Capture The Romance

Like fashion photographers, Toronto wedding photographers can give vintage effect to a photo by clicking that in any heritage building or ruined palace. Pick up the latest editions of leading fashion magazines, such as Cosmopolitan and Vogue, and get an idea about the right kind of poses. Or check out the décor and lighting arrangement at the wedding venue and find out places where the desired shots can be taken.

Don’t Pose

For centuries, photographers have been capturing weddings like a journalistic event. Don’t let your photographer ruin your wedding album with a bulk of group photos and guests raising toast. Toronto wedding photographers should emphasize on mood. They should click photos when couples are talk to each other. This way, photographers can capture the real mood and level of comfort between the bride and the groom.

The Casual The Better

The photos showing the bride coming down the stairs or the groom getting off a car look amazing. Photographers should try finding an unusual setting. Instead of taking on-stage shots, photographers can shoot at the entrance of the wedding venue. Get behind-the-scenes shots.

Shoot At Popular Landmarks

Imagine posing in front of the CN Tower in your wedding dress. Isn’t it amazing? Posing in front of popular landmarks has become the latest trend in wedding photography. For instance, if you are living in Toronto, Toronto wedding photographers can do wonders with the photo by clicking in front of the CN Tower or any other high rise building.

Setting up photo booths at wedding venue is a great idea. Photo booths refer to a corner at the wedding venue where guests can themselves click photos. It is not just fun but helps make a photo mosaic.

Photo Editing

This is the most important part. Photo editing means modifying photos digitally. You can do it with the help of any photo editing software. Adobe Photoshop is the most popular and easy-to-understand software when it comes to photo post processing. Make sure the white balancing is perfect and balance the level of brightness and contrast.

Use Special Effects

Turn your photos in black and white or sepia. A photo that is partially black and white and partially colored also looks good. Use blurred background so that the subject stands out in the photo. Lightning the edges is another way to draw attention to the subject. The vignette effect in Photoshop is used to lighten the edges.

Since many Toronto wedding photographers have been following the traditional approach of wedding photography, it is imperative to look for the right photographer. Tell him what kind of shots you want. It goes without saying that choosing an experienced photographer is important to make your wedding day memorable.

When use the digital camera battery for a long time, the ACER aspire 3050 battery needed to be clean. Many people may focus only on digital camera lens and body clean, but never thought the battery should be cleaned. To avoid power loss problems, be sure to maintain the battery contact point of both sides and the battery cover’s interior is clean. If necessary, use a soft, clean cloth and gently wipe dry. Can not use chemical or other cleaning of the cleaning agents have solubility.

pay attention to use the correct method in the process of charging Digital camera batteries. Best to use the original digital camera battery charger, which will help extend battery life. The charging time depends on the charger and the battery used, and the use of voltage stability and so on factors. If this is the first use of the COMPAQ Presario r3000 Battery (or batteries for months not used), to remember, lithium battery charging time must be more than 6 hours, Ni-MH battery must be more than 14 hours, otherwise, will be shorter battery life.

If digital camera battery has residual power, try not to repeat the charge to ensure battery life. If you charge Ni-Cd battery for a while only to stop charging power and then recharge it, doing so is the battery can not be filled. This is what they call the “memory effect”, this effect would reduce the battery’s total capacity and the use of time. Over time, less and less stored charge, the battery will also use more and more quickly.

If planned does not use the digital camera for a the long time , Should take out the digital camera battery from the digital camera perhaps the Dell inspiron 1501 Battery charger, and discharges it completely.For a long time stored in the digital camera battery charger, or within, may leak and damage.Deposits the battery in the dry and cool environment, moreover do not deposits the battery and the general metal goods together.

Thanks Article alley: http://www.articlealley.com/index.php

Thank you,

John Phoenix & Lisa Catera
Entrepreneurs in business to make life better for everyone.
913 744 3330
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“You will get all you want in life if you will help enough other people get what they want! – Zig Ziglar”

Dye Sublimation Printers: For On-the-Go and Studio Photo Printing

Dye sublimation printers are printers that use dye panels as inks or colorants. The dye panels are like solid sheets of dye and these are imprinted onto photo paper through the thermal sublimation process. This type of printing device is most ideal for printing photos particularly because it not only prints photos in high quality but also in good speed. Most commercial photo printers that are used for photo studios and laboratories have this kind of mechanism.

