Lately I have had a number of eye opening experiences, and I have just had another one. I love to learn, however it has been rather complicated as of late. Let me explain.
I had a returning client contact me about a session. They wanted to do this session at our local zoo/botanical gardens. This made me slightly nervous. I have never shot at a place where I have had to pay an entrance fee and not to mention I have been ridiculed by other photographers for posting photos from the Zoo on my business page due to their beliefs about the zoo's media rules. With this in mind I went to the zoo's website to see what the exact policy was. This is where the confusion came in.
Per the zoo policy if the shoot is a commercial shoot there would be a $1,000 a day fee, plus extra fees if you needed to have a zoo Representative or not and than there were additional charges for other things based upon the number of hours that you were there and the equipment you may or may not need. There was also the charges per photo depending on if you were going to use them for textbooks, or other items. It was a lot overall. However there was also a clause about non commercial shooting. Which basically as long as you did not interfere with the flow of the visitors to the park and did not sell your photos you were in the clear. However if you were shooting bridal photos those had an extra charge and could only be shot after hours in the park. As I said it was all confusing.
After reading the policy the first thing I needed to do was figure out if I was going to be considered commercial, non commercial or potentially fall into the same classification as a bride with this particular shoot. I did some research and asked in several Facebook groups and came up with the same problem. It was a fifty fifty choice. Some stated that I would be commercial because I am being paid to shoot, and others stated non commercial because this is a senior photo session, it is not an advertisement shoot which is what made sense to be. However no one could really answer if I would fall into the bridal category or not as sometimes portraits in general can be lumped together like that.
In an effort to figure out where I fell I began some research on line. I was directed to this article from F-Stoppers https://fstoppers.com/other/fstoppers-answers-what-commercial-photography-2963 where various well known photographers described what they thought the difference between commercial and non commercial shooting was. Needless to say they seemed to come across as though they were not sure. I tried to find a state law or some guidance and there was just nothing that I could find, even with the help of Google that could answer my question. Which honestly I was surprised. Google usually never fails me. The last step that I could think of was to see what other photographers in the area had done. I noted that there were a large number of them that had shot at this location, and I noted that they had even linked back to the zoo itself. So this caused me to really stop and think. My thought process than became, "If the photographer linked back to the zoo they must have signed a contract stating that they had too." Which this led to the thought that this session would be considered a commercial session. At the same time I tried to contact a few photographers in the area, and sadly they had no information for me. Some chose not to answer when I called or when I asked they had never shot there and were unaware of the procedure.
I know that a number of you are probably wondering why I didn't start with just talking to someone at the zoo. To be honest I had started to get in contact with them. The minute that I was asked to do the session at the zoo I looked up a point of contact at the zoo and sent off an email. I let 48 hours go by with no response, and since this was a last minute shoot I needed to have my ducks in a row or I needed to find another location. I personally did not want to have to find another location because this zoo with its gardens are amazing. So I was holding out hope that it would all work out in our favor. After no contact was made from the point of contact I tried calling the zoo, and the first phone call was a complete failure. They wanted a message and they would get back to me at a later time. So I waited, until the next morning. I can almost bet I was the first call of the day. I called as soon as I knew the gates were open and I was praying someone would actually want to talk to me. As luck would have it there was someone who wanted to talk to me, and they even had the answers that I was looking for. Per the interpretation of the policy I would be shooting as a non commercial entity. Which seems odd because I am still selling the photos. Here is the catch. I am selling them to an end user. I am not creating them for marketing and they will not be used to advertise for a specific business. That is where the difference lies. This session also did not fall into the bridal category because there was not going to be all the extra things like hair and makeup and a huge dress that was going to be in the way. In their eyes this was nothing more than a family trip to the zoo.
So what I have learned that there is not a defining answer that goes across the board to determine if we are all considered commercial or non commercial. Even though we are getting paid for a service and a product it may not mean we are commercial. This is something that is determined by the location that we are shooting at, and what we are planning to use the photos for once they are completed. Which now that I know this is either going to be a blessing or a curse, as this now leads me to question every time that I shoot at a new location where am I going to fall, and I feel that I need to find a way to understand the policies as I read them a bit better in order to reduce the stress of trying to figure out what I am or am not based upon the project that I am working on. I feel like I have said all this to simply say, no matter what you do as a photographer when it comes to determining if you are commercial or non commercial it is left to the discretion of others whether you like it or not.
What are your opinions about this particular topic? I would love to hear them!
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