richard hyland » Photography

Your rights as a photographer in the UK

Richard — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 14:13:38 +0000

As someone who is an amateur photographer and also as someone that has been stopped by the police for taking photos of public architecture in London I came across this post by Documental.ly

The guide below is available to print out on the website PhotographerNotATerrorist.org

I highly recommend carrying it with you in your camera bag at all times.

Also make sure you follow @PHNAT on twitter and join the Facebook group

Your Rights As A Photographer In The UK

If you are stopped and searched under section 44 of the Terrorism Act, you do not have to give your:

Name, address, date of birth, DNA or reason for being there, nor do you have to explain where you are going.

However, if the police decide that there is reasonable suspicion to arrest you for an offence, you do have to give your name and address.

You do not have to comply with any attempt to photograph you, although you cannot flee the scene
The Police cannot delete any images on your camera. They can only view them in very limited circumstances.
If you are driving a vehicle, when stopped you must give your name and address.
Failure to stop or obstructing a police constable acting under section 44 is a criminal offence.

Police Power

Under s44, a police constable in uniform is entitled to:

Pat you down

Detain you for the duration of the search

Remove outer clothing

Require you to remove any item which he reasonably believes you are wearing to conceal your identity

Look through your pockets and anything you are carrying

Seize any article he reasonably suspects is intended to be used in connection with terrorism

Search your vehicle and anyone in it

What You Should Do

Insist on a written record of the search

Make sure it is legible and includes details of the officers’ shoulder number and the reason for the stop.

Note exactly why they said you were being stopped and searched – this may be more extensive than the reference in the record slip.

Ask to see the officers’ warrant card and note the number. (This is useful when making a complaint if they have moved stations and their shoulder number changes)

Note

A Police Community Support Officer (PCSO) may not perform a s44 search without a police officer present.

Other Laws

It is not against the law to photograph police, vehicles or equipment, unless the images are “likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism”.

It is not against the law to take photographs in an area where an authority under section 44 is in place.

Using a tripod or other equipment on a public right of way can be considered obstruction. Simply standing still on a public right of way (as to take a photo) can be deemed an obstruction in certain circumstances.

Although it is rarely used, the Official Secrets Act prohibits photography that threatens the security of the state. This includes:

> Military establishments and munitions stores, aircraft and ships

> Civil Aviation property and naval dockyards

> Railways, road, waterway, power stations, waterworks and nuclear power stations that have been defined as prohibited places by the Secretary of State.

> Telephone exchanges and communications centres operated by the Crown

> Anywhere else that is a prohibited place by order of the Secretary of State

You can photograph private property if you are on public property or a public right of way

Private property owners may impose restrictions on photography, this only applies to photographs taken from somewhere on their property. Restrictions may not always be obvious but will still apply. They cannot be imposed after the photography has occurred.

Private property owners or their agents (for example security guards) may not view or delete images on your camera or demand your name and address. They may require you to leave immediately and by the most direct route without giving any reason if they choose.

There is no right to privacy in a public place, however, there are circumstances in which a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy, particularly if they are inside their own home. Childrens privacy rights are particularly protected. You therefore need to be aware that publication without consent may leave you open to legal action.

Download the guide from PhotographerNotATerrorist.org

Disclaimer – While care has been taken to ensure that the information contained in this guide is accurate it does not provide a comprehensive in- depth discussion of the relevant law. The information it contains is of a general nature and is not intended to be legal advice. The guide is provided without warranty as to the accuracy of the information it contains. The author, publisher and distributor of this guide will not be held responsible for any loss suffered by any person that is directly or indirectly attributable to reliance on the information contained in this guide.

This guide was compiled by David Hoffman, Marc Vallée and Jonathan Warren with additional legal advice from Anna Mazolla at Hickman & Rose.

Foggy weather

Richard — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 10:15:35 +0000

Wow it was foggy last night, so I grabbed the camera and got a few shots of the fog and traffic in the fog.

Back from Kenya

Richard — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 17:16:03 +0000

Well we’re back from Kenya after an amazing two weeks. We’ve got over 600 photos from Safari and other bits and pieces. It’ll take a while to go through them all, pick the good ones and run them through photoshop but I’ll put many up in the galleries when I have. In the meantime I’ll post a few unedited ones up here

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Richard — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:56:38 +0000

I’m very impressed with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I don’t really see the point in summing up the product in my own words when what Adobe’s already said sums it up nicely. “essential toolbox, providing one easy application for managing, adjusting, and presenting large volumes of digital photographs”. If you take a lot of photos I’d highly recommend you check it out!

Some more photos

Richard — Mon, 06 Aug 2007 12:51:08 +0000

Random photos taken around London this weekend, I can’t believe I ended up walking from Tower Bridge to Picadilly Circus in a morning. Good time to take photos though at 7am on a Saturday, the streets are totally empty of people and cars, perfect. See ‘collections‘ for all of my images taken on Saturday.

National Treasure 2

Richard — Sat, 04 Aug 2007 23:47:27 +0000

Spent most of Saturday in London taking photos of stuff. Got some really great ones which I’ll upload tomorrow. Didn’t get the one of I wanted of St. Pauls because they were filming National Treasure 2 stunt sequences with a battered up 7 series BMW and a load of priests.

A couple more images

Richard — Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:12:58 +0000

Tried to get quite a few photos today from Leigh, but as it turned out only a handful worked, mainly because I seemed to spend most of time time cleaning the dust that somehow got into the view finder. Got to find some compressed gas

Spend yesterday painting the hallway too, completely worn out! It’s now a nice shade of Irish Cream now though

DIY

Richard — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:48:04 +0000

Well the weekend was entirely taken up with DIY, fixing a new electric shower. What a genius website eBay is, I think you could buy everything you’d ever need from there.

Speaking of which I’ve got to check on the 70-300mm EF APO lens that I want

London Zoo

Richard — Mon, 11 Jun 2007 21:03:59 +0000

I spent most of Sunday wandering around London Zoo taking photos. It was good fun and good practice for the Masai Mara. I’ll try to post some of the photos soon, unfortunately they won’t be available for purchase or download as I don’t have a property release from the zoo so they are simply for my own collection

Site reorganisation

Richard — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 13:29:43 +0000

I’ve reorganised the way the photos work on my site. I’ve basically seperated my photo collections from my personal photos and put them in seperate galleries. So my collections can now be found under the photo collections link and my old gallery can be found under the personal gallery link.