General Terms and Conditions of Sale (GTC)

1. Purpose

The General Terms and Conditions of Sale (hereinafter referred to as the "GTC") create a legal agreement and apply to all orders for services and products entered into between the Client (hereinafter referred to as the "Client") and Samantha Hemery (hereinafter referred to as the "Photographer"). Any booking of a session or ordering of products implies full acceptance of these GTC, unless special conditions are agreed to in writing between the Photographer and the Client.

Registered office address : BP61314, 98792 Faa'a Centre, Tahiti, French Polynesia.

2. Rates

The sales prices expressed in euros (EUR) or Pacific francs (CFP) are those applicable at the time of booking a session or ordering additional products. Prices are subject to change at any time and without notice. The valid price is the one indicated on your contract and/or your order form.

3. Booking a session, ordering additional products and withdrawal period

Payment is made in cash or by bank transfer. No discount will be granted for cash payments. In accordance with the law, the client has a withdrawal period of 7 business days, starting the day after booking the session.

After this period, no amount already paid will be refunded in the event of cancellation, regardless of the reason. The total amount for additional products must be paid in full at least 48 hours before the order. In accordance with article 121-20-2 of the Consumer Code, the right of withdrawal cannot be exercised for these products, considered to be clearly personalized.
The payment of a deposit constitutes a firm commitment on the part of the client and implies full acceptance of these Terms and Conditions. The reservation is only finalized upon receipt of this payment. If payment is not received within 14 days of the photographer's agreement for the date and time agreed upon with the client, the reservation will be canceled without notice and without the client being entitled to claim any compensation.

4. Postponement or cancellation

If the photographer is unable to honor the contract due to force majeure, an alternative date will be offered where possible; if no agreement is reached, the shooting costs will be fully reimbursed to the client, without giving rise to the payment of damages of any kind. À ce titre, la force majeure s’entend de tout événement extérieur, imprévisible et irrésistible au sens de l’article 1148 du Code civil. In other words, force majeure is considered to be an unforeseeable external event that makes the performance of the service impossible (accident, death, floods, bad weather, natural disaster, illness, epidemic/pandemic, etc.). Each party may assert this right if force majeure is established.

The photographer or client agrees to notify the other party as soon as possible by phone, text message, or email. Upon mutual agreement, a new date will be scheduled, at no additional cost for the same service.
Any request for modification (date, time, location) by the client must be made at least 7 days before the scheduled date of the session, except in cases of force majeure. In the event of postponement, the photographer cannot be held responsible for the non-realization of certain session specificities (season, weather, shooting setting, etc.). In the event of cancellation of the session by the client, the deposit will not be refunded; it covers the fixed cost of preparing your session and the loss of earnings from a lost photographic service. The law requires that the balance be paid to the photographer.

5. Course of a session

The client agrees to be on time for the scheduled session. The client agrees to facilitate the photographer's work during the session. The client is strictly prohibited from taking photos with a camera, mobile phone, or other device during the session.
The photographer cannot be held responsible for lower quality photos due to lack of cooperation from one of the participants in the session.

The total payment for the service will be paid either before the session or at the very beginning of it, before the photo is taken.

6. Technical problem

In the event of a technical problem with the photographic equipment or any accident during the service preventing the photographer from carrying out the requested work, the full amount paid will be refunded, without giving rise to the payment of damages of any kind. The client may also accept the postponement of the session to a later date, in which case the amount paid will not be refunded. Despite all the attention paid to digital files, it may exceptionally happen that following a session, due to accidental manipulation, involuntary destruction, faulty memory card or computer failure, the sources of the photographs are unusable. In this case, the studio offers you the possibility of redoing the session in order to overcome this incident beyond its control. In the event of refusal, the client will only be able to claim a refund of the sums paid, without any compensation.

7. Liability

The client is responsible for themselves and any people accompanying them to the session. In the event of damage, breakage, or theft of the equipment by the client(s), their children, or their guests (in the context of a wedding, for example), the client will have to reimburse the new price. If the accident is the fault of the photographer, their professional civil liability insurance will be triggered.

