Terms and Conditions

The agreement

Paaause is a photography studio operated by Paaause Digital, LLC (“Paaause,” “the studio,” “we,” “us,” “our” — and occasionally “I,” because the studio is one person), a business organized in the State of Michigan.

These Terms apply to you when you use this website, and when you book photography with us. Using the Site means you accept the parts that govern the Site. Confirming a booking in writing — by signing a proposal, replying to a confirmation email, or paying a retainer — means you accept all of them.

If you are agreeing on behalf of a company, a firm, or a property owner, you are confirming that you have the authority to do so and that they are bound as well.

Which document wins

A project can be covered by more than one document. If they disagree, this is the order — higher beats lower:

Nothing on a service page, in a quote, or in an email overrides a signed agreement unless we both sign the change. If you are ever unsure which applies, ask — it is a faster conversation than an argument later.

Definitions

Site

The website at www.paaause.com, including any subdomain and any client gallery we operate.

Client

The person or organization that commissions a shoot and is responsible for paying the invoice.

Project

A shoot or series of shoots agreed in writing, together with the editing and delivery that follow.

Images

Photographs and video we make on a Project, in every form — original captures, edited versions, and the delivered files.

Delivered Images

The finished, edited files we hand over in the gallery. These are the only Images the Client is licensed to use.

Subject

A person who appears in an Image, whether or not that person is the Client.

Retainer

The payment that holds a date in the calendar and is credited against the final invoice.

Using this website

You may read the Site, look at the work, and get in touch. That is what it is for.

You may not:

• Copy, download, republish, or redistribute anything from the Site, except for the ordinary browser caching that happens when you view a page
• Scrape, crawl, harvest, or bulk-download the Site or its images by any automated means
• Use anything from the Site to train, fine-tune, or evaluate a machine learning or generative AI model, or supply it to anyone else for that purpose. This is an express reservation of rights, and it applies whether the collection is done by a person, a bot, or a third-party dataset
• Remove or alter any credit, watermark, or copyright notice
• Attempt to interfere with the Site, probe it for vulnerabilities, or get around any security measure
• Use the contact form to send us anything unlawful, abusive, or automated

Anything you send us through the Site — project details, plans, drawings, addresses — you confirm you are entitled to send. We treat it as described in our Privacy Policy.

We try to keep the Site up and current, but we do not promise it will be available without interruption, or that every published rate is the rate that will apply to your project. A quote is a quote; a web page is a web page.

Our work on this site

Every photograph on this Site is ours or is used with permission. So is the writing, the layout, and the name. None of it is stock, and none of it is free to take.

The word mark Paaause. and the studio’s marks are ours. Client names, logos, and buildings that appear in the portfolio belong to the people who own them, and appear here as a record of work done.

If you want to use one of our images — for a press piece, an awards entry, a supplier page — email and ask. The answer is often yes, and it is quicker than you would think.

Booking a shoot

A date is held when we have agreed the scope and the fee in writing and, where a Retainer applies, when that Retainer has been paid. Not before — a date discussed on a call is not a date held.

Scope is what we wrote down. If the job grows on the day — another building, another team, a second location — we can usually do it, and it is quoted and agreed before it is shot rather than appearing on the invoice afterward.

A shot list is a starting position, not a contract. The day is booked as a day, and if the building or the light does something better than what was planned, the plan loses. That is the point of booking it this way.

Moving a date, and calling it off

Weather

Weather is not a cancellation. Interiors carry on regardless. If the light is wrong for an exterior, I come back for it at no charge — a flat grey facade helps nobody. Overcast is not automatically a reschedule; for some buildings it is the better light, and I will say so.

Moving a date

A held date can move once at no charge with at least seven days’ notice. A second move, or a move inside seven days, is subject to availability and may be re-quoted if it pushes the work into a different season, a different stage of the build, or a different rate period.

Cancelling

• More than seven days out. Any Retainer is held as credit toward a rescheduled date within the following 90 days.
• Inside seven days. The Retainer is retained. The date was held for you and is unlikely to be filled.
• On the day, or on arrival. The Retainer is retained, and travel already incurred is invoiced. For work booked without a Retainer, a call-out charge equal to the travel plus half the quoted fee applies.
• Access not available on arrival. Treated as a same-day cancellation, unless we can use the time elsewhere on the site.

