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Wedding Photography... Be careful who you do business with. I would dearly love to name the people I know who are passing themselves off as Wedding photographers and "Award winning Wedding photographers" but if I did, my insurance company would probably withdraw my coverage. The next best thing I can do is warn intending wedding photography clients about dishonest practices being used to lure them away from the photographers they can depend on. Here, I'll tell you what you really should do before you part with thousands of dollars for wedding photography. I won't go into the far too frequent tales of woe I hear from distressed couples who have approached us in our capacity as publishers of "planning for Weddings" magazine... An ethical publication dedicated to promoting "Planning Weddings" magazines and Expos. Ventures that themselves promote honest and ethical suppliers in the industry ...I can't guarantee this information will protect you from being ripped off by shonky operators passing themselves off as 'wedding photographers' when they are little better than hobby shooters who bought a Professional looking camera, but at least I can alert you to their activities. Lack of Qualifications. Anyone can call themselves a photographer, an accountant or a technician without having a single shred of evidence to support their claim. Anyone can put the word "Professional" in front of any of those words and as long as they at one time took money for doing it, the title can be legally applied. What is not so easy to do is claim to be "Qualified" or "Accredited" because this suggests an authority or Government or institute has passed judgment as to your ability and issued documentation attesting to your claim to be a 'qualified' or 'accredited' photographer. The only protection you have that person you are paying to photograph your wedding is likely to understand how to structure and produce an acceptable wedding photography package. Impersonating an established business. There's nothing wrong with a wedding photographer saying they are a Brisbane wedding photographer but everything in the world wrong in calling their business (their website) "Brisbane Wedding Photographers" or "weddings and portraits" or close names without any legal or moral right to pass themselves off as the business owning those names. One such impersonator even has a button on his website that says "Brisbane wedding photographers" but doesn't bother with having a legally registered business (of any name) to trade with. I shudder at the thought of the nightmare a client would have trying to get a complaint resolved. Several have come to us with their complaints thinking the imposter was actually us. Australian business regulations - The Australian Trade Practices Act requires anyone promoting themselves as a business, to have a legally registered business name or incorporated company and display that information prominently on their website. If it isn't there, it really is "BUYER BEWARE" if you plan on doing business with them. Likewise, there is no law preventing someone from trading with their name. "JOE SMITH" is a quite legal name to be in business under (if it's yours) but add a description to it JOE SMITH Photographer, and you need to be registered with the Government. It is also illegal to register a .com.au domain name (a commercial Australian domain) without having a business or company or ABN to qualify you as a business and that business needs to have a close tie to the domain name. Personal sites must be registered using different domain credentials. So how do you tell the crooks from the ethical traders? Follow these few steps before you sign anything or part with your money and you can be assured of at least being able to get compensation in the case of a disaster caused by your photographer. Adopt the attitude "it couldn't possibly happen to me", and you are asking for trouble. I might point out that photography is not the only part of the wedding industry to have more than it's fair share of crooked traders, either. First thing is to discover is if "Ronnie B" (a fictitious name) actually has a legal business identity. Do this by asking for their Australian Business number (ABN) - which incidentally is required by law to be displayed in every advertisement, solicitation, letter contract or communication. Then you can search for their business identities here. Shonky operators who want to keep from you as much identity information as they can, will not comply with this law. The link above is to the Australian Business register where everyone in Australia who is in business must register. If they are not there, go and look for another photographer. You also need to find out if the person seeking money from you to photograph your wedding has any accreditation or qualifications as a photographer. Some very good photographers never underwent formal training. Before ever they start to promote themselves as wedding photographers, they should have taken steps to become "accredited" by a recognized institute or educational body... Ask yourself; 'If not, why not'? In Australia the Australian Institute of Professional Photography (AIPP) is just one body offering accreditation. Their standards for accrediting a wedding photographer are about as basic as it gets with at least two other photographers already accredited by them, needing to have seen a complete wedding album and satisfy themselves the photos are of a reasonable quality, competent composition and suitability for a wedding. Another emerging organization which Ryadia's directors are founding members of, is "Certified Professional Photographers of Australia" ... www.CPPA.org.au. It is all too easy for