Photographer Jason Lanier is on a mission to end “discrimination against photographers.†He just posted the video above showing two encounters he recently had with law enforcement while doing a photo shoot in San Francisco. In both cases, the officials noticed his “nice†camera and high-end equipment and questioned him to see if he was shooting commercially without a proper permit (which can cost hundreds of dollars).
During the second stop, a park ranger notices Lanier photographing a model with off-camera lighting equipment set up. “Generally when we start setting up more than just a tripod and a camera, we get into the realm where we want people to have commercial permits,†the ranger says. “Because anytime you conduct business and make money in a national park, you gotta get a permit for it.â€
Lanier then wonders: “But what happens if you’re not getting paid for the shoot? What if you just wanted to use the flash to take pictures of your own family?â€
The ranger tells Lanier that he won’t be kicking the crew out of the area, but “what would satisfy†him would be if Lanier put away his off-camera flash equipment. “The thing I would ask is just to make it less official-looking,†he says.
What bothers Lanier is that this “discrimination†is against photographers who choose to shoot with certain types of equipment. If you walk around shooting commercial photos using a smartphone or a small mirrorless camera, no one would be any the wiser.
“We hope this video sheds a little light on what photographers go through and why we hope we can do something to make it stop,†Lanier says. He’s asking that the government “show some reason†and create a “reasonable permit fee†for photographers who wish to do smaller shoots in public parks.
Started out doing photography at the age of 6 using an uncle's old 1940 kodak brownie box camera. At 15 years of age, I decided to buy my very own 1975 Praktica SLR camera. I now shoot with a Nikon D850. I do unpaid TFP and commercial paid work.