The two types of dye sublimation printers are the compact photo printer and the commercial-grade photoprinter. The compact photo printer is the most popular type of dye sublimation printer. Since it has a small and handy size, it is very ideal for on-the-go printing. This photo printer is best to use for outdoor photo printing, out-of-town excursions, occasions and celebrations where you can print and sell photos, and locations where printers are not exactly accessible.

On the other hand, the second type of dye sublimation printer is also known as a studio photo printer or dry mini-laboratory, typically used for mass photo printing. Such printing device is often used by commercialphoto printing studios which can be found in malls and other public areas. They are quite heavy and their interfaces are ideal for easy direct photo printing. Since they are commercial-grade, it’s not surprising for these printers to be expensive. Photo printing businesses need this type of printer for their industry.

by CELTICBANK on JUNE 1, 2011

With over $20 billion in revenues last year and as one of the fastest growing industries for the past 35 years, the self storage industry is a great niche to start your small business. Here are a few tips to help you get on your way to opening a self storage business in your community:

1. Identify your competitors

Learning about your competition will not only help you decide where to locate your self storage business, but it will help you decide how to run your self storage business. Look up several facilities in your area and answer these questions: How many units does your competitor have? What type of security do they offer? How much do they charge? And are they in a convenient location? By knowing your competition you can learn from their mistakes, customize your facilities, and build your business in a more convenient location to the customer.

2. Know the laws

Before you begin the search for your self storage location it is important to know the state laws governing self storage in your area. As the owner of your own storage business you must know the laws about zoning, collections, privacy of customer information, and lien sales and auctions. Self storage lien laws vary widely by state and are updated frequently so it’s essential to become familiar with these regulations.

3. Create a Business Plan

After you know your local laws about self storage it’s time to create a business plan. Your plan should include an overview of the services you will offer, your target market, how you will reach them, what sets you apart from the competition, and your plans for financing. The Small Business Administration (SBA) is a great resource when it comes to planning for the financing of your self storage business. They understand the costs of opening up a new business and can help you get started in the search for a lender.

If you need financing for you self storage facility Celtic Bank can help. Celtic Bank specializes in small business loans and will walk you through the financing process so you can focus on more important things; like the success of your self storage business!

How much time to allow for Wedding Photography?

One of the more popular questions I am asked is, “how much time do I need to allow for wedding photography?” The answer to that question hinges on what you wish to achieve with your photography, and how much you are willing to collaborate with your wedding photographer.

While the candid, unobtrusive style of wedding photojournalism still remains popular, the wedding photos that my clients respond to the most are the stylized, directed shots. The “artistic shots” as the brides and grooms often refer to. These shots involve private time alone; away from the family and friends.

The photographic environment is utilized as a stage setting. This setting creates an atmosphere for the wedding couple to step into a fantasy world where they become whoever they wish to be. The couple is often directed through various poses and creative ideas at the gentle coaxing of the wedding photographer. Soon the camera is forgotten about and the magic happens.

Pure emotions emerge that bring out the sexiness and playfulness, the glamour and sophistication, the serenity and mystery, or the love and passion between each couple. Not only do these wedding photographs yield beautiful shots, they also provide a moment of quiet time in the midst of a busy day that races by so quickly.

The price however, is time. If you want these images, be forewarned that you should allot at least an hour specifically for this style of work. In other parts of the world, it is normal for the couple to take a couple of hours during the wedding day to go to one or several exciting locations for their portrait time.

If these images matter the most to you, consider when you could devote the extra time. Do you meet before the ceremony? Do you miss your cocktail hour? Do you take time off at some quiet point during your reception? Perhaps it necessitates scheduling some portrait time on a different day. Keep in mind, it is your day and the scheduling and timing is in your control. In my experience, I have found the minimum of one full hour to be extremely beneficial.