If I have to cancel — illness, an equipment failure, a family emergency — you get the date rescheduled at the first opportunity that works for you, or a full refund of anything paid, whichever you prefer. See Section 16.

Access, site conditions, and safety

What you arrange. Access to the property or site at the agreed time, and a name and number for whoever will be at the gate. Any permission needed from an owner, a tenant, a building manager, or an HOA. Somewhere to park within reasonable reach of the work. Power, if the work needs it.

What we bring. Boots, hard hat, vest and glasses travel in the car by default. Site-specific orientation is attended before any gear comes out of the case. A general liability certificate goes to the general contractor on request, naming additional insureds where you need them.

Drone work. Flown under FAA Part 107, with airspace authorization obtained ahead of the visit where the site sits in controlled airspace. If authorization is refused or conditions make a flight unsafe, the flight does not happen and that portion of the fee is not charged. Elevated stills from a mast are available where flight is not.

Styling. Light-touch: clearing a sightline, moving a chair, killing a lamp that fights a window. Full staging is a different trade and a different budget, and we will tell you rather than quietly attempt it.

If a site is unsafe, or if conditions on the day make the agreed work impossible to do properly, we will say so and stop. Time spent on site still counts.

Fees, invoicing, and payment

Fees are as quoted for the Project. Where a Retainer applies it is credited against the final invoice.

The licence follows the payment. The rights described in Section 11 transfer when the invoice is paid in full. Delivered Images may be reviewed before then, but they are not licensed for publication until the account is settled.

Delivery, revisions, and the archive

How many images. However many the day produces. We do not quote image counts, because the moment you do, the last hour on site turns into padding.

Editing. Colour, verticals, and the removal of things that were not there on the day — a stray cable, a reflected light stand. Sky replacement only when asked for, and noted when used. The edit is ours to make; the brief is yours to set.

Revisions. Tell us within 14 days of delivery if something in the edit is wrong and we will fix it. A re-edit to a genuinely new brief is quoted.

The archive. Originals are held for seven years. Re-delivery of any past set is free. After seven years we may delete them, so keep your own copy of anything that matters — the gallery is a delivery mechanism, not your backup.

Copyright and licensing

We hold the copyright. Under US copyright law it sits with the photographer from the moment of capture, and it stays with the studio. That is what lets us show the work. It is not a way to charge you twice.

What your licence covers

On payment in full, you get an unlimited, perpetual, worldwide, non-exclusive licence to use the Delivered Images across your own marketing and operations — website, social media, print, signage, hiring, proposals, decks, submissions, and internal reporting. For a listing, that includes the listing itself and continues after the property sells. You are never charged again to use an image you commissioned.

What it does not cover

• Paid advertising placement and third-party publication — licensed separately and priced per use.
• Onward licensing to trades, suppliers, subcontractors, manufacturers, or publications. They are welcome to license the images; they do it directly with us. This is usually inexpensive and often already priced into the project.
• Resale or sublicensing of the Images as a product, or transfer of the licence to another party, except to a successor of your business.
• Training a machine learning or generative AI model on the Delivered Images, or supplying them to anyone for that purpose.
• Alteration that misrepresents what was photographed — particularly on documentation work, where the archive may later be evidence. Cropping and resizing are fine.

Credit and the portfolio

Credit is appreciated wherever a credit line is normal — press, publication, awards — and not required on your own marketing.

We may show the work in our portfolio, on social media, in printed materials, and in competition and awards submissions. If a project is under embargo, confidential, or commercially sensitive, tell us and we will hold it until you say otherwise. See Section 17.

People and property

Releases. We collect a model release from anyone identifiable, on the day. Anyone who would rather not be photographed does not have to be, and that is never a problem. For a Subject under 18, a parent or guardian signs.

Notice on your side. Where we are photographing an occupied property or an active job site, you are responsible for telling occupants, employees, and trades that a photographer will be there. We cannot give that notice for you, and it matters more than it sounds.

Permission to photograph. You confirm you have the right to permit photography at the location, and that you have any consent needed from owners, tenants, or managing agents. If a location turns out to require a permit or a fee we were not told about, that cost is yours.

Belongings and artwork. Tell us before the shoot about anything that must not appear — artwork under its own copyright, proprietary equipment, security features, a neighbour’s property. It is far easier to not shoot something than to remove it afterward.

