Photography Business/Camera Insurance | Ask biBERK

A “Perfect Storm” of Photographer Insurance Claims

People often ask how and when certain photographer insurance coverage would come into play. Here’s a worst-case scenario that can help answer that question.

You’re loading up for an onsite photo shoot when your photography assistant trips over a door jamb, falls, and suffers a sprained wrist. The cost of their trip to the urgent care will likely be covered by your workers’ comp insurance.

While someone takes your assistant for treatment, you continue loading equipment into the company van. As you’re doing that, you walk quickly out the door carrying a large box and run into a delivery person on their way into your studio. The corner of the box breaks the man’s glasses and damages his eye. Later, he sues you for negligence, and the general liability portion of your BOP kicks in to provide financial protection.

On your way to your photo shoot, you run a stop sign and collide with another vehicle, damaging it and injuring the driver. You’ll face another lawsuit for that, but your commercial auto policy can pay your legal defense costs and any damages awarded.

You reach the photo shoot location, and your day seems to be improving until one of your expensive cameras slides off a bench and into a river and is irreparably damaged. Fortunately, your BOP will pay to replace it.

At the end of the shoot, you head back to your studio. When you arrive and go to upload the photos you’ve taken to your network, you discover that you’...