Common Scenario - All in One Wedding Venue

Couples often had their wedding ceremony and reception in one location which enabled us to spend one solid hour doing photography. The scheduling is straight forward, and no extensive planning was required. We were able to do intimate portraits as well as utilize the setting that drew them there in the first place.

The Adventure – Embrace the Offsite Scenery

In one of my experiences, the reception was a forty-five minute drive from the ceremony site. During our drive, we made a few stops along the way. Not only did we manage to get some wonderful shots at a local train station and park, we also had a great time doing it! Because of the unobtrusive manner in which I shoot, the additional benefit to the couple was some quiet time together before regrouping for the social activities of the night.

Go with the Flow – Prepare for Hard Pressed Wedding Photography

On the other hand, some wedding couples prefer not to invest a specific schedule dedicated for portraits, or to prepare for wedding photography in general. In this case, I advise my clients to allow five minutes per grouping for the “traditional” formals and an additional fifteen minutes for shots of the couple alone. If time is crunched, I will often photograph the family first and then request about fifteen minutes with the couple privately at a quiet point during the reception.

The flow of this type of photography arrangement demands the ability to adapt to situations, and often presents great challenges for the wedding photographer. At one particular wedding I had a window of thirty minutes before the ceremony to photograph the bride and groom, wedding party and family members. As the minutes ticked down with no key players to be found, a growing congregation of family members began to appear. As I started to photograph the family, the list seemed to grow rather than recede, and still without a full wedding party or bride and groom. When the bride finally arrived, we were down to ten minutes before the ceremony time. Ten minutes to go and a bride and groom greeting guests that arrived from out of the country, we were very hard pressed to accomplish what was requested. In the end we had to schedule some additional time during the reception to finish shooting.

Conclusion

When you are looking through samples of photojournalistic work, or viewing wedding portrait of other couples prior to your wedding day, be aware of what you are drawn to. Feel free to show samples to your photographer and discuss how much time would be necessary to achieve the images you like. The more communication you have between yourself and the photographer, the happier you will be with your results.

We all need a little business help from out side sources.  I’ll tell you that the financial business side to our photography studio is not as strong as I would like it to be, so I found this list of things to consider for write offs you may miss.  I hope this little bit helps, and all of you great shooters, we wish nothing but success for 2013!

Top 50 Overlooked Deductions

1. Student loan interest
2. Half of the self-employment tax paid
3. Self-employed health insurance premiums
4.Penalty on early withdrawal of savings
5. Alimony paid, but not child support
6. Medical transportation expenses including tolls, parking, and mileage for trips to health facilities, doctor’s offices, laboratories, etc.
7.Nursing home expenses that are primarily for medical care
8.Medical aids such as crutches, canes, and orthopedic shoes
9. Hearing aids, eye glasses, and contact lenses
10.Hospital fees for services such as nursing, physical therapy, lab tests, and x-rays
11. Equipment for disabled or handicapped individuals
12. Part of the life-care fee paid to a retirement home designated for medical care
13. The cost of alcohol and drug abuse and certain smoking-cessation treatments
14. Special school costs for mentally or physically handicapped individuals
15. Wages for nursing services
16. State income taxes owed from a prior year and paid in the tax year
17. Fourth quarter estimated state taxes paid by December 31
18. Personal property taxes on cars, boats, etc.
19. Taxes paid to a foreign government
20. Mandatory contributions to state disability funds
21. Points paid on mortgage or refinancing
22. General sales tax deduction (including tax paid on large items such as cars or boats) in lieu of the income tax deduction
23. Cash and noncash contributions to a qualified charity
24. Mileage incurred in performing charitable activities
25 General casualty and theft losses in excess of $100 and totaling more than 10% of adjusted gross income
26. Education expenses you paid to maintain or improve job skills
27. A handicapped individual’s work-related expenses
28. Professional journals, magazines, and newspapers that are job-related
29. Cost of safe deposit box used for investments or business
30.Seeing-eye dogs for the handicapped or guard dogs for a business
31. Required uniforms and work clothes not suitable for street wear
32. Union dues
33. Employment agency fees or commissions in certain cases
34. Home office expenses, if for your primary place of business
34. Job-seeking expenses within your present field of employment
36. Reservist and National Guard overnight travel expenses
37. Dues to professional organizations
38. Business gifts up to $25 per customer or client
39. Your moving expenses
40. Business expenses including travel, meals, lodging, and entertainment not reimbursed by your employer
41. Cleaning and laundering services while traveling for business
42. Tools for use at your job
43. Cellular phones required for business
44. Worthless stock or securities
45. Commission to brokers or agents for the sale of property or property management
46. Fees for tax preparation or advice
47. Legal fees to collect taxable alimony or Social Security
48. Hobby expenses to the extent of hobby income you included in gross income
49. Services of a housekeeper, maid, or cook needed to run your home for the benefit of a qualifying dependent while you work
50. Gambling losses to the extent of your gambling winnings

