All is well

[DonH]

This all gets deeply to a philosophical and perhaps political discussion. It comes down to the US constitution which I happen to take extremely seriously and do not want to see violated let alone changed. It has to do very much with freedom of the press. Do we really want some government body deciding who is a journalist and who is not? How convenient for government to credential those who agree with them and ban those who oppose them. I want LESS government in our lives and not more. Fears like this can drive people to create crazy scary laws that might address the origional fear but cause many unintended bad results. Some states have tried to creat laws on photography but all have been struck down as unconstitutional - thank God. A release for a school,to use a photo is very different than a private person or independent journalist taking pictures for social media. Yes there are downsides or can be but I see the downsides of regulation far worse. If you can see it in public, why not be able to take a picture of it. What's the difference? Someone can see a child enter a school or see he is overweight by simply looking at them. A photo only documents what we see with our eyes.

Anyhow, didn't mean to hijack things here - as a journalist and photographer this is a huge passion area for me. I even have written articles and do seminars to public officials letting them know PHOTOGRAPHY IS NOT A CRIME - the title of my seminar.