Stop that criminal behavior, Mr. Photographer!

There as been a disturbing trend brought to us by law enforcement ever since the 9/11 terrorist attack on the United States. Photographers, professional and amateur alike, are being treated like they are planning the next terrorist attach on our country and need to be stopped.


This, of course, is absurd.


There may be a case for some security on particular high profile buildings like the Empire State Building or the Transamerica Pyramid, but stopping people from taking photographs of these buildings is in no way going to stop a terrorist attach on the building. 


As we all know, everything is available on the web. You want a picture of the Transamerica Pyramid?  Ok, let's go to Google images and get one: 

To find the above photo on Google my search took .26 seconds and returned 122,000 images.  No person or group who is planning any type of terrorist attack on a landmark or building would take the chance being caught near such a place when any photo they would need is available quickly and easily on the web.

The truth of the matter is that no one can stop you from taking a photo of a building or anything for that matter as long as you are taking the photo from an area that is accessible to the public.  Now, there are rules against standing on private property and taking photos.  That is definitely breaking the law and you can be asked to stop taking pictures. 

The impedance for me to write this post was from a story I read about a photographer who was asked to stop taking pictures of the Miami Herald Building which is a landmark building in Miami, FL.  This story can be found here: http://goo.gl/kvC82. 

I also found an article by Glenn Harlan Reynolds written for Popular Mechanics magazine that contains a lot of relevant information regarding photography do's and don't's. That article can be found here: http://goo.gl/jPjHU. 

Photography is not a crime and no photographer should be treated as such.