Senior Portrait Terms | Cody Strate Photography

Who's who

"I," "me" and "my" mean The Upward Spiral Group, LLC, the Colorado company that operates Cody Strate Photography, and Cody Strate, its photographer.
"You" means the adult who books and pays, usually a parent or legal guardian.
"The senior" is the student being photographed.

Seniors under 18

A parent or legal guardian books, signs and pays. By signing, you confirm that you have the legal authority to agree to these terms, including sections 10 and 11, on the senior's behalf.
I ask the senior to sign as well. These are their photos, and they should know what they are agreeing to.
A parent, guardian or another adult you choose stays for the whole session. If it will not be you, tell me who before the session.
Outfit changes happen in private, in your car or a restroom. I am never present for them.
Families handle their own transport between locations. I do not drive seniors anywhere.
A senior who is 18 or older on the session date signs for themselves. If a parent is paying, the parent signs too.

What's included

Your booking form names your session and its price. Every session includes a planning call, a what-to-wear guide, the session itself, a finished yearbook photo, a private online gallery of finished photos, and a license for unlimited personal use.
Finished photo minimums: at least 30 for a 75-minute session, at least 50 for a 2-hour session, and for bring a friend, at least 30 for each senior plus at least 10 together.
I choose which photos make the gallery, and I finish each one. That curation is part of what you are hiring me for, so I do not deliver unedited or RAW files, and I do not send proofs to pick from.
My finishing covers color, light, crop and natural retouching: temporary blemishes, stray hairs, small distractions. I keep skin texture, freckles, scars and everything else that makes your senior look like themselves. I do not reshape faces or bodies.
I photograph in the style you see in my portfolio. I cannot promise a particular pose, a particular sky, peak fall color, or that a place will look the way it did in someone else's photos.
Portraits take two. I will do everything I can to make this easy, even fun, for a senior who would rather be somewhere else, but I cannot promise results from a senior who will not take part.

Booking and payment

A $200 retainer and a signed booking form hold your date. Until I have both, the date is open to others.
The retainer is non-refundable and comes off your price. It pays for the planning I do before we meet and for holding a date that I then turn down for other families.
The balance is due 48 hours before the session. I send an invoice you can pay online by card or bank transfer. If the balance is not paid by then, the session does not go ahead and the retainer is not returned.
Film rolls and any location fees (section 11) are added to the balance invoice.
Sales tax is added where Colorado or local law requires it.
Invoices and receipts come from The Upward Spiral Group, LLC, so that is the name you will see on your card or bank statement.
Travel within Boulder County and Broomfield is included. Anywhere farther, I quote travel before you book.
Bring a friend: each family books, signs and pays separately.

Moving or cancelling

Weather: if the weather is unsafe or wrong for portraits, we move the session at no charge, as many times as it takes. I make that call by noon on the day of the session.
Illness: if the senior is sick, we move the session once at no charge.
Your schedule: you can move your session once at no charge with at least 72 hours' notice. I will offer the dates I have left. With a yearbook deadline coming, more notice means better options. A second move takes a new retainer.
With less than 72 hours' notice, or if you do not arrive, the retainer is forfeited and a new date needs a new retainer. If you have already paid the balance, I refund it.
Running late: the light sets the schedule, so the session ends when planned even if it starts late. I will make the most of the time left, but I cannot promise the full photo count if we lose more than 15 minutes.
If I have to cancel because of illness, an emergency or equipment failure, you choose a new date or a full refund, retainer included.
Bring a friend: a move has to work for both families. If one senior cancels, that family's retainer is forfeited, and the other senior's session goes ahead as a 75-minute session for one at the price already booked. You are also welcome to bring a different friend, as long as their family books before the session.

Delivery

Yearbook photo: within 5 days of the session, sized to your school's published rules. Tell me your school's deadline when you book. If it falls fewer than 7 days after your session date, tell me before you pay so I can confirm I can meet it.
You submit the yearbook photo to the school, unless the school lets me upload it and you ask me to. If the school wants a different crop or size, I fix it at no charge.
Gallery: within 14 days of the session, as a private online gallery of high-resolution files you can download.
Before I finish your full gallery, I send a few preview photos. If you would like the overall look adjusted, brighter, warmer, softer, tell me then and I will finish the whole gallery that way.
After delivery, one round of changes is included. Send me one list within 14 days. It can cover changes to specific photos (crop, brightness, color, light retouching), black and white or color versions of up to 10 photos, and one overall adjustment across the gallery. I adjust within my style. I do not re-edit into a different style, add heavy filters, composite, or reshape faces or bodies. Anything beyond that gets a quote first.
Your gallery stays online for 90 days. Please download and back up your photos. I keep files for at least one year as a courtesy, but after 90 days the safekeeping is yours.

