Booking and cancellation
Our Cancellation Policy
The short version. A 50% deposit secures your place. If you cancel more than 90 days before the start we return everything except a R1,500 administration fee. Closer than that the refund reduces, because a place on a nine person workshop is very hard to fill at short notice. If we fill your place from the waiting list you get your money back whatever the date.
This page sets out what happens if you or we have to cancel a workshop. It is written plainly rather than in legal language, because you should be able to understand what you are agreeing to before you pay anything.
The contract and invoice sent with your booking are what formally govern your place. If anything there differs from this page, the contract is what counts.
Last updated 12 September 2026
How a booking works
What you pay, and when
Every workshop here runs with a small group, usually between eight and twelve people, because that is the only way everybody's work gets looked at properly. It also means one empty place matters a great deal, which is what shapes everything below.
You send the booking form. Nothing is owed at that point and your place is not yet held.
We send an invoice and the payment details. The deposit is 50% of the workshop fee.
Your place is secured when the deposit clears. Until then the place stays open to anybody else who books.
The balance is due 60 days before the workshop starts. We send a reminder well before that date.
If you cancel
What you get back, and why it changes with the date
The further ahead you tell us, the more chance we have of filling your place, so the more we can return. These figures apply to our South African workshops. Tell us in writing, by email, and the date we receive it is the date that counts.
More than 90 days before
Everything you have paid, less a R1,500 administration fee.
60 to 90 days before
The deposit is forfeited. If you have paid more than the deposit, the rest comes back.
30 to 60 days before
25% of the workshop fee.
Inside 30 days
Nothing. By this point the place cannot realistically be filled and the costs are committed.
Why it tightens so much at the end. These groups take months to fill, and a place that falls away in the last few weeks almost never gets taken. The accommodation, the vehicles and the studio time are already booked and paid for by then, so an empty place is a straight loss rather than a saving.
That is not us being difficult about it. It is the reason a workshop of nine people can exist at all.
Three things that soften it
Life happens, and there are three ways round the table above
We would far rather keep you than keep your money. Any one of these can be used instead of a straight cancellation, and each of them is better for you than the scale above.
We fill your place
If somebody from the waiting list takes the place you are giving up, you get everything back less the R1,500 administration fee, no matter how close to the start it is.
Worth telling us early, because it gives us the best chance of finding somebody.
You move to another date
Tell us more than 60 days before and you can move what you have paid to any other workshop within the following twelve months. One move, and the difference is payable if the other workshop costs more.
This is usually the right answer when something has gone wrong at home.
You send somebody else
Up to 14 days before the start you can pass your place to another person at no charge. They fill in the booking form, we confirm they are a reasonable fit for the group, and you settle up between yourselves.
Nothing is lost on either side and the group stays full.
If we cancel
What happens if the workshop does not run
Occasionally a workshop cannot go ahead. When that is our doing, you are not out of pocket.
If we cancel for any reason of our own
You get every rand back in full, including the deposit and the administration fee, or you can move it to another workshop, whichever you prefer.
If too few people book
Each workshop needs a minimum number to run. If we have not reached it we will tell you no later than 60 days before the start, and you get a full refund or a transfer. We would rather cancel early and give you time to change your plans than run a workshop that does not work.
If something happens that neither of us controls
Fire, flood, serious weather, civil unrest, a government restriction, an epidemic or anything else genuinely outside our control. We will offer you the next running of the same workshop, or a refund of what we are able to recover from the accommodation and suppliers we have already paid. We will always tell you exactly what that is.
Refunds and insurance
How a refund reaches you, and what insurance is for
How refunds are paid
A refund always goes back the same way the money came to us. A card payment is refunded to that card, a bank transfer to that bank account, a PayPal payment to that PayPal account. We cannot send it somewhere else, and we will not ask you for new banking details.
We process refunds within 14 days of agreeing them. A bank transfer usually lands within a day or two of that. A card refund can take a further five to ten working days to appear on your statement, which is your bank's timing rather than ours.
Please take out travel insurance
We ask everybody to take out insurance covering cancellation, medical costs and baggage, before paying anything beyond the deposit. Illness, an injury, a family emergency, a cancelled flight: those are exactly what a policy is for, and it will cover you where this page cannot.
On our workshops you book your own travel and accommodation, so those costs sit with you. We are not able to refund flights, rooms or car hire that you have booked directly, whoever cancels and for whatever reason.
One thing worth knowing. If you paid by card, the card companies keep their processing fee even when we refund you. That fee is part of what the R1,500 administration charge covers, along with the banking and the paperwork. It is not a penalty, and we do not make anything on it.
Everything that is not a South African workshop
The France workshop, the live Zoom classes and private lessons
The table further up covers our own workshops in South Africa. These three work differently, and here is how.
Overseas workshops
The France art and photography workshop
France runs through a French operator and follows their terms, not ours. The deposit is arrhes, French earnest money, which is not refundable. After that the charge is €150 per person at 95 days or more, 30% between 65 and 94 days, 60% between 35 and 64 days, and the full amount inside 34 days.
The full terms come to you with the booking form and the contract.
Live on Zoom
Next Level and the Fine Art Photography Masterclass
These are live classes taught to a small group on a fixed schedule, so a place that falls away cannot be refilled either. The same scale as our South African workshops applies, counted from the first live session.
One to one
Private lessons with Martin
Move a lesson as often as you reasonably need to, at no charge, as long as you give us more than 48 hours. Inside 48 hours, or if nobody arrives, the session is charged in full, because the time has been held for you and cannot be given to anybody else.
If you are unsure
Ask us before you book, not after
If anything on this page is unclear, or your situation does not fit neatly into it, write to us and a person will answer. We would much rather have the conversation before you pay than afterwards.
Every case where somebody has to pull out gets looked at properly rather than run through a calculator. The table on this page is where we start, not a wall. If something genuinely unavoidable has happened, tell us what it is.
These terms apply to bookings made from 12 September 2026. The invoice and contract issued with your booking are what formally govern your place, and they take precedence over this page if the two ever differ.