Commercial Film Permits in National Parks and other Public Lands. Tom Opre Filmmaker. Tony Bynum Photography
Filmmaker and producer Tom Opre films a hunting scene in central Montana. Tony Bynum Photography
Podcast with Tony Bynum and Randy Newberg - photogrphy, hunting, conservation, and telling your story about your public lands experiences.
The #ourwild campaign is about real people telling their public lands stories. This #ourwild video, produced by The Wilderness Society, is part of my public land story. I'm a father. I'm a hunter. I'm a photographer, friend and advocate for keeping the public domain in public hands. I am firmly against selling, or trading the public domain to the states. I'm not a preservationist, I'm a conservationist, which means I believe in using the natural resources, not locking them up. I also believe some places should be off limits to extraction. I'm for sensible, reasoned, and smart use of our public resources.
As a hunter and photographer, I support hunter education in the form of learning the history of conservation in America, in addition to how to be safe with a gun. For example, in order to bow hunt in Montana, during the early elk season, you have to have a special permit and pay an extra fee for it. In order to receive that permit you must go through an approved educational course that includes the history of conservation, the history of bowhunting, and the people who were instrumental in creating of the modern bow.
Conservation and resources management are more important than ever. Resources are limited and as we've seen our appetite, or demand for them is limitless. I believe that all children should be taught the history of conservation.
Here is a list of Authors, and titles worth reading.
Aldo Leopold - A Sand County Almanac
Rachel Carson - Silent Spring
Marc Reisner - Cadillac Desert
Henry David Thoreau - Walden
Wendell Berry - The Unsettling of America
James Lovelock - Gaia
Edward Abbey - Desert Solitaire
Vine Deloria - Spirit and Reason
Please help by making your story known. You can also take action here, on the #ourwild page. Leave a comment or share this post and together we can insure that our children have #ourwild. #keepitpublic
Tony Bynum
The Ansel Adams Act of 2015. H. R. 5893. To restore the First Amendment Rights of Photographers.
Man photographing Glacier National Park winter scene. The Ansel Adams Act would return restore first amendment rights to photographers on public lands. ©tonybynum.com
Exert from the bill:
"Prohibition on Fees, Permits, or Insurance.--No Federal
Government agency shall require fees, permits or insurance as a
condition to take still or moving images on Federal lands, National
Parks and Forests, and public spaces, whether for private, media, or
commercial use.
(d) Prohibition on the Seizure and Forfeiture of Photographic
Equipment.--Federal law enforcement officers or private contractors
shall not seize any photographic equipment or their contents or memory
cards or film, and shall not order a photographer to erase the contents
of a camera or memory card or film"
As a photographer this interests me a great deal. Years ago I tried to make the argument that the Professional Outdoor Media Association ( the only national traditional outdoor media organization, and I honorably and proudly serve as an executive member of the Board of Directors), should push the first amendment rights of photographers when our "rights" are infringed. Much like the National Rifle Association pushes the constitution rights of Americans to own guns. I was denied support in exchange for my support of a bill that would require photographers and videographers to pay a yearly fee for access to our public lands for filming and photography. That bill never became law, although Murkoski of Alaska introduced the bill and Montana's senator John Tester worked hard crafting it.
Today, there's a new bill that shall be referred to as the, "Ansel Adams Act." Its purpose is to return first amendment, constitutionally based rights back to photographers. While the bill does not address video and it will have to define the word "photography" so there's no confusion, it's a step in the right direction. Technology is changing everything and unless our laws keep up with the changing world, we will continue to lose rights, and congress will continue to build it's power over us in exchange for big money from special interests.
I would like the bill to go a step further and add some language about video and the number of people that can be grouped together. In the past, regulations have applied to two or more people leaving being outdoors collecting digital media to the pursuits of a single person acting alone.
If you would like to read the short bill, you'll find the bill, the "Ansel Adams Act," at this address.
I recommend you contact your house and senate members and refer them to the Ansel Adams Act by showing that you support this bill. Share the bill broadly via social media, and if you have the time and capacity, write about it on your own blog.
How do you feel about this bill? Does it make sense, would you support it?
Tony
When Erin Madison, (@GFT_EMadison) outdoor writer for the Great Falls Tribune (@GFTribue) called us to do an interview about the Montana prairie project we worked on recently, we were happy to say yes! As many of you know, my partner Stacy Dolderer and I spent several months bouncing around the prairie lands of Montana last summer. It may not sound like much to most of you, but taking on the challenge of inventorying millions of acres of public lands to find areas that contain wilderness characteristics was to us, an awesome opportunity. Could there be a better project for a full time outdoor, nature, wildlife, and adventure photographer, and Stacy, a science teacher, to undertake? Why we did it, and what we found is contained in this great piece by, Erin Madison, titled (link to full article) "Beautiful in it's own way: Photographer, teacher spend a month recording Eastern Montana wonders." Here are some additional Montana photographs captured by Tony Bynum along the way.
I hope you enjoy the read as much as we did telling the story!
Tony Bynum and Stacy Dolderer