My guarantee

If your senior does not love their gallery, tell me within 14 days of receiving it, and tell me what you hoped to see. I will photograph your senior again at no charge: up to 45 minutes at one location, on the next date that works for both of us, and I will add at least 15 new finished photos to your gallery.
You keep everything from the first session. One reshoot per booking. For bring a friend, each senior's gallery is covered on its own.
The guarantee covers the session photos, not film rolls, which have their own refund in section 8. It cannot move a school's yearbook deadline, so the yearbook photo from the first session still goes in on time.

Film

Film is always an add-on, priced per roll on your booking form. One roll on my Hasselblad is 12 frames.
You receive at least 6 finished film photos per roll, about three weeks after the session, because the film goes to a lab to be developed and scanned.
Film varies in color, grain, focus and exposure. That is its character, and I choose the frames worth keeping. Your yearbook photo always comes from the digital set.
If a roll fails at the lab, in the camera or in exposure, and I cannot deliver 6 finished photos from it, I refund that roll in full. That refund is the whole remedy for a failed roll.

Your rights to the photos

I own the copyright, as photographers do by default. You receive a permanent license for unlimited personal use: print anywhere, post, share with family, and use for the yearbook, graduation announcements, college applications and recruiting profiles. A print release comes with your gallery so any lab will print them.
Schools and local news outlets may publish the photos. A credit to Cody Strate Photography is appreciated.
Personal use does not include selling the photos or using them to advertise a business or product, including paid partnerships and sponsored posts. If that comes up, ask me and we will set up a simple commercial license.
When you post, a tag or credit is welcome but never required. I only ask that you do not re-edit or filter a photo that carries my name.
Bring a friend: photos of the two seniors together go to both families under the same license.

How I may share the photos

Unless you opt out, you give me permission to use photos and short video clips from the session to show my work: on my websites, codystrate.com and upwardspiralgroup.com, and in my online portfolio, on my social media accounts, in advertising for my own photography, in printed samples, and in photography competitions and publications. No payment is owed to anyone for that use.
What I promise in return. I use first names only, and I never post contact details, addresses or anything else that says where to find a senior. I tag a senior's account only if the senior asks me to. I never sell, license or give your senior's photos to anyone else, which rules out stock photography, other companies' advertising and AI training sets.
Opting out: if you would rather I keep your senior's photos private, check the box on the booking form or tell me in writing before the session. It does not change your price or how I photograph your senior.
Taking a photo down: if you or the senior ever wants a photo removed, email me and I will take it off my website and social accounts within 7 days. I cannot recall printed pieces or copies that other people have already shared.
This permission continues after the senior turns 18, until one of you asks me to stop.
Bring a friend: I share a photo of the two seniors together only if both families have given permission.

Places, permits and safety

I hold the permits needed for the public places I suggest. If you choose a place that charges its own photography fee, such as CU Boulder, Jefferson County open space or a state park, that fee goes on your invoice at cost. On private property, you arrange the owner's permission.
Portraits outdoors come with ordinary risks: uneven ground, weather, water, wildlife and sometimes traffic. You are responsible for the senior's safety and for what they are comfortable doing. Nobody has to climb, wade or pose anywhere they do not want to.
Pets, vehicles, sports gear and anything else you bring are at your own risk.
To the extent Colorado law allows, you accept those ordinary risks for yourself and on behalf of the senior, and you agree that I am not responsible for injury or property damage during a session unless it is caused by my gross negligence or a willful act.
I can end a session if anyone is unsafe, abusive or impaired. In that case the retainer is not returned.
Other cameras: phone snapshots from behind me are fine. Please, no other photographers, and please stay out of the senior's eye line so they are looking at my lens, not yours.

If something goes wrong

If photos are lost or damaged before delivery because of something on my side, such as a failed memory card or stolen equipment, you choose a free reshoot or a refund of what you have paid.
My total liability for anything connected with your session is limited to the amount you paid me. I cannot cover other costs, such as outfits, hair and makeup, travel or yearbook late fees.
Neither of us is responsible for delays caused by things outside our control, such as weather, illness, closures or emergencies.

The fine print

These terms and your booking form are the whole agreement between us. Changes need to be in writing, and email counts.
I use your contact details only to run your booking and send your photos. I do not sell or share them.
Colorado law governs this agreement. If we ever disagree, we talk first. If that does not settle it, the courts of Boulder County, Colorado decide it.
If a court finds one part of these terms unenforceable, the rest still stands.
Electronic signatures count as originals.
I may update these terms for future bookings. The version dated on your booking form is the one that applies to you.

Questions about this page? Email hello@upwardspiralgroup.com.