I seem to be reading more and more recently about press photographers getting attacked while in the line of duty. It seems that a press pass means less these days than it used to. This article is written by a press photographer who, in the middle of shooting a peaceful anti-war protest in front of the Republican National Convention, had his camera blow up in his face. It seems it was hit with a riot bullet right before he was forced to the ground and manhandled by police forces, all the while doing everything in his power to stay out of the way of their way as they worked.

This is a video of Carlos Miller. He is a photographer that was arrested for taking photographs of a police officer. He was on a public street, watching pubic servants do their work in public. So he was doing nothing wrong at the time, other than taking pictures of a person of authority who did not want to be photographed. His website http://carlosmiller.com documents many cases of photographic rights being violated.

We now live in a time where it is VERY important to know your rights, especially when you are taking pictures (and even more so if that equipment costs more than you can afford to replace). It is not just the press that is under attack. There a many reports of people being told something along the lines of "since 9/11 we don't allow that anymore." Here is an article of a person arrested just of taking a photo of police on a public street with his cellphone. There was even a student here at CMU who was told to delete the memory card on their camera because they were in violation, while shooting from a public street. Luckly the student was able to recover those files.

So if you value your right to photograph it is more important than ever to know when you are justified in taking photos. Here is a PDF document that Lon Ferguson gave out in one of our photo classes that documents your rights (its off of my website, so if it does not work let me know). Also, here is an article from the USAToday about your rights a photographer. The most important thing is to just be kind and helpful, but do NOT give up your rights.

It is your right as an American to photograph, don't let anyone stop you.

Mike