Terms and Conditions (Photography Experiences Booking)
All photography courses, workshops and photo days, i.e. photography experiences, organised by Big Cat & Nature Photography are subject to the following Terms and Conditions. By booking any of our photography experiences, you confirm that you have read and accepted these terms and conditions
Please contact us via info@bigcatphotography.co.uk if you have any questions, or ask our staff.
Booking Process
All of our photo experiences can be booked via our web page (www.bigcatphotography.co.uk). The booking process is launched through the completion of the booking enquiry form for the photography workshop or photo day, you would like to attend. Unless the web page indicates limited availability, you can proceed directly to reserve or secure your space/s through a payment (click on the ‘Payment Link’ in the confirmation message).
Your place on the selected photography experience will be reserved through the payment of the deposit, or respectively it will be secured and confirmed when you pay the fee for the photography experience in full. The completion of the booking enquiry form alone does not guarantee a place on the selected photography experience (we will block the space only for a maximum of 48 hours; only 24 hours when submitting the enquiry less than 4 weeks prior to the photo day/workshop).
All photography experiences must be booked and confirmed as such in advance. As our photography experiences are generally tailored for small groups, and as arrangements for the day are made with the venues prior to the event date, we are unfortunately unable to accept bookings or participants joining us on the day.
Payments can be made online either by Credit or Debit Card or via PayPal (please click on the 'Payment Link' in the green message box that comes up after you have submitted the booking form). Alternatively, if you prefer to pay via bank transfer (BACS), please provide us with your contact details in the 'Pay offline' box.
If bookings are made well in advance of the photography experience date (more than 4 weeks prior to the event), reservations can be made for the photography experiences by paying a deposit. The deposit will be 50% of the photography experience fee (for the 3-part online photography workshop) or £50 (please note that the 30-minutes or 1-hour long Online Photography Tuition and Support Sessions will need to be paid for in full at the time of booking).
The deposit is not refundable and not transferable to another booking, unless otherwise agreed in advance (costs directly associated with your booking will however always be retained). This applies to all photography experience bookings.
The full fee is due 4 weeks prior to the photography experience date. If the full payment is still outstanding 28 days prior to the event, the reservation will no longer be guaranteed, i.e. the place may be given to a fully paying customer, if we have not received your payment and have not heard from you. Due to limited resources we are unfortunately unable to follow-up on outstanding payments and rely on our customers to make the full payment to secure their spaces.
Depending on the venue, age restriction may apply, e.g. some venues apply a minimum age of 16 years. Please enquire at the time of booking whether age restrictions are imposed by the venue of your choice. Our staff will advise about age restriction and other requirements for the photography experience participation by minors.
Due to the nature of our photography experiences and the fact that some of our venues are not open to the public, there are restrictions in view of bringing guests along. Please check with our staff before bringing a partner, friend or other family members along. This is not necessary for public venues like Colchester Zoo as partners, friends and family members can of course visit the venue on the same day.
Your booking will be confirmed in writing, generally via e-mail, once we have received the full payment. With the confirmation, you will receive a provisional programme for the photography experience, including a brief recommendation regarding camera equipment and direction to the venue.
Once photography experience bookings are confirmed for a specified person, these are not transferable to another person. Photography experiences can however be booked in form of gift vouchers. Gift vouchers have to be paid in full at the time of purchase. The vouchers are numbered and can be made out for a particular photography experience date. Alternatively, gift vouchers can be issued for a 'date to be confirmed' and the recipient of a gift voucher will need to contact Big Cat & Nature Photography to book a date and venue for the appropriate event. This booking will then be confirmed in writing as outlined above.
If not made out for a specific photography experience date, gift vouchers are being issued with a specified expiry date (usually a year from the day of purchase) and will need to be redeemed before this date. If in exceptional circumstances the voucher holder will be unable to attend the specified photography workshop or photo day date or any of the dates available for the specific photography experience before the expiry date, Big Cat & Nature Photography will try to help the voucher holder to attend the photography experience at a later date. However, this will need to be discussed and confirmed at least 4 weeks prior to the event or expiry date, and an extension will only be possible for a maximum of 6 months. Any changes to gift voucher details (date and/or venue) are subject to an administration fee of £25 and the voucher holder will need to pay also any costs resulting from the changes, e.g. an increased venue fee.
Cancellation and/or Postponing
A photography experience can be cancelled within the first 24 hours after it has been confirmed in writing, but the fee will not be refundable after this. It may be possible to reschedule your booking to another photography experience date once, if the photography experience participant / gift voucher holder notifies Big Cat & Nature Photography that he/she won't be able to attend on the booked day at least 4 weeks prior to the photography experience date. The re-arranged photography experience date will need to be within 6 months, following the originally booked date. Any changes to the original booking are subject to an administration fee of £25, and the photography experience participant/s will need to pay any costs resulting from the changes, e.g. an increased venue fee. Please note that postponing the attendance on a photography experience date is possible only once.