Good luck everyone with this year’s tax season!  Everyone at Photo Imaging News wish you great success in your photography business future

Needless to say, a lot has changed in the world of photography over the last 5 or so years. Remember film? Using the same camera for more than 3 years? Just about every professional photographer is using a digital camera that gets replaced with a newer, better, version after one year of use. It’s become a rather expensive hobby for amateur’s and a financial burden for some professionals. With technology getting better and especially cheaper, we’ve all seen a new type of photographer emerge. Call them what you will, uncle Bob, cousin Carl, or “I have a friend that took a photography class in college.” This is the new competition. And they are getting cheaper than the cost of the camera. I’ve heard of a number of professionals that have sold everything they had and closed their doors for good. We can’t compete with free, or “I’ll shoot your wedding and hand you a disc for $500. I know I seem to be getting off topic, but it’s leading to our newest issue. You are not the only photographer at a wedding anymore.

Gone are the days of capturing a sea of guests with genuine emotion on their        faces. Now you have to give an elbow to Aunt Clair who’s blocking the aisle with her Digital Rebel in hand as the bride makes her grand entrance. I used to love capturing guests emotion during the first dance, parent dance, even the toasts. But now my subjects are a handful of guests with point and shoots held up blocking their faces, or the tops of everyone’s head because they are looking down at the back of the camera to check the photo they just took. My favorite moment so far was a photo of the bride going down the aisle from behind. Everyone in front of the bride has their cameras up, everyone that the bride has past is still facing the back of the church with the heads down looking at the back of their camera. Very few people stopped to enjoy the moment of a father walking his daughter down the aisle on her wedding day. I did have a beautiful photo of a bride coming down the aisle with great emotion on her fathers face. However there were hues of red and green across them both thanks to all of the focusing beams from guests cameras. That’s an instant black and white! The cake cutting has become my favorite time now that I have no room to move around thanks to the crowd of people and cameras. It’s amateur suffocation.

You are not the only photographer at a wedding anymore.

Just when you feel good that you are getting the job done, you’re in the zone,        there’s a tap tap tap on your shoulder. It’s Aunt Clair again, Rebel in hand, suggesting “that’s a nice photo of the flower girl over there. Look she’s spinning around! Hey girls look over here!” Well Claire, if you didn’t just interrupt me I would be photographing that, but now i missed it so you can talk to me about it. While trying to capture an emotional father daughter dance, someone will walk up close to them and say “Hey, over here!”, completely interrupting the moment just so they can get a photo with their faces smiling at their camera. They completely missed the point. Welcome to a world where lighting, composition, creativity, and emotion don’t matter to a wedding guest. All you need is a persons face looking at the camera.

Many of us put out a little slideshow of images at the wedding reception. It’s been a great way to show guests your work and generate some business, especially with the reception venue. It also satisfies the instant gratification generation of guests. I’ve gotten home  from a wedding and checked a clients Facebook page to see that she has already been tagged in photos that Uncle Bob took at the wedding. I can’t compete with that. I hand out event cards at the reception with the website and password to see the photos “approximately 8 weeks after the wedding.” One night, after seeing the slideshow at the reception, the grooms step father comes up to me with his iPhone and has my online viewing website loaded. He said he couldn’t get the wedding. Hello! I’m still photographing it! Really?! Many times I have guests say “Great! I’ll check them out tomorrow.” Tomorrow? Let me hand you a few thousand photos, have you review and edit them and see how fast you get them all up. Let’s factor in that it’s the end of the wedding season and you’ve just done 2 weddings per weekend for the last 8 weeks.

