Frequently Asked Questions
1) Do I need to give you a deposit to secure your services?
It depends. If you would like to secure our services to take photos of a single subject in their particular activity, at a set time and place, then yes, a prepayment/booking fee is required. This is to cover our losses should you cancel without providing adequate notice, and leave us with a missed opportunity to book with another client. See Refunds under the "pricing" tab.
If you are the Team or Club Manager wanting to have a single competition or an entire event captured, then call us to discuss a variety of options.
2) How many people will receive the private link to access my hi res photos?
For the photoshoot of a single subject, GASP Photographics will only ever send the private link of the grid-watermarked images, to you, the single client.
For a team photoshoot, the Team Manager will receive the watermarked images link from us via email. They will then forward that link, to all the team members (18 or older) or their parents for review, ending their involvement with the rest of the process.
All team members would be able to see all the other team members' grid watermarked images. This provides a greater level of privacy for the members, as compared to a public gallery.
3) How do I receive the photos after the shoot?
GASP Photographics will provide the Client (you, if it is a single player photoshoot) or the Team Manager (if it is a team or club photoshoot) with a private link and pswd to review the watermarked images.
You will then specify the images (by file #) you want to purchase, in an email to us. Once full payment, or the remaining balance (including HST) has been received, you will be given access to the corner-watermarked, higher resolution digital files you selected, for you to download. You will also receive an individual invoice pdf document, marked paid. See our photography page under the "pricing" tab.
4) I shared the private link and pswd I was sent, with someone by mistake. Now what?
If you are concerned that someone may have been given access to the gallery containing the grid-watermarked images of your child, just call or send us an email. We will deactivate that link and provide you with another one. To avoid this, only attach image files that you download from us, in your correspondence with others. Do not attach the link and pswd.
5) Can I elect to buy additional images at a later date?
Yes, the Client may purchase additional digital image files at any time after the initial order has been paid in full. Click here. NOTE: Images may no longer remain available (i.e. the original link will expire) 6 months after the photos were initially made available.
7) Can another photographer take photos if you are the Official Photographer?
That would depend upon the terms agreed to between the Team Manager or Event Organizer (EO) AND the Official Photographer (OP).
Quite often a photographer will pay an exclusivity or vendor fee to the organization, or a percentage share in the sales of the images sold in a private or public gallery, for the exclusive rights to sell the images taken at the event. In return, the organization will declare them the OP, and prohibit other professional photographers from capturing and later selling photos of the same event.
The OP themselves may have authorized a secondary photographer, to work under their direction, with their own set of terms.
There may also be photographers at the event representing the media. Photos taken for the media are intended to be published on a news/sports service platform only. They cannot be sold, or used for any other commercial purpose, or made available for download for free, without written permission from the EO, provided that permission does not void the contract they have with the OP.
Permission may often be granted however, for the photos to be displayed on the photographer’s website or social media, provided they are compressed (reduced resolution), and/or obtrusively watermarked (i.e. preventing a high quality image from being freely available to download or copy)
It is unfair to the OP who has negotiated an exclusive right to photograph an event, to allow other photographers to take their own photos and sell them in direct competition with the OP, who may have trouble breaking even as it is, since profits based on speculation are never guaranteed.
Although it is likely that a lone OP would not be able to guarantee the same number of high quality photos, specifically of only you (adult participant) or your child, (e.g. if the OP was under contract to photograph the entire team), another photographer cannot assume an exception would be made for them, hence the need to get permission from the EO.
If we were the other photographer, we will ask you, the client, to get this written permission from the EO, prior to paying your deposit to us, to avoid the situation in which we later find out that permission was not received, and the photoshoot for you had to be cancelled and a refund issued. The EO does not want to risk having to refund the OP because they allowed another professional photographer to take a sell photos.
There are seldom any restrictions against photographers using non-professional grade cameras (e.g. point-and-shoot) or professional cameras with detachable lenses 50mm or less. Flashes are seldom allowed. See Pros and Cons of having an Official Photographer.
Letting the EO know in advance is also the courteous thing to do, even if there is not an OP designated for the event, so that, should they be approached during an event with questions about the photographer that is on site, they will not be caught off guard.
8) Can a photographer sell a picture of me without my permission?
NO. If you are both the primary subject of the photograph, and you are clearly identifiable in it, then a photographer requires your written permission to sell the photo. This deters the photographer from selling the photo to anyone other than you, the Client. An exception to this, is if you belong to an organization, club or team, and the Team Manager/Event Organizer, your parent, or legal guardian responsible for looking out for your best interests, provides us with written permission on your behalf.
(see Waiver under the menu tab named "W's")
Similarly, the Client is also NOT permitted to sell an image we have taken without our written permission. And, if you share a digital image we took, with a journalistic organization that wishes to publish it as part of an article in a printed or online service, we would certainly appreciate you informing the organization, that GASP Photographics is the author and copyright holder of the image, so that the proper photo credit can be given.
9) Will my photo ever appear on your website or social media?
We will often request your permission to display your photo or video on our website or social media, either in a public (not for sale) gallery or slideshow, or appearing as a colour-screened background image, or even our homepage, if it represents a genre we have not previously displayed here, or to simply renew our content. Your Organization's Executive, or Team Manager, may also provide this permission on your behalf.
We remain very appreciative to every individual who continues to allow us to do this because it helps us to illustrate the variety and quality of our images. If at any time, a person no longer wants their photos displayed, they can simply send us their request, and we will either have the photo removed (or the person of interest masked out) as soon as possible, along with our gratitude for the time it was used.
10) Can someone copy my photo from your website and use it elsewhere?
GASP Photographics is the author and copyright owner of each photo taken. Copying and using any photos from this site would be an infringement of our copyright. The right click and copy method has therefore been blocked, but there are some individuals who are not supportive of the photography industry, who will use some other screen capture method to obtain an image, or attempt to remove the watermark, if they put their mind to it.
Because of this, the image size displayed is a much lower resolution than the original image resolution provided to you the Client, and/or it has been obtrusively watermarked. If this remains a concern, then it is likely you won't allow us to use your image on our site.
11) Do you offer a fine arts print service?
GASP Photographics is not in the photo printing service per say, rather we specialize in providing our Clients with the edited digital file we have taken, so they may share or pursue their own specific printing requests from local photo labs or photo kiosks of their choosing. We find this is the preferred method by Clients, rather than paying processing fees to us each time a new print is requested.
We will consider offering prints (at an excellent price), if the organization is committed to purchasing a minimum quantity, and agrees to submitting all orders within 1 month after the on-line images are made available for viewing. Contact us to discuss further. We do offer large format prints as part of our Posters package.
One thing to note is that most photo labs will not manually process an image that contains a watermark, even an inconspicuous corner watermark, (or at least they shouldn't) unless you agree to their terms, which includes confirmation you have obtained prior permission from the copyright holder. This is usually as simple as checking an agreement box at their kiosk, prior to choosing your images to print.
Contact us if you are interested in a large format print of an image we have taken, or would like special edits, watermark removals, or custom sizing etc.