of use of any of them.
• You must not include in any publication or publish or broadcast in any way any photograph that contains other course participants or our tutors unless you separately obtain a signed release from each of those featured.
• Photographs of models may be used in your own personal portfolios or for your own advertising. You may be given a signed model release allowing wider use, but possibly with some restrictions.
• We reserve the copyright of any photographs identifying our base, as these may be of assistance to people who would burgle us.

Loss or harm

We of course will do our best to make sure we do not put you at any risk, but all activities are potentially dangerous, such as tripping on a hole made by a rabbit or sticking your own finger in your eye while adjusting the camera eyepiece. You are responsible at all times for your own actions and safety.  You are made aware in advance that there are rabbit holes, and may be other obstacles like lighting stands, reflectors and tripods as well as other photographers. You undertake to either take out your own insurance to cover these and other risks or to bear them yourself.

We are also not responsible for any action you take following our instruction, or your failure for you to produce results or damage that comes to any equipment that you later use.  While we are happy to give opinions as fairly as we are able on any equipment, we are not responsible for actions that you later take or your purchasing decisions. We are also not responsible for damage to shoes or clothing or cleaning bills, and you should wear something suitable for the activities you will be involved in.

Any business knowledge or advice we share with you, will be considered as the foundation for you to further research, rather than a formula of any type. We do not give financial advice.

Special needs

Special dietary needs we will cater for, but we need to be fully aware of what is required, or you can bring your own if you wish.

Our base has large entry doors and corridors, dining area, training areas etc all on the ground level, with easy access,  we have a WC accessible but not large enough to hold a wheelchair. Courses at our base can be arranged in a way convenient to those with walking difficulties and wheelchairs but we do need to know in advance. Many of the other locations we use are unsuitable for wheelchairs, or people unable to walk a short distance, but where we know there is a need we will work with you to find an alternative venue to visit that will be suitable for you.  We also cannot cope with carers in addition to the client unless they are a second participant. If you have special needs of any type or a disability that will require special provision then please check with us before booking.

We can cope and make a lot of progress with people with a learning difficulty on a one to one basis, but cannot handle behaviour difficulties. A relation or carer must be with a person with learning difficulties at all times, we do not make any additional cost for this even where they participate.

For those with any medical problem or age related difficulty we will do our best to provide the training that is most suitable for you. This is far easier to achieve on a one to one. Please let us know and we will do everything we can to make your visit to us both enjoyable and suitable for your needs.

Tuition restrictions

One to one tuition can be organised to cover most subjects but we have a few restrictions and extra conditions with these.

We do not cover any activities that would be dangerous to you or us, or puts the equipment at risk.

We will not organise shoots involving pornographic photography or involves using any models under 18. Adult artistic nudes will only be undertaken in a studio that has been set up for this, with models generally available for this work, and we will not put the photos produced on any of our computers. We would advise anyone doing this type of work to put it on a separate plug in hard drive, and to store this away from their home and business, where it cannot be found by those who may get turned on by this.

While we will attend sports events if you wish and advise you as best we can, we would point out that we will have little interest in any sporting activity, in a similar way we generally lack the ability to find most cities very exciting.  Historic places and events and reconstruction, wildlife, countryside, seascapes, close up work, food, plants, panoramas anywhere, aerial photography and transportation in any form we are generally delighted to photograph.

We do not currently undertake any training outside the UK. We will consider special requests but these are unlikely to be on the basis of the current pricing schedule.

We will not take cameras onto sandy beaches. If you want to take yours then we will assist you, but generally advise DSLR's are not suitable for sandy beach environments.

Wedding and special occasion photography can be undertaken, but we will be keen to make sure that the people who have the special occasion are guaranteed to get the photos they want.  For example if you tell us that we are to support you in photographing a friend of yours wedding, we will usually also run a second camera ourselves to make a back up set of photographs of at least the main shots. 

We will share with you business knowledge and answer as many of the questions as we can but we cannot tell you a guaranteed formula to make a fortune out of photography.

If you want us to take part in a corporate or group event this will need to be negotiated separately, rather than by using the current pricing schedule. We do not believe it is sensible to attempt hands on events with large groups.

Other points

If anything is unclear please ask.