Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

National Park Photography Workshop Permits: Are They Really Necessary?
Posted: 09 Jun 2014 12:00 PM PDT

Sunrise on the West Side Road at Badwater Basin, Death Valley
Back in February of 2014, I led two back-to-back photography workshops in Death Valley National Park with my friend and fellow photographer Mike Mezeul. Planning workshops is a lot of work and takes a lot of love and dedication to do right. Before the process of getting everything set up (making sure the students had all booked their flights, hotels, rental cars, etc.) we needed to apply for a workshop permit. This is sort of a tough thing to do timeline wise. You can apply for it ahead of time before you even announce the workshop; but then you run the risk of paying the $210 (average cost) and the workshop falling through or something like that. Or you can wait until you book spots for the workshop and then apply for the permit; but then you run the risk of not getting the permit in time for the workshop. We opted for the latter because we had plenty of time to get the application in and get the permit back. We got our workshop permit in time and had nothing to worry about. We weren’t going to risk getting in trouble with the park in an effort to save a few hundred bucks.
Now fast forward to the second workshop. We had just wrapped up a beautiful sunrise shoot at Badwater Basin on the West Side Road (Death Valley. The patterns at the main part of Badwater (by the parking lot) were in pretty terrible shape but we decided to take the group there after the sunrise shoot so they could see all the educational signs, walk around for a bit and get a picture of the “280 Feet Below Sea Level” sign. While we were there, a man came up to me and asked if we had found any good patterns. I’ve never been one to withhold secrets so I told him about the spot we found over on West Side Road. I noticed he had a van full of people and shortly after, they were on their way.

Workshop students set up for sunrise at the Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes
Our group stayed at the Badwater parking lot for another 30 minutes or so before heading back into Furnace Creek for breakfast. When we got to the Forty Niner Cafe we saw a large table of around 20 people (all with their photography gear) sitting in silence. It was really strange. Nobody was really talking and everyone looked stressed out and upset. I went to use the restroom and that’s when I saw the same guy who I’d spoken to at the Badwater Basin parking lot.
He told me that he was a workshop instructor and they were on day two (the first full day) of their photography workshop. He had taken my advice and driven his group down to the West Side Road but when he got there, a Park Ranger was waiting for him. As it turns out, the instructor and his partner had decided to forgo the workshop permit because they had applied for one the year before and never got asked about it at during that workshop. He figured, “Why not save the $210?” It’s not like Death Valley has much staff left after all the government cutbacks, right? Wrong.
The Ranger asked for his permit and when the instructor said he didn’t have one, he was told to leave the park immediately. He was instantly given a $2,000 fine for conducting a workshop inside a National Park without a permit. He had to leave his group of around 20 students inside the park–students who had paid the tuition for the workshop, bought plane tickets into Vegas, rental cars to drive into the park and $200/night hotels within the park. On top of that, he had to appear before a judge in federal court in California three months later. That meant another flight to book, a couple nights in a hotel, a rental car and living expenses for the trip. Based on the outcome of the court appearance, he was facing upwards of $10,000 in fines and a lifetime ban from the park. I’m not sure what the outcome was with his group of students but I’m assuming they got their money back for the workshop.

A mysterious sailing rock during sunset at the Racetrack Playa
The Lesson to be Learned
The takeaway here is not to cut corners. If you are conducting a workshop inside of a national park, a national monument or even some state parks; get a permit. It’s not worth taking the risk and there are Park Rangers out there doing research. I talked to another photographer who was holding a workshop out in Zion National Park a while back. He had applied for a permit (and got one) to take his group into the Subway. When he got to the parking lot to start the hike, a Ranger was waiting there for him to check his permit. I’ve heard other stories of the Rangers looking up workshops on Google and then keeping track of the instructors on social media. They then try and pinpoint where the group will be and see if they can track them down to make sure they have the permit. All it takes is a tweet saying, “Beautiful sunrise at the Mesquite Dunes this morning.” To be honest, $210 is a very small fee to pay for holding a workshop inside of a national park. On top of that, you are supporting the park by paying the fee much in the same way you support it by purchasing park passes and entry fees.
If you are a student and will be attending a workshop inside a park, make sure that your instructor has the right permits. In my opinion, an instructor that cuts corners to save their bottom line isn’t an instructor worth paying tuition for a workshop.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

WTF! If a permit is required get a permit! The funds help support and maintain the parks saving the taxpayers a few bucks and those that actually use the parks get to help support them. I hope those nasty rangers catch everyone trying to skip out on paying for their permits.

