The Photographer’s Right

July 6, 2010 | Category: Legal, Miscellaneous, Photos

I’ve had this handy little PDF sitting in my downloads folder for a while now, but after all of the incidents of BP trying to stop journalists from photographing their buildings or the Gulf oil spill (from PUBLIC PROPERTY), I thought I’d take the time to let everyone know about “The Photographer’s Right”. It’s a little PDF quick-fact sheet made by Bert P. Krages, Attorney At Law that is designed to help photographers understand when their rights are being violated. Hopefully you’ll never have to use this sheet but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared; I plan on keeping a copy in my camera case.

Some highlights include:

  • It IS legal to take pictures of private property from public property. Exceptions may include military installations or nuclear facilities (though generally the exterior is fine, it’s the insides they worry about)
  • Taking pictures of children in public is actually legal
  • Taking pictures of law enforcement officers is legal (as long as you’re in public)
  • They have NO RIGHT to confiscate your film without a warrant/court order

I highly recommend taking a look at this fact sheet for the next time you go out on a shoot. Like i said, hopefully you won’t actually need to use it, but it never hurts to be prepared.

Here is a direct link to the PDF of The Photographer’s Right. Also I have a link to Krages’ website where I originally obtained this PDF: http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm.

Happy shooting, everyone!

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