I wanted to share this with you, I thought I would go to the local mall during lunch and take a few pictures. They have a nice outside area for bands and entertainment. Kind of a small park like look with restaurants. I decide to get some shots of the BIG Christmas tree , but I am having a problem getting it all in the shot ( I told ya it was big ) so I wander all around snapping off a few shots then decide to go higher. I take the escalator up and find a good spot. ( still outside area ) Out of nowhere a security guard comes up and says " You cant do that , No photos allowed at the mall , you must leave the mall immediately " I say EXCUSE ME ?? he babbles about suspicious / terrorist activity and heightened security. Most of my lunch was over and I decide not to push it and leave. Next day I call the P.R. people at the mall and ask for permission . I am willing to provide references and what not. But I get a different story . No photography allowed at the mall , we have lots of people asking ( newspapers , magazines ....) our policy is no . Again I say EXCUSE ME ??
The long and short of it is it turns out her dad is a photographer and doesn't respect the ( As she said it ) rights of others to not be photographed in public . Not to mention respecting parents wishes that there children not be photographed with out permission. ohh and she through in the dreaded " INTERNET "
I am interested if anyone knows what the REAL rights I have are . I will probley give up on this its easier and less trouble to photograph the female form or nature .

Your situation is not uncommon. Many malls do not allow photograhy oin their premises. Because they are owned by either a private individual, or a corporation they are private property, and the right to allow people to photograph is their choice. In the USA you can still legally photograph anyone at any time in any publicly owned space. However, private property is a whole other ball game.

I can only give you one bit of advice, which is that if you ever consider using your images you take on the streets for commercial use, you should have a good law firm inform you on the different situations and uses of photos. On one side of the spectrum you have photojournalists, who have the (sort of) universal right of news gathering - so they never to ask permission (just imagine they'd have to!) or risk getting sued all the time for this stuff. And on the other side is using someone's photo or portrait for commercial use, like using a famous person's face for a add campaign. I guess with 'amateur' or hobby photography it's very up to the situation or kindness of people. Although personally I try to avoid staring at the people that I shoot, to give them the idea that I shot the person next to them or something like that ;) Usually works...just be quick =)

So from what I gather. If you quickly took the pictures you would probably never had a problem. Bsteph

Imagine my embarassment once when I was teaching a community photography class, and wanted some on-site experience at the (then) world's biggest shopping mall in Schaumburg Illinois. We were pointedly asked to leave. Something about the window decorations being copyrighted... Save me from lawyers! tasquah has the right idea; pay the model up-front, get a signed release, and photograph the age on their drivers' license. Then, photograph whatever you can talk then into.

Well, lawyers.....know what you mean, but when your doing some stuff for a living and it involves some money, it's usually the artist that gets scr*wed, so it's always nice to have some stuff on paper and checked by a good lawyer :) But I still preffer the shoot-quickly-and-look-the-other-way idea ;)

The malls here in my area also prohibit photography within their premises, but with the proper permits procured from, let's say the press outfit or the company you work for and signed waivers for copyrights and releases, they may grant you rights to photograph certain areas. (*

no wonder ppl were looking at me strangely taking pics in the mall & in stores :D ...now I'm going to be paranoid looks quickly over shoulder & slinks off

Cyn, you anarchist you!!! hehe...a few weeks ago I had a confrontation with a store security guard while I was standing out on the sidewalk taking pictures. Jist was I told him he needed to leave me alone and went about my business. In that case, I was in the right because I was standing on a public sidewalk. As long as I didn't step onto their property, they couldn't tell me what to do. Especially considering I was in no way impeding entrance to their store (in fact, I was 30 feet from their door shooting up the sidewalk). -=>Donald

Jeez!!!

peeks around the corner & snaps a quick one! wasn't me, think it was him pointing at Donald hehe :D ROFLMAO

Ok...now I see that I'm gonna have to keep an eye on you. Some people's children. :) haha -=>Donald

Thanks for all who posted replies. I honestly didnt have a clue about this kind of thing happening . Silly me for assuming a mall was treated like a public place. Good thing there are lots of parks / beaches close by and its not like southern California has any lack of models who want to be photographed. Its a dirty job but someone has to do it.