National Park filming legislation

[Eric Olson]

Originally Posted by Shaun Roemich

Having to pay for a parkie to sit on his/her butt is VERY likely due to some self-righteous arse that came before you and ruined it for everyone.

I think the US laws were written before HD nature videography was possible with an iPhone and probably need revising. I wonder if there are similar rules about making sound recordings, say of birds, in a national park? Note that this thread will maintain a more professional tone if only words that are acronyms are spelled using all capital letters. What are the rules like in Canada?

[Kevin Railsback]

Eric,
Audio recording needs a permit too.

[Ryan Farnes]

The absurdity of permits for commercial video work lies in the fact that many videographers like myself use still photo cameras (7D, GH2, etc...) to capture video. Well, some of us at least.

Without a permit and with this single camera, if we take photos, we can sell them, if we take video and sell it, we're breaking the law.

The whole thing seems to be about impact, as made obvious in the need for photography shoots involving impact requiring a permit. The problem is that the NPS or Federal Government cannot also make the distinction with video.

[Shaun Roemich]

Originally Posted by Eric Olson

Note that this thread will maintain a more professional tone if only words that are acronyms are spelled using all capital letters. What are the rules like in Canada?

Since italics are not an option, I capitalize words that require emphasis to get across my meaning, as if I was SPEAKING the words instead of TYPING them. I'm not shouting one word... I don't think that capitalizing one word constitutes a departure from professional and/or courteous discourse...

Again, my 2 cents...

[Bob Safay]

Has this law changed?

[Alex Chamberlain]

Hi Bob,
Not yet. We're still working on it. Apparently not much is getting done in the senate at the moment, so we're doing a lot of "hurry up and wait" stuff.

[Phil Murray]

Like Bob, I'm curious to know if there has been any change in the law. With another winter coming to an end, more folks will be out in the parks filming. I was keeping up with this thread, but had forgotten about it until Bob's post.

Interestingly, I've had a couple of park Rangers coming up to me and politely asking about my big camera. One, at a mission in San Antonio, was very subtle asking about my camera and a couple of other questions. Knowing the law, I'm sure he was trying to tactfully find out if I was filming professionally. Had I not known, I would have assumed he was just curious about a larger-than-normal camera. I politely told him I was just having fun with my expensive "toy" and filming for myself -- which was true.

My wife and I spent a couple of days at Denali in Alaska last summer and I expected someone to come up to me, but no one did.

[Phil Murray]

Thanks for the update, Alex. I was writing at the same time you were posting!

It sure is an absurd law considering the modern merge of photo and video equipment.

[Mark Williams]

And the saga continues but now with the USFS.

The U.S. Forest Service Wants to Fine You $1,000 for Taking Pictures in the Forest - Esquire

https://www.federalregister.gov/arti...alregister.gov

The thing is if they are needing to protect the natural resources, regulations already exist to prevent destruction of public property. All they have to do is enforce them thus making permitting unnecessary except for large events that could impact use by other visitors.

[Kevin Railsback]

I went to Yellowstone this past July for a few weeks. Filmed some great stuff but I'll never post anything but frame grabs until the law changes.

I think it's really going to take someone getting arrested and fined to bring the absurdity of this law to the surface and bring about change.

The first service is now backing off since this went public and caused a big stink.

I'd love to know how they can justify allowing a Nat Geo photographer stand right next to me and shoot all the pictures they want for free, but I have to have a permit and pay a ranger $65 an hour to do the same thing two feet away from the Nat Geo photographer.

The ironic thing is that the woman that runs the Yellowstone film permit office is paid with film permit funds.
So her paycheck depends on her getting film permits from as many people as possible. Sounds like a conflict of interest there to me.

Anyway, I'll continue to film on public lands, I'll just never use the footage for anything but I'm not going to miss out on the beauty of my country just because someone wants to make easy money and extort money from filmmakers.

[Bo Skelmose]

Hi
Well I had a little fun of your troubles "over there" Never had I head something so absurd as you had to pay for filming in the nature......
This summer I did not laugh anymore - Here in Denmark I have been filming nature documentaries for 20-30 years. I was in another part of our small country and I asked the forest agency for a permit for parking along a road in the forest. The asked if it was commercial filming and I told them that it was. Nature documentaries for our national television. They wanted to fine me after the budget of the film. I told them that I do not have a budget as the film was not sold yet. They wanted to fine me 1000 dollars for 2 day of filming in the forrest!!! This was just a forrest that belong to us all - the state of Denmark and everyone have the right to be there. Not even a National Park.
I decideed not to film or to pay. I told my freinds here on facebook about it - after 4 days spreading on facebook - the danish minister of environment, told the forest agency not to fine me for filming in the forrest!
I had calculated with a week to film in the forrest but I got the last two days to film there. The day I have to pay for filming in nature I'll stop. In this country there is just no money in producing this so it is more like a Public Service thing.

[Kevin Railsback]

Well, nothing much has changed for this. Except for the Yellowstone film office has a nice map now to show you all the areas that you need to pay a ranger $65 an hour to babysit you in addition to the liability insurance and ther permit fee.

I went back to Yellowstone last year and shot a fair amount of footage. Since the only way I can shoot video in the park without a permit is for personal use only, I've never posted any footage or used it in a film that I put out in the Internet.

I was only asked once if I was shooting professionally and once they heard that I wasn't they were very helpful in telling me where I coulld film an osprey nest.

I'm not sure if the law will ever change and I know I can't afford thousands of dollars to have a ranger escort on the boardwalks.

But I love Yellowstone so I will continue to go there and film for my own personal use which is sad because I have some amazing footage!