Right to photograph buildings

[Pawlowski6132]

It's private property.

You have no right to be on the property for any purpose without their permission.

Leigh

Please. You're free to take pix as you please. Leigh, I can go take pix of your house if I want. As long as I'm not on your property.

[Pawlowski6132]

I would just go do it. The policy says you need permission for commercial purposes. If you ask, you're at the mercy of the mood / bureaucratic inclinations of whatever staff person receives your email.
If you get asked to leave by security, then try going through official channels. But I'll bet no one even blinks at you.

Absolutely.

[C. D. Keth]

Just go do it. You may be asked to leave, even if they believe that you're not a commercial photographer. That's their prerogative, since it's private property, and it's not the end of the world.

[Vaughn]

I would find it difficult to understand why they might have any objections.

That old fiend, liability, for one.

Commercial shoots -- possible interruption of traffic flow, damage to landscaping (commercial photographers don't have a great rep when it comes to repecting such things...anything for the shot!), and more liability issues. Imagine someone shooting a commercial bringing in a generator on a trailer to power all the lights, etc! Power cords and other wires running every where, hassleing the students trying to get from class to class.

[Jac@stafford.net]

Harvard has a primary rule that photography not disrupt what they consider normal order.

Taking a photo from a public view which uses such things as photo-flood lights is something
they consider 'disruptive' and Harvard has more money than God.

I would honor their paranoia by never photographing their property.
They are true pricks.

.

[Jim Andrada]

I'd like a dollar for every photo I took on the Harvard campus with an old Linhof Technika years ago. It's a strange place in a lot of ways - as long as you don't get in the way and cause a ruckus I've never found them to much care what you do on campus. Look like a proud parent or something. Bring a teen-age kid with you for cover. And to carry your camera.

Full disclosure - that's where I went to school. It was Harvard or MIT and the guy I interviewed with at MIT WAS a prick. Probably telling him he was a prick at the time played some small part in my not going there..

[Leigh]

As long as I'm not on your property.

Please. The entire campus is private property.

Getting a decent angle on any building on the campus from a public street is highly unlikely.

Leigh

[C. D. Keth]

Getting a decent angle on any building on the campus from a public street is highly unlikely.

Leigh

Which is why he should just do it and see what happens. You're not trespassing unless you've hopped a fence, passed "posted" signs, or been asked to leave.

[Oren Grad]

Yeesh... What the OP and Jim A said: on any nice day, there are tourists - and locals - snapping away in the Yard and all around the campus. Much of the "campus" beyond the Yard is closely intertwined with and not cleanly separable from the rest of Cambridge anyway.

To state the obvious, just exercise common courtesy and don't be a nuisance. If there's any chance your setup would get in the way of anybody, you should certainly seek advice and permission. And, of course, if and when you have commercial intent the rules are clear.

PS: if you want to exercise view camera movements and try your hand at architectural photography, you could make an entire introductory course out of the structures and spaces on the MIT campus.

[Leszek Vogt]

Just try to avoid those pesky security cameras .

Les