It’s no wonder that professional Photographers are having a hard time competing        with amateurs. We get in their way, we don’t know what we’re doing, it takes forever to get your images, and we’re really expensive! If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional photographer for one day, the emotional cost of hiring an amateur lasts forever.

The Price We Pay

So how do we convince an engaged couple to spend $3-10k with a professional?        According to Market Watch, wedding photographers are the most overpaid jobs in America, saying “Total work for each wedding is generally a sit-down consultation combined with a single day spent following the happy couple. While equipment costs and film development must be covered, thanks to digital technology such costs have been heavily reduced. Unfortunately for the consumer, photographers do not offer any reduction in price for missed photos, amateur shots, or other mediocre work product.”

So let’s talk briefly about what it costs to be a professional wedding photographer. My second photographer here was looking to buy his own equipment. Just to start off with the basics he was up to $8,000. Imagine the cost of what I carry. Oh, and I have to        insure all of it. Then there’s vehicle expenses, commissions for running credit cards, equipment repairs, I spent $1200 on postage this year (postage!!!), continuing education, computer and software upgrades, hard drives, hard drives, hard drives, it costs to make albums, some of us pay staff… I really could go on. Oh wait! providing for my family? Putting food on our table and the discount outlet clothes on our back? A professional photographer doesn’t have a “real job” during the week so we have to pay our own health care for our family, save for retirement, and hope for a weeks vacation that comes out of our pocket. I did 25 weddings this year and my expenses were double the average 2 person family income in Connecticut (according to census.gov).

For the other side of the story, the International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers did an awesome survey of photographers recently. I know when I started my business, everyone I knew thought I just worked weekends and did nothing during the week. We have a great lifestyle of taking photos, traveling, and partying.

Here’s reality: 70 hours a week through our 6-7 month season and 40 hours a week        off season. There is no mention in here regarding time with family, charity work, and taking any time off. Only 12.2% off our time during business hours is spent taking pictures.

If I didn’t have the expenses that I have, or spend this much time getting everything done, I’d be out of business. I’d have to get a full time job and just do photography on the weekend. I’d be your Uncle Bob.

At NYIP we teach our students a simple Three-Step Method for setting up every  photograph they shoot:

• Step 1. Know your subject.
• Step 2. Focus attention on your subject.
• Step 3. Simplify.

This simple Three-Step Method is the secret of every successful photograph  ever taken. We teach our students to consider these three steps every time they  look into the viewfinder. To consider them before they press the shutter  button.

When our students mail in their photographs for analysis by their instructor,  the instructor starts by commenting on what we call the three Guidelines. Of  course, the instructor analyzes other elements of the picture too — focus,  exposure, filters, etc. But the key to every good photo — and the essential  element of every great photo — is adherence to these three Guidelines.

How do they work? How can you apply them? It’s beyond the scope of this Web  site to teach you every nuance, but you will get an inkling from the Photo of  the Month Analysis that follows.

Hands

Photo by NYIP Graduate Gloria Restrepo

But that is not to say that this month’s photographer, NYIP Graduate Gloria  Restrepo of Medellin, Colombia, was deliberately trying to copy the work of  Dorothea Lange.  It is hardly possible to make a photograph that has not been  made many times before by other photographers.  As it says in Ecclesiastes,  there is nothing new under the sun.  Michelangelo, da Vinci, and Raphael spent  countless hours studying (and possibly copying) the works of other artists.   Each, of course, brought his own inimitable touch to their creations.

So what do we learn about this man in the photograph?  Of course, our  judgment can only be based on visual observation — what we actually see in the  photograph.  There is nothing else to suppose, evaluate, guess at, or  what-have-you.   When I evaluate student photographs I am often struck by the  verbal assertions that accompany the pictures — statements about the child’s  innocence, the veteran’s patriotism, the old woman’s valor, etc.  But the point  is that the student is describing verbally inner emotions or characteristics.   That is impossible.  In a photograph you can only show what is visible, not what  is buried deep in the heart, the soul, the brain, or even the big toe.  You can  only show what can be actually seen; all the rest is supposition and sometimes  vivid imagination.

