As a photographer in the USA I’ve had more than one instance of people trying to bully me because I had a pro level camera. The worst offenders have been security guards.
If you’ve ever been in the situation you know what I mean, and if not you should be prepared. You get treated like your a criminal, they threaten to take away your gear etc.
Of course of you are standing on private property you can be asked to leave and are required to do so, but DID YOU KNOW that in most cases even a police officer can’t take away your camera without a court order? After some hassles I decided to look into it some years back, and there’s even a book called The Legal Handbook for Photographers
that I picked up. It goes in depth into these issues, but if you just want the basics heres some places to start.
Photojojo just wrote a great article outlining photographer rights so check it out here. Most of the info info came from a lawyer named Bert Krages who wrote the afore mentioned book. He also has a PDF called The Photographers Right that outlines the basic rights. I suggest you downland that and keep in in your bag should you ever have a confrontation.
I copied this comment off dpreview a couple of years ago:
‘There was a time when I had sympathy for such things, but after having seen photographers bothered over the most *insanely* unrelated-to-any-valid-security-concern sites…
I just tell these security bozos “GFY” these days. Reluctantly and politely.
I keep some of my attorney’s business cards in my gadget bag, and when some strutting little Mussolini marches up and demands my bona-fides or asks me to leave or even questions what I’m up to, I just hand him one and say, “I’m an American citizen in a public place exercising my Constitutional rights. I’m not going to answer any of your questions and after I finish speaking, I intend to ignore you entirely. On that card is the name of someone who can either (a) explain to you why you have no right to pester me, or (b) light you up like a pinball machine if you detain me in any manner. Good day.”‘
This winter I shot a wedding at the new Motor City Casino in Detroit on the opening weekend of the hotel. Me having never been to a casino thought it would be cool to take pictures of them gambling with all the crazy lights. We got about 3 feet in the door and were swarmed by security wanting to see if I had taken any pictures I was very confused. The light in my head finally clicked and was pretty embarrassed to say the least, the guy said if I had taken any pictures the camera would have been confiscated which would have sucked right before the wedding but he probably had the legal right to.
Actually no Firetoole they would have had no right. Security has no authority to take your camera, or even your memory card NONE. Obviously if your on a private property like a casino they can tell you no camera in the building, but though security loves throwing their weight around they cannot take your stuff. It’s called stealing even if they do it.