A few months ago while visiting and shooting in San Francisco I had two separate incidents occur on the same day where local officials stopped me from taking pictures, in public places. Click below to see it for yourself:
Here’s the problem…photographers are banned and barred from taking pictures where the general public is taking pictures. Even when it’s NOT for commercial purposes. For the record I DO NOT BELIEVE that photographers have the right to:
- Block traffic
- Impede the enjoyment of public parks and lands for the general public
- Set up a massive amount of gear
- Ask for special privileges
Here’s what I do think photographers should be allowed to do:
- Shoot in the same areas as the general public as long as we are not doing any of the items I mentioned above.
What about permits? Well, the problem is that local officials and bureaucrats are so sick of dealing with photographers that they simply create permit structures that are a negative incentive for photographers to obtain a permit. How do they do this?
- They make the permit application process convoluted, obscure, and very hard to find and or apply.
- The permit process takes FOREVER in many instances. We aren’t talking about a building permit for a structure that will stand for hundreds of years…we are talking about taking pictures…let’s get a clear head on this.
- One size fits all- I’ve been told countless times that I would have to undergo the same permit application process as they do with Hollywood film studios. What a joke. I tried with everything I had to get a permit to shoot the abandoned Six Flags New Orleans. They denied me a permit stating they are only interested in working with movie studios…and that I was ever given a permit it would be under the same stipulations and cost structure as a Hollywood studio. Which for the record is $51,900 for a month lease…lol. I could shoot the abandoned park in 1 or 2 days and leave ZERO footprint. A photographer such as myself is an entirely different proposition than a movie studio. Treating us the same is ignorant, lazy discriminatory behavior.
I think most photographers including myself would gladly pay a reasonable permit fee…especially if it meant we weren’t going to be harassed when we set up a shoot. The vast majority of local municipalities make it incredibly hard and expensive to get a permit. They simply would prefer to say, “No” rather than provide a reasonable solution to photographers.
What’s even worse is that I’ve been bothered when I use my own equipment with minimal set up just to take pictures of my own family. Since my boys are adopted and don’t share a resemblance with me, I constantly get questioned about why I’m shooting them and whether or not it’s a “commercial” shoot.
We aren’t all Steven Spielberg with tons of money and tons of connections. We are simply photographers. We don’t leave the same footprint that the big Hollywood studios leave, so why treat us the same.
STOP DISCRIMINATING AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHERS…
