As the only stock photo agency specializing in military and law enforcement material, we often encounter customers who wonder why it is so hard to get this sort of stock photography, and why it is only available for license as rights-managed (RM) instead of the much cheaper RF. The short answer is that it is very difficult to make these photographs, and dangerous, too.
The difficulty starts with access. Want to make photos of soldiers, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, SWAT teams, or any of the other members of tactical or support military units? Well, you probably can't. The only people permitted to interview and photograph military personnel on military installations (or almost anywhere else) must be approved by a long and demanding process. Even if the military uses your products, you can't legally make photographs of them being used by soldiers and then use those photos in advertising. Even if you can get yourself and your camera on a base and start making photos, the MPs are going to show up and you're going to get a ride in the back of a patrol car. Sooner or later you'll be escorted to the gate and told to leave. Your camera might not go with you.
I'll explain the process of legally making photos on military installations in detail in another blog, but for now will just say that you've got to get permission from the Public Affairs shop, and to do that you've got to make a proper request and have a very good reason for asking. That reason MUST be related to an "editorial" project -- a book, a magazine article, a television program -- with a known publisher. You need to have documentation that you are a legitimate photojournalist doing a legitimage project. Even then, PAO is not likely to approve your request.
So how have I been able to make all these photographs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, British Army, Russian Air Force, and many SWAT teams? Because I have written and illustrated more than sixty books over about twenty-five years, books on Green Berets, SEALs, many kinds of aircraft, many kinds of ships, many kinds of training. The first book was on the Coast Guard, and I will write about that particular series of adventures another time. That was in 1983, but the process of getting access and making photos for that book was essentially the same as for most of the other books -- it takes a long time, a good track record, a network of friends within the subject community, a good portfolio and a good resume.
So you can't make photographs of the military unless the military approves, and they aren't going to approve without a very good reason. I'm one of a small handful of guys who have had a good reason, and I seem to have been the only one who's been producing photo books on all of the ground forces.
The difficulty starts with access. Want to make photos of soldiers, Navy SEALs, Recon Marines, SWAT teams, or any of the other members of tactical or support military units? Well, you probably can't. The only people permitted to interview and photograph military personnel on military installations (or almost anywhere else) must be approved by a long and demanding process. Even if the military uses your products, you can't legally make photographs of them being used by soldiers and then use those photos in advertising. Even if you can get yourself and your camera on a base and start making photos, the MPs are going to show up and you're going to get a ride in the back of a patrol car. Sooner or later you'll be escorted to the gate and told to leave. Your camera might not go with you.
I'll explain the process of legally making photos on military installations in detail in another blog, but for now will just say that you've got to get permission from the Public Affairs shop, and to do that you've got to make a proper request and have a very good reason for asking. That reason MUST be related to an "editorial" project -- a book, a magazine article, a television program -- with a known publisher. You need to have documentation that you are a legitimate photojournalist doing a legitimage project. Even then, PAO is not likely to approve your request.
So how have I been able to make all these photographs of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, British Army, Russian Air Force, and many SWAT teams? Because I have written and illustrated more than sixty books over about twenty-five years, books on Green Berets, SEALs, many kinds of aircraft, many kinds of ships, many kinds of training. The first book was on the Coast Guard, and I will write about that particular series of adventures another time. That was in 1983, but the process of getting access and making photos for that book was essentially the same as for most of the other books -- it takes a long time, a good track record, a network of friends within the subject community, a good portfolio and a good resume.
So you can't make photographs of the military unless the military approves, and they aren't going to approve without a very good reason. I'm one of a small handful of guys who have had a good reason, and I seem to have been the only one who's been producing photo books on all of the ground forces.
Once the photographs have been made for publication, the PAO shops of the various military branches approve the use of these images as stock photography. They don't get involved in any secondary use, and don't need to provide approval. And that's how I have been able to offer the thousands of photographs of the US armed forces through Military Stock Photography.
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