(Updated March 2022)
General venue Risk Assessment
I always ensure I arrive at the venue early and assess the following throughout my time working:
• Positioning of my camera bag/equipment. Making sure this is totally out of the way of guests and staff to avoid tripping/falling.
• To be aware of my surroundings throughout and give myself enough room to work wherever possible.
• To assess all rooms and establish potential items I could trip over or come into contact with.
Covid-19 Risk Assessment
Activity/Process/Operation
Taking photographs of people on various locations (indoors and outdoors) during COVID-19 pandemic,
Identify the hazards (anything that can cause harm)
Transmission of the virus in:
1. Person to person contact,
2. Person to object/material contact.
Who might be harmed and how?
1. location staff, wedding guests and the couple could be at risk of contracting COVID-19, putting them at serious risk of illness.
2. The photographer could be at risk of contracting COVID-19, being exposed in an environment out of their control.
Estimated risk level – medium.
What measures are in place to reduce the risk?
1. Photographer has referred closely to government guidance including but not exhaustively:
2. Photographer to maintain a high level of personal hygiene:
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Photographer to wash hands frequently for 20 seconds or more following government guidelines,
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Hand sanitizer will be used where washing hands is not possible,
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No physical contact
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Being alert of possible hygiene issues.
3. Photographer to daily clean areas and equipment that are receiving high traffic usage or are frequent contact surfaces:
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Personal belongings (such as mobile phone, car keys, etc),
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Assets (such as a car and it’s interior),
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Business equipment (such as a camera body, light stands, etc).
4. Photographer to avoid:
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Wearing jewelry, watch, etc,
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Handling cash if possible (use contactless payment where possible).
5. Photographer and Client to maintain social distancing according to government guidance at the time.
6. Client to maintain personal responsibility for their own hygiene practices inline with government “stay alert” guidance:
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Washing hands when arriving on location and when leaving,
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Washing hands as frequently as needed and using hand sanitizer if needed.
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Avoiding touching their faces.
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Avoiding cross contamination with the photographer (by touching the photographer’s equipment, such as cameras, light stands, bags, etc).
By following all of the above procedures the estimated risk is of anyone contracting COVID-19 is Low
What further action is needed to reduce the risk?
Please note that although the photographer has put safeguards in place to minimize the risk of a client contracting COVID-19, it is not possible to eradicate the risk completely. Therefor the client takes responsibility for their own personal health and safety and must make a personal risk assessment in order to identify whether they deem the residual risk too high.
In this risk assessment the client should take into account their own individual vulnerabilities, including whether they’re within one of the “at risk” categories as identified in government guidance.
I have also had all vaccines available to me at the time of this assessment.