General Terms and Conditions (GTC)

Impressum

Business name: VaymanART (trading as Photo Adventures)
Legal form: sole proprietorship (Einzelfirma)
Owner and instructor: Daniel Vayman
UID: CHE-326.557.429
Address: Fridbachweg 9, CH-6300 Zug, Switzerland
Email: contact@photoadventures.ch

The owner is personally and unlimitedly liable for the obligations of this sole proprietorship. These pages do not state whether VaymanART is affiliated with, a member of, or covered by the Ombudsman of the Swiss travel industry, or whether Kundengeldabsicherung is in place. See §8.

§1. Who these terms bind

These terms are the text presented for photography tuition on www.photoadventures.ch, between you and Daniel Vayman, trading as VaymanART / Photo Adventures.

A terms checkbox appears only on the Zug booking form, the Astro booking form, and the workshop inquiry forms on the Bernina weekend, Iceland, Norway, Spain, and France pages. The general contact form, and the short message forms on the Zug and Astro pages, do not include that checkbox and do not record acceptance.

Where the checkbox is used, the acceptance is the message FormSubmit emails. This website does not keep a separate database of acceptances.

§2. What is sold, and what you arrange yourself

The contract is photography tuition with Daniel Vayman, trading as VaymanART / Photo Adventures.

VaymanART does not sell, and the tuition price does not include:

• a hotel room or any other accommodation;
• a flight, a train, a transfer, or a rental car;
• meals;
• a single price that combines teaching with travel.

You may travel on the same days as other participants. That does not make the hotel or the transport part of the tuition. You buy those from the hotel and the carrier, in your own name.

This section describes the contract on offer. It is not a judgment under the Package Travel Act. A mandatory rule that applies to a particular case still applies.

§3. The two amounts, kept separate

Amount A, the tuition. This is the only amount due to VaymanART for the service. It is the figure on the workshop page labelled as photography tuition. Payment instructions for a confirmed place cover this amount only.

Amount B, the optional pool. This is a different amount. The workshop page labels it as an optional at-cost pool, and it is an estimate until the actual shared costs are known. It is not part of Amount A. VaymanART adds no markup. If more is collected than the shared cost, the difference is refunded after the workshop. You join Amount B only if you choose to. Declining it does not remove the tuition.

Amount A and Amount B are not added into one travel price. A line on a page that shows both figures side by side, or a sum marked as an illustration, is not the contract price.

Money you pay a hotel or a carrier for a booking in your own name is neither Amount A nor Amount B. It is your own purchase from that provider.

§4. How you book your hotel and your transport

You book accommodation and transport yourself. VaymanART does not make those reservations for you and is not the guest or the passenger.

Do this:

1. Choose the hotel or host yourself and book the room in your own name, directly with that hotel or host.
2. Where that hotel offers a rate you can cancel free of charge, book that rate. Weather, and a change in your health, can mean you do not travel. A rate the hotel lets you cancel is the rate that matches that possibility.
3. Pay the hotel directly. The room is not added to the tuition and is not invoiced by VaymanART.
4. If you change or cancel the room, you do that with the hotel, under the conditions of the rate you booked.
5. Book flights, trains, and other transport the same way: in your own name, paid to the carrier. VaymanART does not sell those tickets.

When a booking form names a hotel and a date by which to reserve it, that names the hotel and the deadline for your reservation. You still book and pay the hotel yourself. If you reserve late and the hotel is full, if you forget, or if you choose a cheaper rate that the hotel will not cancel free of charge, that does not change the tuition in §11. VaymanART does not then owe you a room, and the tuition due date and the tuition cancellation bands still apply.

A workshop page may also name a place where people sometimes stay, such as Hospiz Bernina or a guesthouse. That is information about the area. It is not a room included in the tuition. If you instead choose the optional pool in §3, that pool is still a separate settlement of shared actual costs. It is not a hotel stay sold by VaymanART.

Meals and personal spending are yours to choose and to pay.

§5. Insurance you must hold

Every participant must hold, at their own expense and for the entire duration of the workshop:

• valid health insurance that covers outdoor activities, mountain rescue, and repatriation;
• insurance covering their own photography equipment against loss, theft, and damage.

Travel cancellation and interruption insurance is strongly recommended but not mandatory. The instructor does not provide, arrange, or verify any insurance. Failure to maintain the required insurance does not create any liability on the part of the instructor.

If you fly a drone, you must hold the legally required licence and liability insurance. VaymanART is not responsible for drone crashes, damage, or fines.

§6. Risks you assume, and what the instructor still answers for

Outdoor photography involves uneven ground, weather, cold, darkness, traffic, water, and other people. You assume the risks that come with your own equipment, clothing, footwear, physical condition, and decisions. Examples:

• Slipping or falling because of unsuitable footwear (for example, sneakers in snow or on ice) is your sole responsibility.
• The instructor is not liable for injuries resulting from your failure to follow safety instructions, or from inherent outdoor risks once those risks have been disclosed.

