Privacy Policy

Last updated: 15 August 2026

Laycock Photography respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information.

This Privacy Policy explains how we collect, use, store and protect your personal information when you visit our website, contact us, enquire about our photography services, book a session, purchase products or otherwise interact with Laycock Photography.

We aim to be clear and transparent about how we use your information and only collect information that we reasonably need to provide our services and operate our business.

1. Who we are

Laycock Photography is a photography business based in Stalybridge, Greater Manchester.

For the purposes of UK data protection law, Laycock Photography is the data controller responsible for your personal information.

Business: Laycock Photography
Website: https://laycockphotography.co.uk
Email: sam@laycockphotography.studio
Telephone: 0161 327 3514
Studio: Cheethams Mill, Stalybridge, Greater Manchester

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy or how we use your personal information, please contact us using the details above.

2. What personal information we collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect some or all of the following information:

Information you provide to us

This may include:

  • Your name

  • Email address

  • Telephone number

  • Postal address

  • Details of your photography enquiry

  • Preferred dates and times

  • Information about the people attending a photography session

  • Information needed to plan and personalise your session

  • Booking and appointment information

  • Payment and transaction information

  • Information contained in correspondence between you and Laycock Photography

  • Information you provide through website contact forms

  • Information you provide when entering competitions, promotions or model calls

Photography and image information

As a photography business, we necessarily create and handle photographs of our clients.

This may include:

  • Photographs taken during your photography session

  • Edited and retouched photographs

  • Proofs and gallery images

  • Images selected for your products

  • Images supplied to you as digital files

  • Information associated with your photographs, such as your name, session date or order details

Photographs can constitute personal data where an individual is identifiable.

Where photographs include children, we take particular care with how those images are stored, accessed and used.

3. How we collect your information

We may collect personal information:

  • When you contact us by telephone, email or social media

  • When you complete a form on our website

  • When you enquire about a photography session

  • When you make a booking

  • During your consultation

  • During or following your photography session

  • When you purchase photographs, wall art or other products

  • When you subscribe to marketing communications

  • When you participate in a model call, competition or promotion

  • When you communicate with us through Facebook, Instagram or other platforms

  • Automatically when you use our website through cookies and similar technologies

If you provide us with information about another person, for example a family member or child attending a photography session, you should ensure that you are entitled to provide that information to us.

4. How we use your personal information

We use personal information for purposes including:

  • Responding to enquiries

  • Arranging consultations and photography sessions

  • Managing bookings and appointments

  • Providing photography services

  • Creating, editing and delivering photographs

  • Preparing albums, wall art and other photographic products

  • Processing payments and orders

  • Communicating with clients about their bookings

  • Providing customer support

  • Maintaining records of our business transactions

  • Managing our website

  • Improving our services and customer experience

  • Dealing with complaints or enquiries

  • Protecting our business against fraud or misuse

  • Complying with legal and accounting obligations

  • Sending marketing communications where permitted by law and, where required, with your consent

We will not use your personal information for purposes that are incompatible with those described in this Privacy Policy without providing appropriate information and, where necessary, obtaining your consent.

5. Our lawful bases for using your information

UK data protection law requires us to have a lawful basis for processing personal information.

Depending on the circumstances, we may rely on:

Contract

We may process your information because it is necessary to provide services you have requested or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract.

For example, we need your contact and booking information to arrange and provide your photography session.

Legal obligation

We may process information where this is necessary for us to comply with a legal obligation.

For example, we may need to retain financial and transaction records for accounting and tax purposes.

Legitimate interests

We may process information where it is necessary for our legitimate business interests, provided those interests are not overridden by your rights and interests.

This may include:

  • Managing our business

  • Responding to enquiries

  • Maintaining client records

  • Improving our services

  • Protecting our website and business

  • Communicating with existing customers about relevant services

  • Managing and resolving complaints

Consent

Where required, we will ask for your consent before processing your information.

For example, we may ask for consent to:

  • Send certain marketing communications

  • Use photographs for advertising or promotional purposes

  • Publish photographs on our website or social media

  • Use photographs in printed promotional material

  • Participate in certain model calls or promotional campaigns

Where we rely on consent, you have the right to withdraw that consent at any time.

6. Use of photographs for marketing

Your photographs are an important part of our business and may, with appropriate permission, be used to showcase our work.

We will not assume that permission to photograph you automatically gives us permission to use your photographs for marketing.

Where we wish to use photographs of identifiable clients for promotional purposes, we may ask you to provide a separate marketing or image-use consent.

This may include use on:

  • The Laycock Photography website

  • Facebook

  • Instagram

  • Other social media platforms

  • Photography portfolios

  • Printed promotional material

  • Advertising

  • Exhibitions

  • Competitions or awards

  • Blog articles

  • Studio displays

You can withdraw consent for future marketing use where consent is the lawful basis.

Please note that withdrawing consent does not necessarily require us to remove photographs that have already been lawfully published or printed, particularly where removal is technically or commercially impractical. We will consider reasonable requests on a case-by-case basis.

7. Photographs of children

Family and children’s photography is an important part of our business.

Where children are photographed, we take appropriate care to ensure that their photographs and associated information are handled responsibly.

Where consent is required for marketing use of photographs of children, we will seek permission from an appropriate parent or guardian.

We do not knowingly collect unnecessary personal information about children.

8. Special category information

In some circumstances, clients may voluntarily provide information that could be considered sensitive or special category personal data.

For example, you may provide information about accessibility requirements, personal circumstances or other information that helps us prepare for and safely conduct your photography session.

We will only collect or use such information where necessary and where an appropriate legal basis applies.

Please do not provide sensitive information unless it is relevant to your enquiry, booking or photography session.

9. Payment information

Where you purchase photography services or products from us, we may process information relating to your payment.

