Privacy Policy

Effective date: August 8, 2026

Hersey Photography respects your privacy and is committed to handling your personal information and photographs responsibly. Hersey Photography is a creative brand of Hersey Creative Studios, LLC, based in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.

This Privacy Policy explains what information we collect, how we use it, when it may be shared, and the choices available to you.

Information We Collect

Depending on how you interact with us, we may collect:
Your name, email address, telephone number, and mailing address
Appointment, event, session, and photography preferences
Messages, questions, and special requests you send us
Booking, order, invoice, and payment information
Newsletter subscription information
Photographs and other images created during photography sessions
Information submitted for school photographs, including a student’s name, school, grade, teacher, and parent or guardian contact information
Technical information collected automatically by our website, such as an IP address, browser type, device type, pages visited, and cookie information

We do not knowingly request Social Security numbers, government identification numbers, medical records, or other unnecessary sensitive information through our website.

How We Collect Information

We may collect information when you:

Complete a website form
Request information or contact us
Book a photography session
Place a school-photo or print order
Make a payment
Subscribe to our newsletter
Communicate with us by telephone, email, social media, or another service
Participate in a photography session or event
Visit or interact with our website

How We Use Information

We use information to:

Respond to questions and requests
Schedule and provide photography services
Prepare for photography sessions and events
Process school-photo, print, and digital-image orders
Match student information with the correct photographs and order
Deliver photographs, products, and galleries
Communicate about appointments, orders, payments, and delivery
Provide customer service
Send newsletters or promotional messages when someone has chosen to receive them
Maintain business, tax, transaction, and legal records
Protect our website, customers, and business from misuse or fraud
Improve our website, services, and customer experience
Comply with applicable laws and valid legal requests

We do not sell personal information.

School Photography and Images of Minors

Hersey Photography takes special care when collecting and handling information and photographs involving children and students. Our school-photo ordering process is intended to be completed by a parent, legal guardian, school representative, or another authorized adult. Children should not submit personal information through our website without the involvement of an authorized adult.

Student information is used only as reasonably necessary to identify students, organize photography sessions, match students with the correct photographs and orders, fulfill orders, deliver photographs, communicate with parents or guardians, and coordinate with participating schools.

We may provide limited student or order information to the applicable school when needed for scheduling, identification, order coordination, delivery, or another authorized school purpose. We do not use a student’s name, school, grade, teacher, photograph, or order information for unrelated advertising.

Hersey Photography does not publish, post, sell, or use student photographs on our website, in our portfolio, on social media, in competitions, or in advertising or promotional materials.

Access to student photographs is limited to Andrew and Jolynne Hersey. Images may be processed using Adobe Lightroom, provided to the applicable school when needed for an authorized school purpose, and shared with professional printing providers only when necessary to produce and fulfill photograph orders. These providers receive only the information reasonably necessary to provide the requested service.

Except when being processed, printed, delivered, or provided for an authorized school purpose, student photographs are stored on an encrypted, password-protected hard drive. The password is known only to Andrew and Jolynne Hersey. We do not disclose student photographs to unrelated third parties.

Student photographs are retained until the end of the school year following the school year in which the photographs were delivered. After that retention period, the photographs are permanently deleted from our storage unless a longer period is required by law or requested in writing by the school, the student’s parent, or the student’s legal guardian.

This website is not directed to children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect personal information directly from children under 13. If you believe a child has submitted information without appropriate adult involvement, please contact us so we can review and, when appropriate, remove it.

Photographs and Client Galleries

Photographs may be stored while we edit images, fulfill orders, maintain client records, create backups, and provide reasonable support for past orders.

When an online gallery is provided, clients are responsible for protecting their gallery link, password, download code, or other access information. Please share gallery access only with people you trust.

Possession of a photograph does not automatically grant commercial-use rights or ownership of the copyright. Please review the applicable photography agreement and our Commercial Use Policy for information about permitted uses.

Payments

Payments may be processed through Square, Pixieset Payments, Stripe, PayPal, or another payment provider identified during checkout.

Hersey Photography generally receives transaction information such as the customer’s name, contact information, items purchased, payment status, and transaction amount. We do not normally receive or store a customer’s complete payment-card number.

Service Providers

We use third-party companies and platforms to operate our website and provide services. These may include:

Wix for website hosting, forms, data storage, cookies, and website features
Pixieset for client galleries, photograph delivery, digital downloads, online-store services, order management, and professional-lab fulfillment.
Square for checkout and payment processing
Session or another booking platform for photography scheduling
Mailchimp for optional newsletter subscriptions
Email, file-storage, backup, gallery, printing, and product-fulfillment providers
Analytics, security, fraud-prevention, and technical-support providers
Schools and educational organizations involved in school photography

These providers may receive information only as reasonably necessary to perform their services or as otherwise permitted by law. Their handling of information is also governed by their respective privacy policies.

We may also disclose information when required by law, to respond to a valid legal request, to protect someone’s safety, to prevent fraud, or to protect our legal rights and property.

Cookies and Website Analytics

Our website and its service providers may use cookies and similar technologies. These technologies may be necessary for website operation, security, remembering preferences, understanding website traffic, and improving the visitor experience.

You can usually control or delete cookies through your browser settings. Disabling certain cookies may prevent some website features from working properly.

Newsletters and Marketing

We send newsletters and promotional emails only when someone has subscribed or otherwise agreed to receive them. You may unsubscribe at any time by using the unsubscribe link in an email or contacting us.

Unsubscribing from promotional messages will not prevent us from sending necessary communications about an active booking, order, payment, gallery, or customer-service request.

Information Retention

We retain personal information only for as long as reasonably necessary to:

Provide services and fulfill orders
Maintain client photographs and galleries for approximately one year, except for student photographs, which are retained according to the school-photograph retention period described above.

Respond to questions, disputes, or replacement requests
Maintain required transaction, tax, and business records
Meet contractual and legal obligations
Protect our rights and prevent fraud

Retention periods may differ depending on the type of information and service involved. We may retain limited information longer when required by law or reasonably necessary for legitimate business records.

Information Security

We use reasonable administrative, technical, and organizational measures to protect personal information. However, no website, storage system, email service, or internet transmission can be guaranteed to be completely secure.

Please do not submit highly sensitive information through a general website form or ordinary email.

Your Choices and Requests

Depending on applicable law and the circumstances, you may ask us to:

Tell you what personal information we maintain about you
Correct inaccurate information
Delete certain information
Withdraw permission for certain optional uses
Stop sending promotional communications

Some information may need to be retained to complete an order, maintain legally required records, resolve a dispute, prevent fraud, or protect legal rights.

For requests involving a student, we may take reasonable steps to confirm that the requester is the student’s parent, legal guardian, or another authorized person before providing, changing, or deleting information.

Third-Party Websites

Our website may link to other websites, social-media platforms, galleries, booking services, payment processors, or online stores. We are not responsible for the privacy practices or content of third-party websites. Please review their policies before providing information.

Changes to This Policy

We may update this Privacy Policy when our services, technologies, or legal obligations change. The revised policy will be posted on this page with an updated effective date. Material changes will apply after they are posted unless otherwise required by law.

For privacy questions or requests, contact:

Hersey Photography

A creative brand of Hersey Creative Studios, LLC

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico

andrew@herseyphoto.com

(575) 637-4134