Location releases, facility fees and the use of tripods.

Has anyone come across this little gem? A couple of years ago an agency email came round saying that any photographs which showed identifiable buildings. this followed a case where somebody had claimed intellectual property in the image of their building. This seems to be on the increase and there are several pictures on her with identifiable buildings visible. The National Trust don't like their buildings being used, but things like the Gherkin in London and the Bull Ring Centre in Birmingham are now copyrighted, but hundreds of pictures are taken by tourists every day. The difference is whether you are classed by the owners as a professional and that's not easy for them to define. One of the criteria they use is the same as that used for street photography licences, do you use a tripod. In my case the answer is yes most of the time. I can understand someone being annoyed if my big Benbo is totally blocking a pavement, but it does seem a bit arbitrary as a way of deciding whether someone is professional.

We introduced facility fees as a way of controlling what was being done in the country park after someone asked for permission to use the farm for a shoot, but didn't specify what they were shooting. We only found out when complaints came in from members of the public that the farmyard was full of half dressed glamour models. As a result of this I was given the task of dealing with all use for film, TV and photography, but there was no set fee. Everyone wanting to use the site had to fill in a form, stating for how long and exactly what for, then I would negotiate unless the subject matter was contentious, in which case higher approval was needed. During my time there the farm was used for a rock video, scenes for a Bollywood film and a two week shoot for an episode of a BBC series, as well as fashion shoots, with fees ranging from a donation to the farm to £2,000 for a two week TV shoot.

I've posted this in the hope it might be useful to members planning location shoots, so they don't end up being sued because somebody's building is used as a background. I shoot food in markets quite a lot and most places aren't really bothered, because they don't get used for photography very often, but famous markets like Borough Market in London do have a licence system in place. It's easy to avoid being taken for a professional by using high pixel consumer cameras, but if the picture is then used, you or your agent , might get a letter from someone's solicitor.