Back to the photograph in question.  I think it is a picture of a man, but I  am not certain because the facial features are hidden.  The hat seems to be that  of a man’s, but in South America, women are often seen wearing a man’s hat.  The  clothing, including the hat, suggests poverty, but there are eccentric  millionaires (Howard Hughes, e.g.) who often appeared as ragamuffins.  The hands  and fingernails are dirty, but we do know whether this might be the result of  hard physical labor or merely the lack of the wherewithal to keep clean.  Once  again, we can only go by what is seen, not what we suppose.  Looks are often  deceiving.

And what else do the hands suggest?    Fatigue, the person is cat napping.   Shame, the person does not want us to see the dire poverty.  Fear, the hand  blocks the sight of impending danger.  And so forth and so on.  But all of these  things are in our minds; we do not actually see these conditions, do we?

There is always a risk in photographing a person of this sort.  Are we, for  example, intruding on one’s privacy?  Are we, without intending to do harm,  exploiting this person’s apparently down trodden condition?  Are we placing  ourselves in some imagined superior position, for we could just as easily  photograph a well-dressed millionaire exiting from his splendid yacht?

These are questions that all photographers should ask themselves if we are to  be honest.  Of course, honesty in photography goes with the territory (as we all  know, don’t we).  To prove that honesty abounds in photography, consider Joe Rosenthal’s photograph of the flag raising on Iwo Jima.   When Rosenthal got to the peak of Mt. Suribachi the flag has already been raised  and was hanging limply from the flagpole; several Marines were sitting on the  ground, smoking.  But the photographer restaged the photograph with the flag  waving rapidly in the breeze and several Marines struggling valiantly to raise  it.  Of such fakery Pulitzer Prizes are won!

Or take Karsh’s famous photograph of a truculent Winston Churchill defying the Axis powers.  You’d be  truculent and angry too, if the photographer had unceremoniously yanked your  expensive cigar out of your mouth, but Karsh got the picture he wanted.Or how  about NYIP’s most famous alumnus, the great W. Eugene Smith?  Take some of the  pictures Smith made at his hospital in Africa.  One in particular shows Dr. Schweitzer surrounded by workers, all in sunlight.  But  for dramatic effect Smith added some silhouetted hands of other workers to give  the photograph a black foreground in order to highlight the main subject,  Schweitzer.  In other words, the silhouetted hands were not in the original  photograph.

So much for honesty in photography.

How did Gloria Restrepo, the photographer, utilize the three NYIP Guidelines?  The subject matter is obviously of a strong nature.  To focus attention on the  subject Restrepo used the hands to hide the face, used the hands also to form a  frame, worked in black-and-white which in itself is a form of abstraction, and  threw the background out of focus in order to emphasize the person.  And she  simplified the picture by admirably filling the frame with the subject.  That  business of filling the frame appears too infrequently in student pictures.

Read more at New York Institute of Photography – Picture of the Month – Hands http://www.nyip.com/ezine/pictureofthemonth/hands.html#ixzz2CWk2JmBe

> Know Your Rights: See more essential resources from the ACLU

Join the ACLU and Protect First Amendment Rights »

SPECIAL FEATURE > A Guide to Photographers’ Rights

> Learn More: Filming and Photographing Police

Jay Stanley, Senior Policy Analyst, Speech, Privacy and Technology Project

Taking photographs and video of things that are plainly visible in public spaces is a constitutional right — and that includes the outside of federal buildings, as well as transportation facilities, and police and other government officials carrying out their duties.