Conversely, if the instructor deliberately leads participants onto a surface that was expressly stated to be unsafe (for example, thin ice that participants were warned not to enter), that is a failure for which the instructor remains responsible to the extent required by mandatory Swiss law.

You are personally liable for damage you cause to rooms, vehicles, or other property.

§7. Weather and light are not guaranteed

Weather, visibility, aurora, and the quality of light are not guaranteed. The pages do not describe their absence as a defect in the teaching. The instructor may move a meeting point or change timing for safety or for the teaching plan. A change of meeting point, or weather that does not stop the teaching, does not move the tuition due date or the cancellation bands in §11. If the instructor cancels the tuition and does not teach it, §11 states what happens to the tuition already paid.

§8. Swiss travel Ombudsman

These pages do not state that VaymanART is or is not affiliated with, a member of, or covered by the Ombudsman of the Swiss travel industry, and they do not state whether Kundengeldabsicherung is in place.

The Ombudsman describes when its own procedure applies: ombudsman-touristik.ch/de/unsere-zustaendigkeit.

Court proceedings are described in §15.

§9. Liability, limited only as far as Swiss law allows

Liability is limited to the maximum extent permitted by mandatory Swiss law. These terms do not exclude or limit liability for personal injury caused by an intentional act or by gross negligence, or any other liability that Swiss law does not allow to be waived.

To the extent the law allows it, liability for slight negligence is excluded. Liability is also excluded, to the extent the law allows it, for lost or disappointing photographs, missed light, and for travel or lodging that you booked yourself or that a third party does not refund.

§10. How you accept these terms

Only a form that contains the terms checkbox can be sent after that box is selected. The box is not pre-ticked. Those forms are the Zug booking form, the Astro booking form, and the workshop inquiry forms on the Bernina weekend, Iceland, Norway, Spain, and France pages.

The checkbox states that you have read and accept these terms, including that (a) the only service sold is photography tuition, (b) you book your own hotel and transport, in your own name, and you choose a free-cancellation rate when the provider offers one, (c) any shared-cost pool is optional, separate from the tuition, and charged at actual cost with no markup, (d) these terms do not state Ombudsman membership or Kundengeldabsicherung and they link to the Ombudsman page above, (e) you must hold your own health and equipment insurance, and (f) outdoor photography involves weather- and terrain-related risks that you assume.

The browser writes the time of submission into the emailed request. That email is the acceptance record. It is not stored in a database on this website. Please also read Before you book.

§11. How the tuition is paid, and what is not

A form on this website is a request. A place exists when Daniel confirms it by email. That email states the tuition amount. That amount is Amount A in §3, and it is the only amount due to VaymanART for the teaching. Payment is by Twint, bank transfer, or cash. The confirmation email states which of those applies.

The tuition is due 30 calendar days before the first day of that tuition. Weekends count. If the place is confirmed later than that, the tuition is due when the confirmation email is sent.

You cancel the tuition by email to contact@photoadventures.ch. What counts is the moment that email arrives. The count is in calendar days before the first day of the tuition, and weekends count.

• If the email arrives 14 or more calendar days before the first day, the tuition is reimbursed in full.
• If it arrives later, but still 7 or more calendar days before the first day, half of the tuition is reimbursed and half is kept.
• If it arrives fewer than 7 calendar days before the first day, or after the tuition has started, none of the tuition is reimbursed. The full tuition is kept. If it has not yet been paid, it remains due.

A hotel that is full, a reservation you forgot, or a cheaper rate you chose because it cannot be cancelled free of charge does not move these bands and does not cancel the amount of tuition that is kept.

Cancelling the room or the ticket follows the conditions of the rate you booked with that provider. Those sums are not part of the tuition.

Amount B, the optional pool, is not added to the tuition payment. If you choose it, it is settled separately at actual cost.

If the instructor cancels the tuition and does not teach it, the tuition paid for that session is reimbursed. Your hotel and your tickets remain your own contracts.

The instructor may stop teaching if conduct makes it unreasonable to continue, including discriminatory, threatening, or unsafe behaviour. The bands above then apply as if you had cancelled on the day the teaching stops.

§12. Your own travel formalities

You alone are responsible for your passport, visa, vaccinations, customs rules, and any entry decision by a state. VaymanART does not arrange entry. If you are refused entry, or you miss a flight you booked, that does not create a claim against the tuition fee except where mandatory law says otherwise.

§13. Conduct

The pages describe the workshops as open to adults of different backgrounds and skill levels. Respect for other participants and for local people is part of taking part. The instructor may refuse or end the session if you put people at risk or behave in a discriminatory, threatening, or unlawful way. The pages do not state a refund amount for that case.

§14. Privacy

Personal data in a booking or inquiry is used to answer that request and, if you book, to provide the tuition. Forms are delivered by FormSubmit to our inbox, as described in the privacy policy. Data is not sold.

§15. Swiss law and the courts of Zug

These terms are governed by Swiss law. The courts of Zug, Switzerland, are the place of jurisdiction, except where mandatory law gives you a different court that cannot be waived by contract.