I know that this subject has been looked at before many times, but to be honest I've never really cared until today.

I have just started a photography business and am developing my portrait portfolio. Anyway, looking for some cool urban photos, my model and I went into the car park of a city-centre shopping centre (multi-storey) and had a 5 minute shoot, where she was the only person in each frame (no other cars or anything identifiable whatsoever).

Just as we were packing up, the mall manager came over like a bee after a honey stealing bear, demanding to know what we were doing. "Photography." [with bemused and angry look on his face] "Why?!". You know how it goes, he refuses permission, mentions the T-word (terrorism) and insists I delete my images. At this stage I reckon he doesn't have the right to ask this, but in the end I give in to avoid a fuss, thus losing some great pictures. He then proceeded to take a photocopy of my driving license "just in case".

Basically, who had the 'right of way' in this annoying situation? Did he have the right to make me delete my photos, or copy my driving license? More worring is that because the pics were deleted he has no evidence to prove that it was MY pictures, if bizarrely pictures of his mall featuring an average height brunette girl appear on www.binladen.com

Help!

Philip

A court case last week confirmed that the whole issue of photography in public places, the fight against terrorism, the law and the attitude of the police are not correctly aligned. Anti-terrorism actions by police against photographers is excessive and not within the meaning and intent of the AT legislation . In your case and under any circumstances, you would not have been obligated to destroy your images. The fact that you did does not preclude you from recovering them from your card using recovery software and you would not be breaking any laws. The mall manager has rights but not the right to physically abuse you or your equipment. He has no right to take your identification and you should now ask for assurance that it has been destroyed. After all, a driving licence is a key element of ID in the UK. You should complain to the "operators" of the mall and suggest some retraining of staff and some compensation for your time.

Keep up with developments in the area of photographers rights so that you can hold your ground when the next opportunity arises.
There's a story this week on Amateur Photographer.

Here's a link: http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/news/Photographers_can_sue_over_Section_44_terror_law_abuse_says_lawyer_news_299712.html

Good luck

Two things strike me about this.

The first is that, by your own admission 'you couldn't have cared less about what happened to anyone else, but now it's happened to you, you want to know where you stand'.

The second is that you believe you were in a public place.

The two go together, in that you basically weren't fully prepared. You were on private property, and, as such, should have asked for permission, which may have been granted or denied, however, now you will never know.

The mall has owners, so is not a public place. Also, if you were prepared for the first part, you would never have handed over your driving license. However, I think you did the right thing. You co-operated and admitted that you had done something wrong and, I can only assume, diffused the situation.

I have been turned down a car park shoot in city centre Manchester, the reason being:

1) it's private property.
2) photographers just turn up and do what they want, they are not allowed.

This is from the car park manager.

It's up to yu, if you use rescue software to get the photos back. As an aside, I would, just so I could see how good they were. Whether you choose to use them is one only you could answer.