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

The parks already get vast amounts of taxpayer funding in addition to the admission fees. And all those workshop attendees are already paying admission fees.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

Below is the NPS guideline for required permits:

Who Needs a Permit?
•Commercial/ student/ non-profit/ documentary/ promotional/ educational films or entertainment broadcasts
•Any person filming stock footage or for the potential use of stock footage REGARDLESS OF EQUIPMENT
•Still photography using models (anybody intentionally posing for the camera), sets or props
•Time-lapse photography if outcome of photographs will be used in a motion picture format
•Sound recording projects that require more than handheld equipment, more than one person or NPS oversight
•Wedding/ portrait photography if final product will be used for advertisement of any kind

Los-Angeles-Shooter Loc: Los Angeles

Thank you for digging this up. Comments:

The second item covers any wildlife or landscape or macro photography or stuff like shooting a guy fishing. Or snapshots of kids playing with a scenic background. Or virtually any other subject or activity. In addition to covering everything it creates the strange situation of a ranger being expected to or wanting to delve into the mind of the shooter.

The third would apparently cover anyone taking pictures of friends or girlfriends. Especially if the subject was suspiciously good-looking or photogenic.

Anyone else think the greedy bureaucrats have gone way too far?

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Park service employees are not "greedy bureaucrats," they are dedicated professionals working to protect our precious natural resources, resources which belong to all of us as well as to future generations. The park service is already under-staffed and under-funded and inadequately policed and maintained. The parks are under terrific duress from misuse - ATVs, plant poachers, collectors, trash, excessive foot traffic in sensitive areas. The majestic dune in Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore is now about 200 feet tall, when it was once 400 feet. Foot traffic kills the plants that stabilize the dune.

There would be no controversy about this and we would not even be discussing it were it not for the relentless and aggressive efforts by private interests to exploit the parks for profit and bend the politicians to their views through the use of copious bribery. That is the "greed" about which you should be concerned.

If a national park has sufficient value for people to desire them for use for their photo ops and workshops, their commercials and films, then they damned sure have enough value to justify whatever it takes to protect and preserve them.

The freedom to do whatever you want personally without being "hassled" by "bureaucrats" is a denial of the freedom of millions of others now and in the future, the freedom to enjoy and appreciate the national park system congruent with its intended purpose - the protection and preservation of a precious natural heritage that belongs to all of us.

Mike

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Quite reasonable.

Regulations become complex because the strategies of those who wish to abuse the parks are complex, and because of political pressure from the small but powerful faction that does not wish there to be regulations of any kind anywhere.

Mike

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

From the National Park Service regulations:

Still Photography (whether commercial or noncommercial), in accordance with Public Law 106-206, will not require a permit unless:

- it takes place at a location(s) where or when members of the public are generally not allowed

- or it uses model(s) or prop(s) that are not a part of the location's natural or cultural resources or administrative facilities

- or the National Park Service would need to provide management and oversight to prevent unacceptable impacts.

Public law 106 - 206 - an act to allow the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture to establish a fee system for commercial filming activities on federal land.

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/PLAW-106publ206/html/PLAW-106publ206.htm

Mike

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

Hardly a week goes by that I don't see a wedding photographer in the national park near me, often setting up in fragile or sensitive areas, tromping the vegetation and dragging in equipment, treating the public land as though it were their personal property, and interfering with anyone trying to photograph the scenery from within the boundaries of pubic access areas. I also see video crews doing commercials for various private companies, again tromping into restricted areas, damaging the flora, disturbing wildlife and interfering with those of us who are abiding by the rules. None of these people have bothered getting a permit - I know, I ask.

Those people need to pay and they need to be supervised if they are going to use our resources for their personal gain.

If no one followed the rules there would soon be no National Parks, and therefore no beautiful photo ops. This is a classic case of people selfishly grabbing for themselves at the expense of the sustainability of the very thing that attracted them to the location in the first place, and at the expense of millions of others.

Mike

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I strongly disagree, why should anyone have to pay to photograph our national parks which BTW belong to the people of this country. If the park service needs to charge admission to the parks to pay for the maintenance that is one thing let them charge admission, but that should be the only charges in the parks unless they offer rental equipment etc.

MT Shooter Loc: Montana

You have entirely missed the point. The permits are NOT required for visitors to photograph anything, they are only required for COMMERCIAL photography within the parks.

Pepper Loc: Planet Earth Country USA

Blurry, I'm not arguing whether or not a permit should or should not be required, what I'm saying is that if the law requires a permit then it should be purchased. If you think that law should be repealed fair enough but until then they need to buy the permit. I'm getting tired of this whole attitude that seems so prevalent in our country today that says if I don't like the law I'll just ignore it. President Obama takes that approach and he's called every name in the book (I'm not an Obama fan, I use this as an example only) If you and others demand he obey the law why not everyone else?

Hoot72 Loc: Lexington, KY

:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

Blurryeyed Loc: NC Mountains.

I saw that after reading your post, even so, I am not in agreement with the policy... Just my personal opinion.

Blenheim Orange Loc: Michigan

You do not have to pay to photograph our national parks, as the information I posted makes clear.

You do have to pay to use public resources for private profit.

Shared use of resources held in common mandates managed use. Dragging a video production team into a protected area represents more usage, and potentially destructive (and therefore expensive) usage. Ergo, higher fees are appropriate.

For whatever problems people may perceive to be involved in management of parks by public employees, it is a certainty that were these areas left to private management we would have no areas of natural beauty left.

Mike