These Terms of Service (“Terms”) govern your use of birthphotoandvideo.com and the photography and videography services provided by Birth Photo + Video (“Birth Photo + Video,” “we,” “us,” or “our”). By booking our services, paying a retainer, signing a booking agreement, or using this website, you (“Client,” “you”) agree to these Terms.
Your individually signed booking agreement may include details specific to your session. Where that signed agreement and these Terms conflict, the signed booking agreement controls.
1. Our Services
Birth Photo + Video provides documentary birth photography and cinematic birth film, along with related sessions such as maternity, Fresh 48, and newborn photography where offered. The collection, deliverables, hours of coverage, and inclusions that apply to you are defined by the collection you select and your booking agreement.
Our work is documentary and artistic in nature. The selection of final images, the editing style, color treatment, music, and all creative decisions are made at our professional and artistic discretion.
2. Booking & Retainer
A non-refundable retainer of $500 is required to reserve your due-date window. Your date is not held until both the retainer and a signed booking agreement are received.
Because we accept a limited number of births each month, the retainer compensates us for reserving on-call availability for your due window and declining other bookings during that time. The retainer is applied toward your total balance.
3. Payment
- The remaining balance is divided into scheduled payments and must be paid in full by 37 weeks of pregnancy, or earlier if stated in your agreement.
- On-call coverage begins only once your account is paid in full.
- Late or missed payments may result in suspension or cancellation of services. Amounts already paid, including the retainer, are non-refundable.
- You are responsible for any fees resulting from returned payments or chargebacks.
4. On-Call Period & Client Responsibilities
We are on call for your birth from 38 weeks of pregnancy until delivery. You agree to:
- Notify us promptly when labor begins, or when an induction or cesarean is scheduled, and keep us informed as labor progresses.
- Provide timely, accurate information so we can time our arrival.
- Confirm with your birth facility that photography and videography are permitted.
If we are not notified with enough time to arrive, that is not a missed birth on our part and does not entitle you to a refund.
5. Coverage at Birth Facilities
We follow the rules and policies of your hospital, birth center, or home-birth team, including any restrictions on photography or videography in operating rooms or during specific procedures.
For cesarean births, operating-room access varies by facility. Where we cannot be present for the delivery itself, we document preparation and the immediate moments afterward, and may provide a camera to your support person where permitted. We are not responsible for coverage limitations imposed by medical staff, facilities, or emergencies.
6. Missed-Birth Guarantee
Births are unpredictable. If we cannot personally attend due to a very fast labor, a trusted backup photographer or filmmaker from our team may attend in our place, and we still personally edit your gallery.
If a birth is missed entirely despite timely notification from you, we provide, at our discretion, one of the following: immediate postpartum coverage, a complimentary Fresh 48 session, or a reshoot credit toward another session. This guarantee is our sole obligation and your sole remedy for a missed birth, and it does not apply where you did not notify us in time.
7. Delivery of Images & Film
- Sneak-peek images are typically delivered within about 48 hours of the birth.
- Your full hand-edited gallery is typically delivered within 4 to 6 weeks.
- Your cinematic film is typically delivered within 6 to 10 weeks.
These timelines are estimates and may extend during busy seasons or due to circumstances beyond our control. Galleries are delivered through an online gallery; you are responsible for downloading and backing up your files promptly.
8. Copyright & Licensing
We retain full copyright to all images and film we create, in accordance with U.S. copyright law. Upon final payment, you receive a non-exclusive, non-transferable, personal-use license to download, print, and share your images and film for personal, non-commercial purposes.
You may not sell, license, alter, apply filters to, submit to contests, or commercially exploit the images or film without our written permission. Please credit Birth Photo + Video when sharing publicly.
9. Privacy of Your Birth Story & Marketing Use
Your birth content is private. We will not publish your images or film publicly without your explicit, separate written consent (a model release).
Where you grant a model release, you authorize us to use selected images and film on our website, social media, portfolio, and marketing materials. You may decline marketing use, or withdraw consent at any time, by written notice. Withdrawal applies going forward and does not extend to materials already printed or in circulation. See our Privacy Policy for more.
10. File Archiving
We retain digital copies of delivered galleries and film for a limited period stated in your booking agreement, as a courtesy and not as a guaranteed backup service. After that period, files may be permanently deleted. You are responsible for maintaining your own backups of all delivered files.
11. Illness, Safety & Force Majeure
For the health of everyone involved, we may send our backup, or decline to attend, if we or members of a household or facility have a contagious illness.
We are not liable for any failure or delay in performance caused by events beyond our reasonable control, including illness, accident, equipment failure, severe weather, facility lockdowns, public-health restrictions, or other acts of God.
12. Limitation of Liability
We deliver our work using professional-grade equipment and established backup workflows. However, in the unlikely event of equipment failure, data loss or corruption, theft, or other circumstances resulting in lost or limited images or film, our total liability is limited to a refund of the amounts paid for the affected services.
We are not liable for indirect, incidental, consequential, or punitive damages, or for the inability to recreate the unrepeatable nature of a birth. Nothing in these Terms limits any liability that cannot be limited under applicable law.
13. Indemnification
You agree to indemnify and hold harmless Birth Photo + Video from any claims, damages, or expenses arising out of your breach of these Terms, your misuse of delivered images or film, or your failure to obtain any consents required from other individuals present at your birth.
14. Cancellation & Rescheduling
By the Client: the $500 retainer and all payments made are non-refundable. If your pregnancy ends before birth, please contact us — we will work with you compassionately and may, at our discretion, apply payments toward a future session.
By Us: if we must cancel for reasons within our control, we will refund all payments, including the retainer. That refund is your sole remedy.
15. Use of This Website
Website content, including text, images, and design, is owned by Birth Photo + Video and provided for informational purposes. You may not copy, reproduce, or republish website content without our written permission.
16. Dispute Resolution & Governing Law
These Terms are governed by the laws of the State of Texas, without regard to its conflict-of-law principles. The parties agree first to attempt in good faith to resolve any dispute through direct negotiation. Any unresolved dispute will be brought exclusively in the state or federal courts located in Travis County, Texas, and you consent to that jurisdiction and venue.
17. General Provisions
These Terms, together with your signed booking agreement, constitute the entire agreement between you and Birth Photo + Video. If any provision is found unenforceable, the remaining provisions stay in effect. Our failure to enforce a provision is not a waiver of it. We may update these Terms; the version in effect at the time you book applies to your booking.
18. Contact
Questions about these Terms? Reach us at info@birthphotoandvideo.com or (512) 555-0142, Austin, Texas. You can also use our contact page.
Birth Photo + Video · Documentary birth photography & cinematic film · Austin, Texas