crooked and shonky operators to lift the logo from one of these sites and use it to promote themselves ...in the process of this, committing fraud. At this writing, CPPA was in the process of obtaining Government accreditation as an Industry trainer, able to provide qualification recognized as provided by a qualified trainer. Eventually, this organization will in all probability be considered in the same light as the accountants CPA qualification. For now... Check and see if the person telling you they are a fully accredited member of an organization, actually is: http://www.aipp.com.au/aipphome.php?cat=Find is where you can use the search engine to see if the person you are doing business with is an emerging or fully accredited member (or even a member at all). Both are allowed to use the APPI logo but only one (fully accredited category) has ever been judged as having the most basic of basic ability to provide acceptable results. CPPA will respond the same day to any member verification request. The next thing is to ask for the name of and the policy number of the photographer's indemnity insurance provider. This is not their public liability insurance which pretty much everyone has, even for their home but a policy that could result in you getting compensation for a botched job. There is no way I know of to look up on-line to see if they have one so seeing the actual policy or getting the insurer's name and policy number is the only way to verify it's existence. Maybe by now you're asking yourself why do you need to do all this stuff. After all we've got consumer affairs, haven't we? Here's just one example of why you should be vigilant. A true story with a few details changed to protect the innocent. Let's say a plumber decided his new digital camera is pretty good stuff and setting himself up as a wedding photographer is looking like a lot of fun and profitable way to spend a weekend. He uses his plumber's ABN to register a domain name very close to the business name of a reputable and qualified photographer, so close, even the reputable photographer's friends think it is him, presuming he might have fallen on hard times when they see the imposter driving around with the identical domain name of the photographer's business on the back window of his old car. So lets assume you too, think the imposter is the real qualified photographer and you sign up for a wedding photography package. Thinking in the process, you've saved a grand or so. On the wedding day the imposter who has no knowledge of animal behavior or any real photographic skill, fires his flash into the eyes of one of the horses pulling the carriage with you and your father in it. The horse rears up in fright and turns the buggy over, dropping you and dad unceremoniously on the road with the carriage on top of you. The wedding is halted as you are both rushed off to hospital. A terrible tragedy both physically and financially when your $15,000 reception is abandoned. If the imposter was actually the real photographer you though you were doing business with, you'd at least be able to recover your expenses and restage the wedding and reception... Covered by Professional Indemnity Insurance (PII). But what happens when you discover the imposter ...who was just trying to make a few bucks on the side, doesn't have any insurance and he's broke so suing him is just "sending good money after bad"? I know this sounds a little elaborate and maybe even far fetched but I assure you... Such a scenario actually happened close to Brisbane a few years ago. Worse... A repeat is a very likely possibility if you don't take steps to make sure who you are doing business with is actually an ethical and honest business person or company. Ryadia Pty Ltd is the name of Douglas St James-Macdonald's Australian incorporated company. The company publish 'planning weddings' magazine and promote wedding expos for ethical suppliers. Ryadia also owns some photography venture companies. One of which manufactures Wedding Albums and produces up to life size canvas prints for other photographers. WeddingsNportraits (not someone claiming they are because they registered a web site called weddingsandportraits). Is owned by Douglas and is his personal wedding and portrait photography business. Douglas is a fully qualified (Victorian Government qualified) "Tradesman" photographer, a fully accredited member of the AIPP and the founding chairman of CPPA. Find out more about Douglas from Adobe - the corporation responsible for Photoshop, no less. https://www.photographersdirectory.adobe.com/default.aspx or use the AIPP "find a photographer" search http://www.aipp.com.au/aipphome.php?cat=Find Just fill in the form details and search. Brisbane wedding photographers is the only legally registered business in Australia able to trade under that name. describing your website as "Brisbane Wedding Photographers" when your business is called something else is impersonation, some might call it fraud but in all seriousness... If the photographer you have under consideration is good enough to photograph your wedding, why then would they need to try and pass off their business website as that of one of Brisbane's most successful wedding photographers? Remember always... "If a price seems too good to be true, it probably is"! Why not save yourself the time and effort searching for ethical professionals to help you plan your wedding by visiting one of Ryadia's 'planning weddings' expos or pick up a copy of 'planning weddings' magazine? Each and every advertiser and exhibitor has passed to ethics test and agreed to meet a level of commitment for your wedding that any business owned by Ryadia has adopted since inception.
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