Hassled by the Washington, DC Park Rangers for taking photos

I’ve spent the last three days here in Washington, DC on business. Meetings with the FAA, HHS and the WAAS office. Long times between meetings and I’ve been done pretty early in the day. So, I placed a casting call on ModelMayhem to see if I could pass the time doing what I like to do, take pictures. 5 or 6 TFCD models responded and I set up sessions with two of them. As my luck would have it – both at the same time. That wasn’t a problem for me (read assistant) or them though so we met at my hotel and headed for the National Mall to shoot. The plan was to use the monuments as the background. Sounded way cool.

We chose the new WW II monument because it had a nice water fountain. We got there around 7pm, good light, not huge crowds. As one model was getting her ticket from the Park Police (wrong way on a One Way street) the other model (Emily) and I set off to set up and shoot along the granite outside wall of the monument. I used 2 SB800s, at first to fill then to light her. Nikon CLS is so cool. So far so good. I get about a dozen shots off when the other model, Danielle walked up. She dismissed the ticket as part of life in DC and we starting posing her along the same wall Emily had used. About 10 minutes later I hear:

Sir – Sir:

I turned to face an older DC Park Ranger; funny looking chap. He asked if I had a permit to shoot the models. I replied, “No, do I need one?” He said, “Yes, professional photographers require a park permit to photograph models at this monument.” “Oh, well I’m not a pro, I’m just taking some pictures of these girls for their use.” Says I. “Well, if you’re getting paid, you’re a professional.” he said. “I’m not being paid, this is my hobby and

these girls and I are just passing the time taking pictures.” I tried to explain the whole TF* thing to which he decided I was making it all up on the spot. If I didn’t pack it up and leave he’d be forced to call the Park Police and I could explain it all to them. “No sir, that won’t be necessary, we’ll move along. BTW, is a permit required at all the monuments or just this new one?” I asked. He said he didn’t know about the others but I couldn’t do a professional shoot here. So, off we go.

On the way to the cars, who should we see, the Park Police Officer who had stopped and ticketed Danielle. I

believe he was smitten by her and she had told him she was a model and was late and……. You get the idea. We, as in Danielle, told him we’d been run off and why. He said he was not aware of any such requirement for ‘folks like us’. He told us of a nice photo location over at the FDR Memorial with waterfalls. He even lead the way over in his patrol car ‘so Danielle didn’t get another ticket’.

By the time we got over to the FDR Memorial it was dark. We found a small nice water wall (fall) and out comes the D300 and SB800s. All went well there with both models alone and together. We moved to the larger falls about 75 yards away and set up again.

Now, 9pm or so, the crowds appeared. I was a bit surprised by the number of people, but the left us alone for the most part, except for the teenage girls calling out to Emily and Danielle, (20 times!) ” Are you models? Are you models?”. A few minutes later I hear:

Sir – Sir:

I turned to face an older DC Park Ranger; funny looking chap.