Use of Tripods on NYC street

[Paul Ron]

This is where the men in black was filmed....

[Bob Salomon]

I had a nice looking woman come up to me when I was in Chicago 30 years ago. She asked me if I knew where she could get a drink? I swear I didn't have a clue, so like Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory I pointed down the street to a pub, ha! Then she said something like do you want to buy me a drink?, finally dawned on me. I stuttered no thanks and ran back to my room.
I still laugh when I think about that. I'm a lummox from all appearances, probably never looked like a good target.

Koln, I remember drinking cold lager beer in a jazz club down not to far from the Dom. The glasses calibrated in centaliters. CL.

I was staying at the Conrad Hilton one year when PMA was still held there.
We had had a very late night after a party in the company suite and I was groggily making my way back to my room.
At one end of the hall there was a coke machine so I stopped to buy one. I had my case in my left hand and change in my right hand. I put the change in, pushed the button and while the Coke came down into the chute a female hand suddenly reached between my legs to grab it. Never did learn her name!

[giganova]

Try setting up a tripod in Washington, DC, total nightmare: there is Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police, Park Police, Secret Service, Military Police, the list goes on & on. Each square inch of the city falls under the jurisdiction of one of them, and none allow tripods.

[Alan Klein]

Try setting up a tripod in Washington, DC, total nightmare: there is Capitol Police, Metropolitan Police, Park Police, Secret Service, Military Police, the list goes on & on. Each square inch of the city falls under the jurisdiction of one of them, and none allow tripods.

Carry a demonstration sign like you're marching and no one will bother you.

[Jeff Conrad]

Carry a demonstration sign like you're marching and no one will bother you.

Except for flash-bangs, tear gas, and rubber bullets ...

At least in some of these jurisdictions, there is little authority for prohibiting tripods. Areas under the jurisdiction of the US Park Police are covered by 43 CFR § 5.2, which requires a permit for still photography that uses a model, set, or prop, subject to the definitions in 43 CFR § 5.12. Specific areas may restrict certain things such as tripods, but there is no general prohibition or permit requirement.

The National Capital Region of the National Park System has special regulations. In the past, the NPS and US Park Police have used 36 CFR 7.96(g) to require permits for some photography, considering it a “demonstration” “which is reasonably likely to draw a crowd or onlookers.” This would now be on shaky legal grounds because a nearly identical provision in the Traffic Regulations for the United States Capitol Grounds was voided for vagueness and its enforcement enjoined in Lederman v. US (DC Cir. 2002). Nonetheless, this provision was used to illegally arrest activist Cindy Sheehan for wearing a “protest” T-shirt at the State of the Union Address in 2006 (the law’s application to T-shirts had actually been barred by an earlier decision). The charges were quickly dropped, and the Capitol Police apologized, claiming a “good-faith” misinterpretation (ignorance of settled law is not an excuse, but of course no one was held accountable).

The US Capitol grounds are under the jurisdiction of the US Capitol Police. The Traffic Regulations, including the definition of “demonstration,” have since been revised; the only mention of tripods is in § 16.13, which requires a permit for a tripod used for “commercial photography.” Shades of what we thought we had eliminated ... that actually was only for the Department of Agriculture and the Department of the Interior.

I haven’t been to DC in many years, so I can’t comment on what actually happens. But anyone who hasn’t slept through the last few months can see that the law seldom cramps the style of law enforcement agencies.

[Audii-Dudii]

One solution I've found that works very, very well for me when photographing street scenes in NYC is to do so late at night.

Although it's been more than a half-dozen years since my last visit, no one has ever bothered me about where I place my camera / tripod combo when it's after midnight or before 5:00 am.

I was, however, hassled on two separate occasions by the Park Police when I was spotted carrying my tripod / camera combo over my shoulder as I walked across the Harlem River Lift Span bridge at 125th Street to Randall's Island.

On both occasions, I was on the sidewalk on the south side of the bridge. At the beginning of the sidewalk on the west side and partially hidden by vegetation, there is (was?) a sign that said either "cameras prohibited on bridge" or "cameras not allowed on bridge" (I forget which).

I took this to mean that photographing from the bridge wasn't allowed, so I didn't.

