Event photography requires contract?

<p>A college fraternity wants a formal dinner covered and is paying a little bit. I'm mostly doing this for fun / experience / try something new.</p>

<p>Do I need a contract for this event? If so, does anybody have a template they can provide?</p>

<p>I'm expecting the answer is a yes, and most likely the contract will be similar to a typical wedding contract to protect myself from liability and indemnity. Just keep in mind I'm just another college student asked to shoot their dinner.</p>

<p>If you are accepting money, and delivering a product, you need a contract, of some kind. It doesn't have to be full of legalese. But it must spell out what you will do, what you will deliver, and how much and when you will get paid.</p>

<p>Remember experience is what we get when we don't get what we want.</p>

<p><Chas></p>

<p>What charles said.</p>

<p>If concerned about liability or indemnity issues, you should consider getting insurance and/or spending some quality time with an attorney in your area. This is probably a good idea to consider for other activities as well as this event, especially when approaching this as a business.</p>

<p>I'd agree you should have a written description of payment terms, deliverable items, schedule for delivery, etc., and a simple descriptive document is probably suitable for that. You may also want to be sure you have described the "ownership" issues when it comes to copyright and the rights you license to the customer(s). I'd think that is probably fairly straight forward - but may require negotiation - don't expect that they will understand the impact or import of licensing and they may expect/desire complete rights to the images. While many photographers don't like doing that, it's up to you. I'm assuming you aren't interested in building a portfolio or trying to sell or use any of the images. There's a degree of difficulty in acquiring and tracking releases from the attendees of someone else's event while shooting it yourself so your options may be somewhat constrained anyways.</p>

 

<p>If you fail to plan, then you're planning to fail. A contract is for unanticipated problems, so do your research and put one together as terms for accepting every assignment...-Aimee</p>

<p>H.Ting,<br>

A contract makes for an agreeable arrangement--create a contract. Get party member to sign press releases,even if the photos will be used for their private pleasure and get paid. A formal dinner....Former meaning,not just a bunch of guys sitting around the keg drinking beer down...Even if they just paid you say...5 bucks,by taking that little bit of money it implies that you are willing to do a lotta of the work--and there's bound to be trouble if you don't agree on what you plan to do and how much money and/or time you will spend taking the photos and printing them etc. Don't be fooled by the comradership of the whole thing--the undercurrent of that friendly approach is a business deal--take it for what it is and protect yourself. Have fun by all means...and if you want to share a similar experience read No Good Deed Goes Unpunished the thread is in this forum....</p>