Furthermore, please be advised that participants, who simply do not come on the day, are considered to have cancelled their attendance and they will not be able to reschedule their attendance without full payment.
Big Cat & Nature Photography reserves the right to postpone photography experiences, if circumstances (weather or other reasons) may make the photography experiences unsafe for participants, the animals and/or the staff at the wildlife venue. We will endeavour to avoid postponing events by changing the programme to ensure safety, but we will not risk the safety of our customers, the animals and/or staff at the wildlife venues. Postponing photography experiences or making significant programme changes will be advised in writing (usually by e-mail). We hope that this will not occur, but if circumstances arise, which make photography experiences unsafe, it is possible that we will need to postpone photography experience at short notice. In this cases, we will work with the participants to enable them to join the same photography experience on another day.
Besides limiting the maximum number of participants on photography experience generally to 4 (specified for each photography experience type), Big Cat & Nature Photography is applying also a minimum number of 2 participants to most of our photography experiences. If a photography workshop or photo day has less than 2 participants two weeks prior to the event, we may decide to cancel the event and will offer our customers either a rescheduling of their booking or a refund of the full fee.
As photography experiences are financially only viable with a minimum number of 2 participants, any cancellations by customers 4 weeks or less prior to the event date will lead to the loss of the possibility to reschedule the attendance to another photography experience at a later date unless we will be able to refill the space at such short notice.
Photography Workshop and Photo Day Venues
Big Cat & Nature Photography offers photography experiences at a number of venues. These venues will provide our customers and us with access to their animals’ enclosures to different degrees and sometimes access to wildlife in its natural habitat directly. In all cases, customers need to make sure they are aware of the health and safety rules at the wildlife venue and that they are following these at all times.
Big Cat & Nature Photography cannot be held responsible for any injuries or damage, resulting from negligent behaviour of participants and/or participants not following instructions of the health and safety briefing, provided by our and/or the venue's staff.
Photography experience participants are solely responsible for their personal belongings and need to make sure that they keep them either on themselves at all times or store them in a safe place. Big Cat & Nature Photography may be able to advise on storage facilities, but they cannot be hold responsible for any loss or damage that is not due to their neglect.
Please contact us via info@bigcatphotography.co.uk if you have any questions, or ask our staff.
Booking Process
All of our photo experiences can be booked via our web page (www.bigcatphotography.co.uk). The booking process is launched through the completion of the booking enquiry form for the photography workshop or photo day, you would like to attend. Unless the web page indicates limited availability, you can proceed directly to reserve or secure your space/s through a payment (click on the ‘Payment Link’ in the confirmation message).
Your place on the selected photography experience will be reserved through the payment of the deposit, or respectively it will be secured and confirmed when you pay the fee for the photography experience in full. The completion of the booking enquiry form alone does not guarantee a place on the selected photography experience (we will block the space only for a maximum of 48 hours; only 24 hours when submitting the enquiry less than 4 weeks prior to the photo day/workshop).
All photography experiences must be booked and confirmed as such in advance. As our photography experiences are generally tailored for small groups, and as arrangements for the day are made with the venues prior to the event date, we are unfortunately unable to accept bookings or participants joining us on the day.
Payments can be made online either by Credit or Debit Card or via PayPal (please click on the 'Payment Link' in the green message box that comes up after you have submitted the booking form). Alternatively, if you prefer to pay via bank transfer (BACS), please provide us with your contact details in the 'Pay offline' box.
If bookings are made well in advance of the photography experience date (more than 4 weeks prior to the event), reservations can be made for the photography experiences by paying a deposit. The deposit will be 50% of the photography experience fee (for the 3-part online photography workshop) or £50 (please note that the 30-minutes or 1-hour long Online Photography Tuition and Support Sessions will need to be paid for in full at the time of booking).
The deposit is not refundable and not transferable to another booking, unless otherwise agreed in advance (costs directly associated with your booking will however always be retained). This applies to all photography experience bookings.
The full fee is due 4 weeks prior to the photography experience date. If the full payment is still outstanding 28 days prior to the event, the reservation will no longer be guaranteed, i.e. the place may be given to a fully paying customer, if we have not received your payment and have not heard from you. Due to limited resources we are unfortunately unable to follow-up on outstanding payments and rely on our customers to make the full payment to secure their spaces.