However, there is a widespread, continuing pattern of law enforcement officers ordering people to stop taking photographs or video in public places, and harassing, detaining and arresting those who fail to comply. The ACLU, photographer’s groups, and others have been complaining about such incidents for years — and consistently winning in court. Yet, a continuing stream of incidents of illegal harassment of photographers and videographers makes it clear that the problem is not going away. In the spring of 2011 alone, the list of incidents included these cases:

• A woman in Rochester New York was unlawfully arrested in May 2011 for videotaping a traffic stop in front of her house — while standing in her own front yard.
• A man was unlawfully detained in March 2011 for taking photographs of Baltimore’s light rail train system — despite the fact that the Maryland Transit Administration had previously pledged to cease harassment of photographers, in response to complaintsby the ACLU of Maryland starting in 2006.
• That same month a photographer taking video of police using a taser on a participant in a New Orleans parade had his phone violently knocked out of his hands by a police officer. In response to this and other repeated incidents, the ACLU of Louisiana has filed an open records requestfor documents pertaining to the First Amendment training of New Orleans police officers.
• In February 2011, uniformed Secret Service officerson patrol in front of the White House detained a man for taking photographs of them in a public plaza swarming with tourists, journalists and cameras of all kinds. They demanded his identification, and told him, “Since you took a picture of us we’re going to take a picture of you for our records,” taking down his identification and photographing him. It is unclear what was done with that information.
• Two journalists were arrested at a June 2011 public meeting of the Washington, DC Taxi Commission. According to reports and a partial videoof the incident, one man was arrested for taking a still photograph of the meeting, while another was arrested for filming the arrest of the first journalist.
• A high school honors student in Newark, New Jersey was arrested in March 2011 for taking cell phone video of officers responding to an incident on a New Jersey Transit bus. We would link to the student’s video but cannot do so because officers also carried out an illegal search and seizure of her phone and erased the video she took. The ACLU of New Jersey filed suit in the case.

Examples of these kinds of abuses, which continue to be reported weekly, are chronicled on web pages such as Photography is Not a Crime. And for more information on the ways in which law enforcement is spying on Americans today, visit our report on “Spying on First Amendment Activity.”

A Crucial Check on Power

The right of citizens to record the police is a critical check and balance. It creates an independent record of what took place in a particular incident, free from accusations of bias, lying or faulty memory. It is no accident that some of the most high-profile cases of police misconduct have involved video and audio records.

Of course, photography is not necessarily “objective” and it is always possible in a particular case that there can be circumstances at work outside a photographic record. Overall, however, the incidents above make it abundantly clear that respect for the right to photograph and record is not well-established within the law enforcement profession.

Many of those involved in these incidents appear to be activists who know their rights and are willing to stand up for them. But not everyone is able to stand up to police officers when harassed; we don’t know how many other Americans comply with baseless orders to stop photographing or recording because they are uncertain of their rights or too afraid to stand up for them.

Photography as a Precursor to Terrorism

A big part of the problem here is “suspicious activity reporting” — the construction of a national system for the collection and distribution of information. Under this system (as we discuss on this page and in this report), law enforcement leaders at the federal, state and local level push officers on the ground to investigate and report a broad spectrum of legitimate, everyday activity as potentially “suspicious” — including photography. In fact, many such programs actually suggest that photography is a “precursor behavior” to terrorism, and direct the police to react accordingly. This notion has been dismissed as “nonsense” by security experts — but appears to be disturbingly robust.

A serious question for photographers and videographers who are harassed is whether they are being entered in government suspicious activity databases or watch lists, and whether and how such a listing might come back to haunt them. An investigation of Suspicious Activity Reports by NPR and the Center for Investigative Reporting, for example, found numerous individuals were reported to the FBI for taking photographs or video in the Mall of America.

A Problem From the Top

Another disturbing trend is police officers and prosecutors using wiretapping statutes in certain states (such as Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Pennsylvania) to arrest and prosecute those who attempt to record police activities using videocameras that include audio. (Unlike photography and silent video, there is no general right to record audio; many state wiretap laws prohibit recording conversations if the parties have a reasonable expectation of privacy — which is never true for a police officer carrying out his or her duties in public.)

Word appears to have circulated within law enforcement circles somehow that using wiretapping statutes is a strategy for preventing public oversight, with some taking the concept to ridiculous extremes.

