AD5804 - Insurances for photographers

Public liability

Public liability insurance is often very important for photographers as it can protect you if you’re blamed for injury to a member of the public or damage to their possessions. Imagine you’re doing a shoot and leave your tripod lying around on set when you take a break. If someone trips over your equipment and injures themselves, they could make a compensation claim against you.

Compensation payments can take into account costs like medical bills and loss of income, so they can be high. Also, if you’re found liable you usually have to pay the legal expenses for the other side as well as your own legal costs.

Public liability insurance covers your legal costs in defending a claim, and any compensation or costs that may subsequently be awarded, following:

• Injury you cause to a third party during your business activities

• Damage you cause to third party property during your business activities

• Personal injury or damage to property arising from any product you have supplied

Examples of claims

• A client trips over a tripod during a shoot and breaks their wrist. They take legal action against you to seek compensation.

• You accidentally knock a client's smartphone on the floor while on location and the phone breaks as a result. They take legal action against you for the cost of replacing the phone.

Professional indemnity

Professional indemnity insurance is another key consideration for photographers, especially if you photograph important events like weddings or public occasions. For example if you’re hired to photograph a wedding but your memory card is corrupted and all the photos from the day are lost, the couple could sue you for failing to deliver the photographs. Your professional indemnity insurance could step in to pay the legal costs and compensation payments, up to the limit of your policy. You can buy professional indemnity insurance as a stand-alone cover or as part of a combined policy with other insurance.

Just as importantly, professional indemnity insurance also covers you against civil liability claims such as alleged slander, libel or even breach of confidentiality and/or copyright.

Professional indemnity insurance covers your legal costs in defending a claim, and any compensation or costs that may subsequently be awarded, following:

• Professional negligence, such as giving incorrect instruction or poor advice to a client

• Unintentional breach of confidentiality and/or copyright

• Defamation and libel

• Loss of documents or data

• Loss of money or goods (for which you are responsible)

Examples of claims

• You are hired to photograph a wedding. The day goes to plan, but your SD card corrupts and you lose all the photos. They hold you responsible for having no wedding photographs and take legal action against you to seek compensation.

• You are hired to photograph a corporate event. The photos are out of focus and you fail to capture specific items that your client requested. They hold you responsible for not performing your duties correctly and take legal action against you to recover their outlay.

Equipment insurance

Since your cameras, lenses and accessories are crucial for your work, it’s a good idea to cover them too by adding business equipment insurance to your photographers’ insurance policy. This cover can pay to replace or repair your equipment if it’s damaged or stolen, up to the limit of your policy. Make sure you calculate the value of your photography equipment as accurately as possible so that you’re fully covered if you come to make a claim.

Other business insurance:

Employer's liability insurance

If you always work alone, and are effectively the only employee of your business, you won't need employer's liability insurance. However, as soon as you employ just one person - even if they are working for you as an assistant to gain experience - the law demands that you have employer's liability insurance in place.

This ensures that everyone you employ is covered in the event that they are injured or become ill in the course of their work; protecting you against claims for everything from illness right through to injuries – such as an assistant carrying your equipment or perhaps simply moving furniture at your request.

It's worth knowing that employer's liability insurance is underwritten on what's known as a 'claims occurring' basis. This means that your policy provides cover for claims brought by an employee for injuries and/or illness which occurred during that period of insurance, even if the policy is no longer in force (i.e in the future).

Employer's liability insurance covers your legal costs in defending a claim, and any compensation or costs that may subsequently be awarded, following:

• Allegations of injury suffered by your staff arising from their employment with you

• Allegations of illness suffered by your staff arising from their employment with you

Examples of claims

• An employee trips over a wire connected to lighting and breaks their wrist. They are unable to work for several weeks as a result of the injury. They take legal action against you to seek compensation.

• An employee alleges that they suffer from permanent back pain as a result of moving props around during shoots. They take legal action against you to seek compensation.

Buildings and contents insurance

In most cases, where you simply rent a studio space, the owner's Buildings Insurance will cover the building itself (although you should check your tenancy agreement to make sure). However, Contents Insurance is a must-have for photographers, as even a small studio is likely to contain thousands of pounds worth of lighting and equipment, which, added to the cost of your cameras, lenses, computers and printers would prove ruinously expensive to replace in the event of a fire, flood or burglary.

Buildings and contents insurance covers your premises against accidental damage caused by:

• Theft

• Fire

• Flood

• Explosion

• Storm

Examples of claims

• A river breaks its banks and floods your studio, causing irreparable damage to your equipment.

• A fire causes structural damage to your studio and the building has to be rebuilt.

Business interruption insurance

In the event of a fire or flood at your business premises, while a good contents insurance policy will cover the cost of replacing or repairing damaged items, you could still lose a lot of money while your premises were being made fit for use again. That's because it can often take months before severely flooded premises have dried out enough for repairs to even begin, while fire damage can sometimes mean that a building has to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch.

It's these scenarios where business interruption insurance can provide a lifeline. It can cover income losses you might suffer while you were unable to use your studio, or alternatively, it would pay for temporary premises to help you keep working while your own studio was being made fit for use again.

Business interruption insurance covers:

• Loss of income (or increased costs of working) if you are unable to work from your usual business premises.

Example of a claim

• A river bursts its banks and floods your premises. You are unable to hold shoots there while it is being repaired. Business interruption insurance can pay for the loss of income or, alternatively, the increased costs you incur in hiring another premises..

These are the most common insurances for photographers and I will have to carefully considerate my options according to the nature of my future works. In a first stage of my career I believe I will only need an equipment insurance (essential) while later on I will probably need a buildings and contents insurance (but I can just use an house insurance since I am not planning to have a photo studio outside my household) and a public liability.

According to the kind of commissions, I may also consider a professional indemnity insurance, but at the moment, I do not believe I will really need one since it is not my intention to shoot important public events and weddings.

Obviously, the cost for insurances really depends on many factors, like your equipment and if you are travelling abroad. I do not know yet which will be my final personal kit, but for my style of documentary photography I would like to keep it as simple as possible and I should not need very expensive items like telephoto lens or studio equipment.

Here is a personal estimated equipment list with their value (some are second hand):

Cameras:

-Fujifilm X-T10 (£200)

-Nikon D810 (£800)

-Yashica Mat 124 (£100)

Lenses:

-Fujifilm XF 35mm (£300)

-Fujifilm XF 18-55mm (£300)

-Nikon AF-S 55-200mm (£200)

-Nikon AF-S 50mm (£180)

Laptop:

-Macbook Pro late 2012 (£500)

Other:

-Rode Microphone (£50)

-Zoom Microphone (£115)

-Nikon SB-910 Speedlight (£160)

-SD cards: 16gb, 32gb, 64gb (£35)

This is a very rough list, but I made it in order to estimate an insurance which includes equipment and public liability (valid also travelling abroad)

(Made with Eversure Insurance tool)