The Continued Story Of Photographer's Rights

In the past, I have written several times about photographers rights.  (That link will bring you to the results of a search on this blog for that topic, but for some reason there are a few off-topic posts that get thrown in with the relevant ones). These posts were precipitated by my being told by security guards at various skyscrapers in downtown Pittsburgh that I could not take photographs of  the buildings they were 'guarding'.  In fact, at this point, I can just about guarantee that I will be 'shooed away' if I go photographing in town. The whole thing is pretty absurd since, if you go to Google, you can get more pictures of each and every one of these buildings than I could ever hope to take in a day.  And if my goals were nefarious, why would I allow myself to stand out by taking photos with a tripod, dSLR, and a backpack as opposed to moving in close with a point and shoot or micro 4/3 camera?

My continued interest in this subject leads me to post this information about photographers being inhibited from taking photos in public spaces.  Now, this is a bit different from what I had been writing about previously as it involves photojournalists getting into the thick of things, but the idea, and the rights, are the same as those making fine art and street photographs.

I particularly like this quote from the article....."We look at the images that come out of Syria and Libya where people risk their lives in order to get images out. Most of those images that we’ve seen are coming from citizens with their cellphones. They risk their lives, and we consider those efforts heroic. And yet in this country, somebody doing the very same thing is considered suspect. I have a real problem with that."

Want to know your specific rights as a photographer?  Check them out here.