According to the Park Police, though, the sign literally meant that cameras were not allowed on the bridge, period.

I argued with the cop about this for a bit, asking whether this prohibition included cellphones with cameras that were being carried inside a jacket pocket or cameras being carried in unlabeled boxes inside a UPS truck or in a camera bag inside the trunk of a car and he said it did -- "no cameras means no cameras!" he explained firmly -- although when I questioned him further about this, he did admit the regulation would be difficult to enforce in some situations.

He had his ticket book in hand and was ready to write me a ticket, but after I handed him my I.D., he realized I was from out-of-state and decided to let me go with just a warning. "I don't want to ruin your vacation," he said, mildly apologetically.

The second time occurred a few hours later, as I was walking back across the bridge from Randall's Island to Manhattan. I explained to the second Park cop that 1) There was no warning sign posted anywhere that I saw, so how would anyone know this was prohibited? and 2) I had been stopped by another cop earlier, but I had no choice but to cross the bridge with my tripod / camera a second time since it was the only way I knew to return to Manhattan. Fortunately, he likewise let me go with just a warning...

[Tin Can]

Right after 9/11/2001

Many places were banned for imaging with anything

including bridges

The Bridge Over The River Kwai: The Real Story

[Alan Klein]

One solution I've found that works very, very well for me when photographing street scenes in NYC is to do so late at night.

Although it's been more than a half-dozen years since my last visit, no one has ever bothered me about where I place my camera / tripod combo when it's after midnight or before 5:00 am.

I was, however, hassled on two separate occasions by the Park Police when I was spotted carrying my tripod / camera combo over my shoulder as I walked across the Harlem River Lift Span bridge at 125th Street to Randall's Island.

On both occasions, I was on the sidewalk on the south side of the bridge. At the beginning of the sidewalk on the west side and partially hidden by vegetation, there is (was?) a sign that said either "cameras prohibited on bridge" or "cameras not allowed on bridge" (I forget which).

I took this to mean that photographing from the bridge wasn't allowed, so I didn't.

According to the Park Police, though, the sign literally meant that cameras were not allowed on the bridge, period.

I argued with the cop about this for a bit, asking whether this prohibition included cellphones with cameras that were being carried inside a jacket pocket or cameras being carried in unlabeled boxes inside a UPS truck or in a camera bag inside the trunk of a car and he said it did -- "no cameras means no cameras!" he explained firmly -- although when I questioned him further about this, he did admit the regulation would be difficult to enforce in some situations.

He had his ticket book in hand and was ready to write me a ticket, but after I handed him my I.D., he realized I was from out-of-state and decided to let me go with just a warning. "I don't want to ruin your vacation," he said, mildly apologetically.

The second time occurred a few hours later, as I was walking back across the bridge from Randall's Island to Manhattan. I explained to the second Park cop that 1) There was no warning sign posted anywhere that I saw, so how would anyone know this was prohibited? and 2) I had been stopped by another cop earlier, but I had no choice but to cross the bridge with my tripod / camera a second time since it was the only way I knew to return to Manhattan. Fortunately, he likewise let me go with just a warning...

I'm sure he was happy he didn't have to write up a report about a dead body he found on that bridge or in the Harlem River below, an area called Hell's Gate. It's not in the safest of neighborhoods especially during the times you were there at night.

[Jeff Conrad]

although when I questioned him further about this, he did admit the regulation would be difficult to enforce in some situations.

I suspect the “regulation” would be difficult to enforce in some situations because there probably is no regulation. Ditto for the “bans” on photography of bridges. There were many stories—some of them told here—about such things in the years after 9/11. But not once did I ever see a citation of authority for any of these bans; a sign does not carry the force of law.

Many folks here have had similar experiences with NPS and FS rangers who insisted that permits were required for “commercial” photography, when that never has been the case.

If one is to believe the New York Times, the Park Police aren’t the most upstanding law enforcement agency. I’ve had only limited contact with them in San Francisco, but my impressions were consistent with this article: they were not nice people.

That said, a gun and a badge usually beats four aces. And often the law.

[Bob Salomon]

“. . . That said, a gun and a badge usually beats four aces. And often the law. . . .”

Tell that to Wild Bill Hickok!