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Without prejudice I've always wondered why a reputable wedding photographer who can at least take half way decent pictures and actually give a client what they want, needs to pass themselves off as someone else's business or even need to have dozens of web sites under various names to actually get your business. If you happen to find some defamation about me and my family in retaliation for this page ...left over from newsgroup slander posted by a rival of mine whom I exposed for his change of name and Centrelink fraud ... Report it's location to me and I'll send you a gift voucher. Send me the swine's current name and current address... I'll pay you $1000 cash reward the day the summons is served on him. True. The money is in my solicitors trust fund. It's unclaimed since 2005. 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 or "Award winning Wedding photographers" but if I did, my insurance company would probably withdraw my indemnity. 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 Weddings" magazine... An ethical publication dedicated to promoting "Planning Weddings" and providing articles intended to save reader's money. Our magazine promotes 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' and "BRISBANE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS" when they are little better than hobby shooters or moonlighting office workers who bought a Professional looking camera, but at least I can alert you to their activities. Lack of Qualifications. In Australia 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 or another time took money for doing it, the title can be legally applied. What is not so easy to substantiate is claiming you are "Qualified" or "Accredited" because this suggests an authority of some sort, a Government or educational 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 without such documentation is that the person you are paying to photograph your wedding has some sort of reputation in the community that they are what they claim to be. Many wedding photographers rely on their reputation alone and have no qualification. Some do extremely well too. Impersonating an established business. There's nothing wrong with a photographer saying they are a Brisbane wedding photographer. Everyone who has ever taken a wedding photo and lives in Brisbane can legitimately claim this. Where shonky operators cross the line is in claiming to be "Brisbane Wedding Photographers" It is criminal fraud to apply the plural (photographers) to describe their business whilst trading as an individual. Any individual wedding photographer calling their business (their website) "Brisbane Wedding Photographers" or "weddings and portraits" or any close names without any legal or moral right to pass themselves off as the legitimate business that owns and trades under those names is engaging in false and misleading advertising. One such impersonator even has a button on his website that says "Brisbane wedding photographers" whilst trading under the name of a rodent film maker! 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 and at every place of business used by the firm. Then you can search for all 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. At the end of it all... "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 our 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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