Hi, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts on why major public botanical gardens have started imposing no-photo rules? I have run across at least three, in all areas of the country, of very large stature, that have no-photo rules of varying degrees. One has a no "professional" photo rule of any publicly displayed plant (with no apparent enforcement of this rule on premises, just stated on the big rules board as you enter, go figure), another won't let you take any photos in the back greenhouses but will in the public areas, and the other you have to go through the public affairs department, which I am told is very strict, about getting permission to take any photos.
Some of the reasonings I can understand - in a very popular garden, the number of people taking photos can impair the experience for others, but other than that, I can't think of any other legitimate reasons. How do these gardens handle requests from academic researchers? Are they given a different level of access than the rest of the public? That then leads to how is academic research quantified? A "lay" person writing a book on orchids and needs photo illustration? Someone doing accredited college/university level research? Is this a symptom of the declining budgets for the nonessential public services like Botanical Gardens? Are they now requesting licensing fees and residuals on photographs taken of their collections? I've not taken the issue as far as making a formal request for permission, so I don't know. Or is this an effort to start running Botanical Gardens more like a private enterprise, which as we all know, tend to operate on a vastly different set of access rules and licensing of content (the plants) rules than a traditional publicly supported garden. Or am I just being too sensitive? -Eric in SF www.orchidphotos.org _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids
