Boston lawyer Simon Glik was arrested on October 1, 2007 when he used his cell phone to record officers making a drug arrest, and later sued the city and the officers for violating his rights. After the officers tried to having the lawsuit dismissed on the basis of qualified immunity, a Federal Appeals Court denied the motion last week and ruled that filming and photographing police is in fact protected by the First Amendment.
What do you think of this photo of a refinery by photographer Sander Roscoe Wolff? Apparently Long Beach police …
Freelance news photographer Phil Datz was recording the conclusion of a police chase from the opposite sidewalk last Friday …
Here’s a short clip from the talk show Stossel where American libertarian journalist …
On June 21, 2011, non-profit organization Shoot Experience sent out six photographers to various parts of London to see the current state of photographers' rights.
If ordinary citizens have the right to photograph police in public places, what about the other way around? That’s …
On Memorial Day 2011, Narces Benoit witnessed and filmed a group of Miami police officers shooting and killing a …
29-year-old student and avid photographer Christopher Fussell was taking photographs of trains at a Baltimore station back in March …
Libertarian magazine Reason created this video about the erosion of photographers’ rights in …
If you’re planning to try your hand at solargraphy, it might be a …
Apparently this is what some police officers see when they look at a camera, which explains the horror stories of photographers being harassed by law enforcement for having cameras and making pictures.
Cop Block created an interactive map showing …
A man in Atlanta was just awarded $40,000 in damages after having his cell phone confiscated and photos deleted …
Update on 12/18/21: This embed has been removed by its creator.
We reported in October of last year that a lawsuit by the New York Civil Liberties Union against the US Government ended with a settlement upholding the right to photograph and film in public spaces outside government buildings. The US Department of Homeland Security also agreed to notify its officers and employees in writing of the "public’s general right to photograph the exterior of federal courthouses from publicly accessible spaces"
Here’s another site you can bookmark if you’re constantly on the hunt for cheap, used camera gear to play …
It’s interesting (though some might say infuriating) to see how photographers are depicted in some police training videos. Lesson …
On November 9th, 2009, Software programmer Antonio Musumeci was filming the arrest of a protestor outside a federal courthouse in NYC when he himself was arrested. His main camera was confiscated, but he recorded the entire encounter on a second camera (the resulting video is above). In April 2010, the New York Civil Liberties Union sued the government on Musumeci's behalf, and yesterday it was was announced that a settlement had been reached, with the government recognizing the public's right to photograph and film in public spaces outside federal buildings.
Terrorists aren't the only people photographers are being mistaken for in the UK -- upscale shopping area Multrees Walk in Edinburgh has begun targeting photographers after a string of thefts by ram raiders, or burglars who drive large vehicles through the front of stores and then loot them. The above video shows a confrontation with security that occurred after a guy and his friend snapped a photo of a shop window.
Here's a useful idea related to the memory card recovery tutorial we shared yesterday: if you're ever confronted by someone who forces you to delete your photos (and our magical photographers' rights gray card doesn't work), go ahead and delete them! What most people don't know is that deleted photos can easily be recovered afterward. Even photos on a memory card that's formatted and completely wiped can usually be restored.
It seems like every week there's a new story of some photographer being hassled by law enforcement. Photojournalist Stretch Ledford and Carlos Miller of Photography is Not a Crime recently visited the the Miami-Dade Metrorail to ride through a few stations and see if anyone would stop them from doing non-commercial photography. They didn't even make it to the first station.
Over the weekend 16-year-old freelance photographer Jules Mattsson was photographing police cadets in an Armed Forces Day parade in London when he was approached by police and told that he needed parental permission to photograph the cadets.
SanDisk has just announced that Japan’s police force has adopted its 1GB SD …
Amateur Photographer magazine is doing something about all the stories in the news …
The above video was recorded by Shawn Nee for Discarted, a blog that fights for photographers' rights to shoot in public locations. It shows Nee getting into a verbal exchange with a police officer over whether or not he can legally photograph the officer.
Last December an amateur photographer named Bob Patefield was in Accrington town center shooting photographs of the Christmas celebration when he and his friend were stopped by police for suspicious behavior. He and his friend refused to provide the police with personal details (since they were not obliged to), and were stopped a total of three times before Patefield was finally arrested. His friend complied, provided his personal information, and was released on the spot.