Taking an image down. A Subject can ask us to remove an image of them from anything we control, and we will, ordinarily within 30 days. The limits on that are set out in the Privacy Policy — principally that we cannot recall what a client or a publication has already published.

What each of us promises

We promise to perform the work with the care and skill of a competent professional photographer; to carry general liability insurance and provide a certificate on request; to hold the appropriate certifications for the work, including Part 107 for flight; and to deliver within the turnaround stated for the service.

You promise that the information you give us is accurate, that you have the authority and permissions described above, and that you will pay the invoice on time.

What we do not promise. Photography is a craft practised in conditions nobody controls. We do not guarantee any specific frame, a particular composition, that a given person will photograph the way they hope, or that weather, light, site conditions, or a change on your end will permit everything discussed. If the work is not up to standard, the remedy is a reshoot of the affected work, or a refund of the fee for it — our choice, made in good faith.

Except as stated here, the Services and the Site are provided as is, and we disclaim all other warranties to the extent the law allows, including implied warranties of merchantability, fitness for a particular purpose, and non-infringement.

Limits on liability

To the fullest extent the law allows, our total liability arising out of or relating to a Project, the Site, or these Terms is limited to the fees you paid us for the Project the claim relates to.

We are not liable for indirect, incidental, special, or consequential losses — lost profits, lost sales, a delayed listing, a missed submission deadline, or loss of data — even where we were told they were possible.

Nothing in these Terms limits liability that cannot lawfully be limited, including liability for death or personal injury caused by negligence, or for fraud.

Indemnity

You will cover us against claims, damages, and reasonable costs arising from your breach of these Terms, from your use of the Delivered Images beyond the licence granted, from a lack of permission or consent you told us you had, or from conditions at a location you arranged access to. We will tell you promptly about any such claim and let you take the lead in handling it, and we will not settle it without your agreement.

When things go wrong on our side

Neither of us is liable for a failure caused by something genuinely outside our control — severe weather, fire, flood, illness, a site closure, an act of government, or a failure of infrastructure. The obligation is paused, not cancelled, and we reschedule.

If we cannot make a date, we will tell you as early as we can and offer the first alternative that works for you, or a full refund of everything paid, whichever you prefer. On a job that cannot move, we will help find another photographer, though we cannot guarantee one will be free.

If files are lost before delivery through equipment or storage failure, the remedy is a reshoot at no charge, or a full refund. Original captures are backed up on the day of the shoot for exactly this reason. This is the one risk in photography that cannot be fully engineered away, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest.

Confidentiality and embargo

Drawings, plans, schedules, tenant information, unreleased projects, and anything else you share that is obviously not public stay confidential. We do not pass them on, and we do not use them for anything other than the Project.

If a project is embargoed — an unannounced building, a listing not yet live, a rebrand not yet launched — tell us the date it lifts and nothing goes into the portfolio or onto social media until then. If no date is given, we will assume publication is fine once the work is delivered and the property or project is publicly known.

If we disagree

Talk first. Before either of us starts a formal proceeding, we agree to write to the other describing the problem and what would resolve it, and to spend 30 days trying to sort it out directly. Most disagreements about a photograph are resolved by looking at the photograph together.

Changes to these Terms

We may update these Terms. The current version is always on this page with its date at the top, and it applies to Site use from the moment it is posted. For a booked Project, the version in force when you confirmed the booking is the one that governs it — we do not change the terms of a job underneath you.

General

• Governing law. The laws of the State of Michigan, without regard to conflict-of-laws rules.
• Entire agreement. These Terms, together with any signed proposal and our Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between us on this subject and replace anything discussed beforehand.
• Severability. If any part is held unenforceable, the rest stands and that part is narrowed only as far as necessary.
• No waiver. If we do not enforce something once, we have not given up the right to enforce it later.
• Assignment. You may not assign these Terms without our written consent, except to a successor of your business. We may assign them to a successor of the studio.
• Independent contractor. We work as an independent contractor. Nothing here creates an employment relationship, a partnership, or a joint venture, and the Images are not works made for hire.
• Notices. Legal notices to us go to the address in Section 21. Notices to you go to the email or address on the Project record.
• Survival. The sections on licensing, confidentiality, liability, indemnity, and disputes continue to apply after a Project ends.