Your rights as a photographer in NSW

Pho­tog­ra­phy these days has boomed and so has the atten­tion placed on them when out in the field either enjoy­ing their hobby or mak­ing a liv­ing from it. Just walk­ing around the icons of Syd­ney with cam­era in hand and you will soon feel the heat. Espe­cially if there is a group of you.

I recall once stand­ing near the Syd­ney Opera House and after reach­ing into my bag and pulling out the Fuji GX617 it was amaz­ing how it draws secu­rity guards like moths to a light. Within min­utes I hear an abrupt ques­tion from behind me “Is this a hobby or com­mer­cial” no intro­duc­tion given other than the SNP logo I hap­pen to glance on his uni­form. “Hobby I say” and with a nod of the head they walk off. The thing is if I had said “Com­mer­cial for profit” there is noth­ing he could do any­way. It’s just eas­ier to say what is needed so you can get on with enjoy­ing what your doing.

Another time I was at the Har­bour Bridge and the same thing hap­pened, but this time there were polite but when I stated that I was here shoot­ing for myself I was then asked to pro­duce iden­ti­fi­ca­tion. To which I declined. Secu­rity guards in a pub­lic place have the same power as Joe Blow cit­i­zen and demand­ing some­one iden­tify them­selves by stat­ing their name or pro­vid­ing photo Id for stand­ing at the Har­bour Bridge with a cam­era is a power they don’t have under any circumstance.

There is a great web­site (link) that lets you know where you stand in these sit­u­a­tions. Both as your rights and also the rights of prop­erty own­ers where their prop­erty is in a pub­lic area but it is deemed pri­vate. The web­site isnt just for us land­scape shoot­ers but it pro­vides infor­ma­tion for all forms of pho­tog­ra­phy, along with giv­ing you case law ref­er­ences to court decisions.

You can also down­load and print off a lit­tle sum­mary sheet to keep on you if you like.

There is also a web­site started called “Pho­tog­ra­phy is not a Crime” that makes for an inter­est­ing read.

At the end of the day it always pays to be informed of your rights and to also remain polite even if the other party isn’t. Secu­rity Guards have a job to do, it’s not easy so don’t esca­late a sim­ple con­fronta­tion beyond what is required.

Happy Shoot­ing.

Matt Lauder is the edi­tor of the Rub­bing Pix­els web­site and is a full time land­scape pho­tog­ra­pher based on the Cen­tral Coast of NSW. To view Matt’s full pro­file and the range of video he has con­tributed to the site please click here.