Where payments are processed through a third-party payment provider, your payment information may be handled directly by that provider.

We do not normally need to retain complete payment card details.

10. Who we may share your information with

We do not sell or rent your personal information.

We may share information with trusted third parties where necessary to operate our business and provide our services.

Depending on the services we use, these may include:

  • Website hosting providers

  • Website and form providers

  • Online gallery providers

  • Cloud storage providers

  • Payment providers

  • Accounting and bookkeeping services

  • Printing laboratories and photographic product suppliers

  • Album and wall-art manufacturers

  • Email providers

  • Marketing platforms

  • Social media platforms

  • IT and technical support providers

  • Professional advisers

  • Legal or regulatory authorities where required

We only provide third parties with information that is reasonably necessary for the relevant purpose.

Where another organisation processes personal data on our behalf, we take reasonable steps to ensure that appropriate data protection arrangements are in place.

11. International transfers

Some of the technology and service providers we use may process personal information outside the United Kingdom.

Where personal information is transferred outside the UK, we will take appropriate steps to ensure that the transfer is carried out in accordance with applicable UK data protection law.

This may include relying on an adequacy decision or appropriate contractual safeguards where required.

12. How long we keep your information

We keep personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary for the purposes for which it was collected, including legal, accounting and business requirements.

Different types of information may be retained for different periods.

Enquiry information:
We may retain enquiry information for a reasonable period after your enquiry so that we can respond to follow-up questions and maintain appropriate business records.

Client and booking information:
We may retain this information for as long as reasonably necessary to administer your relationship with us and meet legal and accounting requirements.

Financial records:
We retain financial and transaction information for the periods required by applicable tax and accounting obligations.

Photographs and completed work:
Because photography is a creative service involving the creation and delivery of photographs, we may retain photographs and associated project information for an appropriate period to enable us to provide galleries, re-orders, replacements, product services and customer support.

Where photographs are retained for portfolio or marketing purposes, we will rely on the appropriate lawful basis and any applicable consent.

When information is no longer required, we will take reasonable steps to securely delete or anonymise it.

13. How we protect your information

We take reasonable technical and organisational measures to protect personal information against:

  • Unauthorised access

  • Accidental loss

  • Destruction

  • Misuse

  • Alteration

  • Unauthorised disclosure

Access to personal information is limited to people who reasonably need it for business purposes.

However, no online transmission or electronic storage system can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

If we become aware of a personal data breach, we will assess it and take appropriate action in accordance with applicable data protection law.

14. Website cookies

Our website may use cookies and similar technologies.

Cookies are small text files placed on your device when you visit a website.

We may use cookies for purposes such as:

  • Making the website function correctly

  • Remembering preferences

  • Understanding how visitors use our website

  • Improving website performance

  • Measuring marketing activity

  • Supporting advertising and analytics

Some cookies may be strictly necessary for the website to operate.

Where applicable, we will ask for your consent before placing non-essential cookies on your device.

You can control or disable cookies through your browser settings and, where provided, our website’s cookie settings.

15. Website analytics and advertising

We may use third-party analytics or advertising services to understand how visitors interact with our website and to measure the effectiveness of our marketing.

These services may collect information such as:

  • IP address

  • Browser type

  • Device information

  • Pages visited

  • Approximate location

  • Referring website

  • Interactions with advertisements

Depending on the services installed on our website, this may include services provided by companies such as Google or Meta.

Where consent is required for these technologies, we will request consent before using them.

16. Social media

Laycock Photography uses social media platforms to showcase our work and communicate with clients and prospective clients.

These platforms have their own privacy policies and terms.

When you interact with our social media accounts, your information may be processed by the relevant social media provider.

We recommend reviewing the privacy settings and privacy policies of any social media platform you use.

17. Your data protection rights

Under UK data protection law, you may have rights including:

  • The right to be informed about how your information is used

  • The right to access personal information we hold about you

  • The right to ask us to correct inaccurate or incomplete information

  • The right to request deletion of your information in certain circumstances

  • The right to request restriction of processing in certain circumstances

  • The right to object to certain processing

  • The right to data portability in certain circumstances

  • The right to withdraw consent where we rely on consent

  • Rights relating to certain automated decision-making and profiling

Not all rights apply in every situation, and some rights are subject to legal conditions or exemptions.

18. How to exercise your rights

If you wish to exercise any of your data protection rights, please contact us:

Email: sam@laycockphotography.studio
Telephone: 0161 327 3514

We may need to verify your identity before fulfilling certain requests.

We aim to respond to valid data protection requests without undue delay and within the applicable legal timeframe.

19. Complaints

If you have concerns about how we have handled your personal information, we would encourage you to contact us first so that we can try to resolve the matter.

You also have the right to complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the UK’s independent data protection regulator.

Information Commissioner’s Office
Wycliffe House
Water Lane
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 5AF

ICO website: https://ico.org.uk/make-a-complaint/

20. Third-party websites

Our website may contain links to third-party websites, including social media platforms, suppliers, payment providers and other websites.

We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites.

We recommend reviewing the privacy policy of any third-party website before providing personal information.

21. Changes to this Privacy Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy from time to time to reflect changes to our business, services, technology or applicable data protection requirements.

When we make significant changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the beginning of this policy and, where appropriate, provide additional notice.

We recommend checking this page periodically to ensure that you remain informed about how we use your personal information.

22. Contact us

If you have any questions about this Privacy Policy, your personal information or how Laycock Photography handles your data, please contact us.

Laycock Photography
Stalybridge, Greater Manchester
Email: sam@laycockphotography.studio
Telephone: 0161 327 3514
Website: https://laycockphotography.co.uk

We are committed to treating your personal information with care, respect and transparency.

Last updated: 15 August 2026