Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Are you licensed?

Yes. The City of Calgary requires that a photographer obtain a business license to legally operate a photography business. The licensing procedure requires a background check through the Calgary Police Service and an annual fee.

Q: Are you insured?

Yes. Proper business insurance is vital to the safe and reliable ongoing operation of any business. As a professional photographer the loss of equipment alone due to fire, theft, or other means would not be something that the average person could quickly recover from without insurance. In many cases a loss of this magnitude would be sufficient to put an independent operator out of business. In addition to equipment coverage our commercial policy also provides us with liability protection.

Q: Do I have to pay GST when I commission your services or purchase products?

Yes. The Government of Canada requires that a business with worldwide revenues exceeding $30,000 register with the Canada Revenue Agency to collect GST. GST is payable on all of our products and services and is not included in any of our prices.

Q: Do you use professional equipment?

Yes. With the proliferation of digital photography in recent years it has become very affordable for many people to purchase DSLR camera and equipment at the entry level. We are serious about photography and have invested heavily in professional quality equipment. Not just cameras but also lenses, lighting, and many other accessories which help to ensure professional results of the highest quality. Something you can’t do with consumer grade equipment. Read more about our equipment here.

Q: Do you carry backup equipment?

Yes. Although we don’t maintain duplicates of every piece of equipment that we own there is no single piece of equipment that can fail which will prevent us from doing our job. This is especially important when it comes to weddings where rescheduling to accommodate broken gear is not an option.

Q: What steps do you take to protect my images?

A digital photograph, once it has been created, can not ever be replaced if it is lost. Hardware failures are almost guaranteed and we take digital asset management, storage, and backup very seriously in order to protect our clients memories. Downloading and backup of your images begins immediately after your session or event and we maintain at least two copies of the original digital negatives (RAW files) at all times. Our live storage system is a 4 disc RAID 5 array that offers redundancy protection from a single hard drive failure. Backup copies are additionally burned to Blu-Ray disc and stored off-site.

Q: Do you outsource your post production work?

No, with the exception of  album production. All of our digital post processing is handled in house to meet very specific requirements. Printing, framing, and album design are also completed in house. When it comes to the production of your heirloom wedding album we simply don’t have the tools or the expertise to hand-make an album with the level of quality and craftsmanship our clients expect. For this we trust Queensberry exclusively, makers of some of the most beautiful bespoke albums in the world.

Q: What steps do you take to protect my privacy?

When you commission us to take photographs of you, your family and/or loved ones we understand that the privacy and care with which those photographs are handled and distributed is important. After all, not everyone wants their pictures posted on the internet for the whole world to see. But it’s not only images that are posted to the public internet that we take steps to protect. Because we complete all of our digital post processing in house, as well as all printing (with the exception of album production), you’ll never have to worry about some stranger at a lab having access your photos. The same goes for our private online galleries. Because we maintain and host our own web server we never upload copies of your photos to another machine outside of our network. Once your images are transferred to your private gallery you control who has access via private password. Your images are never made available for download from your private gallery and steps are taken to help prevent copying of files from the web browser. Of course we love to share our work whenever possible so we’ll ask you to sign a model release prior to your session allowing us to use your images on our website, blog, and marketing materials to help promote our business.

Q: How soon in advance can I book you?

We accept bookings for weddings up to 12 months in advance and bookings for portrait sessions up to 3 months in advance.

Q: Do you require a deposit when booking?

For weddings a 50% non-refundable deposit is required along with a signed contract to secure a date with the remainder due no later than 30 days before the wedding date. For portrait sessions your session fee is due at the time of booking.

Q: Will I have to sign a contract to commission you?

Yes. We require a signed contract not only to protect ourselves but also to protect you, our client, by ensuring that the terms of our business arrangement are communicated prior to commencing work and all accountabilities are clearly understood by both parties. In other words we want to make sure that you get everything you paid us for and in return we want to make sure that we get paid for all of the work we do for you. Fair right?

Have a question that you don’t see answered here? Ask me anything or Get in touch.