8. Post-production and conservation of digital files

The client acknowledges being familiar with the photographer's portfolio and requests her services with full knowledge of her artistic style. He also acknowledges that the photographer's work is constantly evolving, that the service offered by the photographer is unique and artistic and that the photographs delivered may be different from photographs taken by the photographer in the past. The photographer ensures that she uses her full potential and all her personal artistic judgment to create images consistent with her personal vision of the event. The client accepts that this vision may differ from his own. Consequently, photographs cannot be subject to rejection based on individual tastes or aesthetic criteria. The photographer is the sole judge of the layout of the images in the creation of a book.
No raw files will be delivered to the customer and cannot be requested. Digital files are delivered in high quality .jpeg format.
The conservation of photographs is guaranteed for 6 months (except in the event of a disaster beyond its control such as a faulty DDE, flood, fire or other); beyond that, the photographer reserves the right to destroy them.

9. Printing photos

If the client wishes to print their own products (books, prints, etc.) using the digital files they have purchased, the photographer declines all responsibility for the results obtained in a standard laboratory. The photographer only guarantees the results for prints made by themselves.

10. Delivery of the order

Full payment will be requested from the customer when ordering for derivative products from the session (prints, book, enlargements, etc.).

Delivery time is 6 to 12 weeks depending on the products and time of year.
In accordance with article 121-20-2 of the Consumer Code, the right of withdrawal cannot be exercised for these products, considered to be clearly personalized.

The dates and deadlines for availability are given for information purposes only; in the event of a delay in delivery by a supplier, the photographer will not be held responsible and no compensation whatsoever may be requested.
Postal delivery will be at the customer's expense and exclusively by tracked letter. The delivery times mentioned are only indicative and may be subject to change. The photographer cannot be held responsible for the consequences due to a delay in delivery or loss of packages on the part of the carrier.

If a package is not received within the specified timeframe, an investigation will be conducted with the carrier and may take several days (e.g., 21 days at the Post Office). During this period, no refunds or returns will be made.

11. Intellectual Property

Photographs taken during a session are protected according to the rules of articles L 121-1 and the law of March 11, 1957 (Intellectual Property Code and copyright). Even after transfer of the digital files, the photographs remain the intellectual property of the photographer and are therefore not royalty-free. Only the client's image rights are inalienable. Any commercial use by the client is strictly prohibited without the photographer's written consent. Any use of a photograph, whatever the purpose (competition, distribution, exhibition, reproduction, etc.) made without the photographer's written consent constitutes an offense of counterfeiting, within the meaning of article L 335-2 of the same Code, and is punishable by penalties of up to 3 years' imprisonment and a fine of €300,000.

In particular, it is prohibited and punishable by law to digitize prints for the purpose of distributing them on the Internet or making reproductions (including for private use), to copy and use the images presented on the photographer's various media, to remove the photographer's signature and/or logo by any process and to modify the photos (changing to black and white, cropping, various retouching, etc.) without prior authorization from the photographer. When the customer purchases the high-quality digital files, he is authorized to reproduce the files and save them on any medium he wishes for the sole purpose of conservation, solely for his personal and private use. For any public use such as social networks, the client must cite the name of the photographer and include either the link to their Facebook or Instagram page or the link to their website. In the event that the client refuses publication rights to the photographer, he is also prohibited from publishing the photos (Facebook, Instagram or others).

12. Image rights and broadcast authorization

The client retains their inalienable right to their image in all circumstances, at all times and in all places. The Client declares that they are of legal age, pose freely for photographs and authorize the taking of photographs and their use in the context of promoting their business. The legal representatives declare that they are of legal age and authorize the taking of photographs of their minor child(ren) and their use in the context of promoting their business. If one of the legal representatives is a minor, the signatures of their parents or legal representatives are mandatory, with the exception of emancipated minors. In the event that only one parent signs the contract, they certify that the other parent has been informed of the session and does not object to the taking of photographs or the use of the images produced.

Unless otherwise stated by the client, the photographer may use the images for commercial purposes to promote her business (website, professional pages on social networks, advertisements, exhibitions, etc.) for a period of 30 years. In the case of a session offered or at a preferential rate by the photographer with a view to distributing the photographs taken, if the client ultimately objects to this distribution, he must pay for the session at the current rate.

13. Personal data

The photographer is committed to protecting the privacy of her clients. Under no circumstances will the data collected be transferred or sold to third parties. The personal information requested from the client is intended exclusively for the photographer for administrative and commercial management purposes.

14. Applicable law

All services provided by the photographer are subject to French law. The parties agree, before any legal action, to submit their dispute to the mediator designated by the representative organizations of professional photographers. For all disputes relating to the application of these general terms and conditions of sale or the services provided by the photographer, the competent court will be called upon to resolve the dispute.