Depending on the venue, age restriction may apply, e.g. some venues apply a minimum age of 16 years. Please enquire at the time of booking whether age restrictions are imposed by the venue of your choice. Our staff will advise about age restriction and other requirements for the photography experience participation by minors.
Due to the nature of our photography experiences and the fact that some of our venues are not open to the public, there are restrictions in view of bringing guests along. Please check with our staff before bringing a partner, friend or other family members along. This is not necessary for public venues like Colchester Zoo as partners, friends and family members can of course visit the venue on the same day.
Your booking will be confirmed in writing, generally via e-mail, once we have received the full payment. With the confirmation, you will receive a provisional programme for the photography experience, including a brief recommendation regarding camera equipment and direction to the venue.
Once photography experience bookings are confirmed for a specified person, these are not transferable to another person. Photography experiences can however be booked in form of gift vouchers. Gift vouchers have to be paid in full at the time of purchase. The vouchers are numbered and can be made out for a particular photography experience date. Alternatively, gift vouchers can be issued for a 'date to be confirmed' and the recipient of a gift voucher will need to contact Big Cat & Nature Photography to book a date and venue for the appropriate event. This booking will then be confirmed in writing as outlined above.
If not made out for a specific photography experience date, gift vouchers are being issued with a specified expiry date (usually a year from the day of purchase) and will need to be redeemed before this date. If in exceptional circumstances the voucher holder will be unable to attend the specified photography workshop or photo day date or any of the dates available for the specific photography experience before the expiry date, Big Cat & Nature Photography will try to help the voucher holder to attend the photography experience at a later date. However, this will need to be discussed and confirmed at least 4 weeks prior to the event or expiry date, and an extension will only be possible for a maximum of 6 months. Any changes to gift voucher details (date and/or venue) are subject to an administration fee of £25 and the voucher holder will need to pay also any costs resulting from the changes, e.g. an increased venue fee.
Cancellation and/or Postponing
A photography experience can be cancelled within the first 24 hours after it has been confirmed in writing, but the fee will not be refundable after this. It may be possible to reschedule your booking to another photography experience date once, if the photography experience participant / gift voucher holder notifies Big Cat & Nature Photography that he/she won't be able to attend on the booked day at least 4 weeks prior to the photography experience date. The re-arranged photography experience date will need to be within 6 months, following the originally booked date. Any changes to the original booking are subject to an administration fee of £25, and the photography experience participant/s will need to pay any costs resulting from the changes, e.g. an increased venue fee. Please note that postponing the attendance on a photography experience date is possible only once.
Furthermore, please be advised that participants, who simply do not come on the day, are considered to have cancelled their attendance and they will not be able to reschedule their attendance without full payment.
Big Cat & Nature Photography reserves the right to postpone photography experiences, if circumstances (weather or other reasons) may make the photography experiences unsafe for participants, the animals and/or the staff at the wildlife venue. We will endeavour to avoid postponing events by changing the programme to ensure safety, but we will not risk the safety of our customers, the animals and/or staff at the wildlife venues. Postponing photography experiences or making significant programme changes will be advised in writing (usually by e-mail). We hope that this will not occur, but if circumstances arise, which make photography experiences unsafe, it is possible that we will need to postpone photography experience at short notice. In this cases, we will work with the participants to enable them to join the same photography experience on another day.
Besides limiting the maximum number of participants on photography experience generally to 4 (specified for each photography experience type), Big Cat & Nature Photography is applying also a minimum number of 2 participants to most of our photography experiences. If a photography workshop or photo day has less than 2 participants two weeks prior to the event, we may decide to cancel the event and will offer our customers either a rescheduling of their booking or a refund of the full fee.
As photography experiences are financially only viable with a minimum number of 2 participants, any cancellations by customers 4 weeks or less prior to the event date will lead to the loss of the possibility to reschedule the attendance to another photography experience at a later date unless we will be able to refill the space at such short notice.
Photography Workshop and Photo Day Venues
Big Cat & Nature Photography offers photography experiences at a number of venues. These venues will provide our customers and us with access to their animals’ enclosures to different degrees and sometimes access to wildlife in its natural habitat directly. In all cases, customers need to make sure they are aware of the health and safety rules at the wildlife venue and that they are following these at all times.
Big Cat & Nature Photography cannot be held responsible for any injuries or damage, resulting from negligent behaviour of participants and/or participants not following instructions of the health and safety briefing, provided by our and/or the venue's staff.
Photography experience participants are solely responsible for their personal belongings and need to make sure that they keep them either on themselves at all times or store them in a safe place. Big Cat & Nature Photography may be able to advise on storage facilities, but they cannot be hold responsible for any loss or damage that is not due to their neglect.