In contrast, it appears to be stubbornly difficult to spread word within those same circles of the fact that photography and videotaping in public places is a constitutional right. And earlier this year, following a lawsuit by the New York branch of the ACLU, DHS agreed to issued a directive to members of the Federal Protective Service making it clear that photographing federal buildings is permitted. Yet arrests by Federal Protective Service officers appear to be continuing. You would think that police chiefs and other supervisors could easily instruct and enforce an understanding of photographers’ rights among their officers. Still, for some reason, all too often that is not happening. In New Orleans, for example, in response to its public records request, the local ACLU found the police department’s policy which clearly instructs officers that people have the right to photograph. Yet officers there routinely violate the stated policy.

Your rights as a photographer:

• When in public spaces where you are lawfully present you have the right to photograph anything that is in plain view. That includes pictures of federal buildings, transportation facilities, and police. Such photography is a form of public oversight over the governmentand is important in a free society.
  

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• When you are on private property, the property owner may set rules about the taking of photographs.If you disobey the property owner’s rules, they can order you off their property (and have you arrested for trespassing if you do not comply).
• Police officers may not generally confiscate or demand to view your photographs or video without a warrant. If you are arrested, the contents of your phone may be scrutinized by the police, although their constitutional power to do so remains unsettled. In addition, it is possible that courts may approve the seizure of a camera in some circumstances if police have a reasonable, good-faith belief that it contains evidence of a crime by someone other than the police themselves (it is unsettled whether they still need a warrant to view them).
• Police may not delete your photographs or video under any circumstances.
• Police officers may legitimately order citizens to cease activities that are truly interfering with legitimate law enforcement operations.Professional officers, however, realize that such operations are subject to public scrutiny, including by citizens photographing them.
• Note that the right to photograph does not give you a right to break any other laws. For example, if you are trespassing to take photographs, you may still be charged with trespass.
  If you are stopped or detained for taking photographs:
  • Always remain polite and never physically resist a police officer.
  • If stopped for photography, the right question to ask is, “am I free to go?” If the officer says no, then you are being detained, something that under the law an officer cannot do without reasonable suspicion that you have or are about to commit a crime or are in the process of doing so. Until you ask to leave, your being stopped is considered voluntary under the law and is legal.
  • If you are detained, politely ask what crime you are suspected of committing, and remind the officer that taking photographs is your right under the First Amendment and does not constitute reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.

  Special considerations when videotaping:

  With regards to videotaping, there is an important legal distinction between a visual photographic record (fully protected) and the audio portion of a videotape, which some states have tried to regulate under state wiretapping laws.

  • Such laws are generally intended to accomplish the important privacy-protecting goal of prohibiting audio “bugging” of private conversations. However, in nearly all cases audio recording the police is legal.
  • In states that allow recording with the consent of just one party to the conversation, you can tape your own interactions with officers without violating wiretap statutes (since you are one of the parties).
  • In situations where you are an observer but not a part of the conversation, or in states where all parties to a conversation must consent to taping, the legality of taping will depend on whether the state’s prohibition on taping applies only when there is a reasonable expectation of privacy. But that is the case in nearly all states, and no state court has held that police officers performing their job in public have a reasonable expectation. The state of Illinois makes the recording illegal regardless of whether there is an expectation of privacy, but the ACLU of Illinois is challenging that statute in court as a violation of the First Amendment.
  • The ACLU believes that laws that ban the taping of public officials’ public statements without their consent violate the First Amendment. A summary of state wiretapping laws can be found here.

  Photography at the airport

  Photography has also served as an important check on government power in the airline security context.

  The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) acknowledges that photography is permitted in and around airline security checkpoints as long as you’re not interfering with the screening process. The TSA does ask that its security monitors not be photographed, though it is not clear whether they have any legal basis for such a restriction when the monitors are plainly viewable by the traveling public.

  The TSA also warns that local or airport regulations may impose restrictions that the TSA does not. It is difficult to determine if any localities or airport authorities actually have such rules. If you are told you cannot take photographs in an airport you should ask what the legal authority for that rule is.

  The ACLU does not believe that restrictions on photography in the public areas of publicly operated airports are constitutional.

  source:http://www.aclu.org/free-speech/know-your-rights-photographers