UPDATE 28 Feb 2009: Several letters (the old fashioned kind, printed on paper, sent in envelopes with stamps) have been dispatched to higher-ups at Georgia Power and its parent company, Southern Company. I have also contacted the Georgia ACLU. So far, there has been no official reply from the company, although in recent weeks my logs show that they do seem inordinately interested in this particular blog entry.

I got a new camera for Christmas, a Nikon D60 that my fiancee picked out for me. New cameras represent huge events in my life because of my love of photography. My last new camera was bought in April of 2002, and it was also a Nikon. I must admit to being a bit of a Nikon snob.

My new camera has rarely left my side since December 25. It goes to work with me, it goes shopping with me, and it accompanies me on even mundane errands. However, I have also looked hard for photo opportunities in the last few weeks, and that was the impetus for a recent trip to Euharlee, Georgia, and Georgia Power’s Plant Bowen, said by some to be the third largest coal-fired generating plant in the country. Rising from rural surroundings adjacent to the quiet Etowah river, the plant is an impressive sight from up to ten miles away, with two smokestacks rising 1,000 feet above ground level and four 380-foot natural draft cooling towers. I had wanted to pay a visit and photograph the plant for some time, and the new camera provided a perfect opportunity.

For reference, here is a view of the property, courtesy of Google Maps. I have marked several points of interest; you can click the blue pointer for more information on each point.

View Larger Map

I’ve spent a lot of time around sensitive facilities, and I know not to drive through gates or place myself on corporate property. I know what to shoot and what not to shoot, and I know the law. Allison and I drove first to the south side of the plant, looking for a nice establishing shot. I found one along Atwood Road, a nice view of two cooling towers framed by an interesting pattern of towers and 500 KV transmission lines. (Click the picture to see other sizes and more info on Flickr.)

We then drove around to the east side of the plant on Covered Bridge Road, noticing how tantalizingly close we were to the huge cooling towers. Allison had never seen such a cooling tower in operation, so I found a small area of gravel on the right-of-way where I could stop and take a few shots.

I got back into the car and took a quick photo of a very odd piece of construction equipment that was approaching us on the highway. (The shot was not very successful and I have not posted it.) I then pulled back out onto the pavement northbound and noticed that a Georgia Power pickup truck had been parked behind me and was now following me.

In retrospect, I really wish I’d stopped and asked if I could be of assistance. The pickup truck followed me, remaining less than one car length from my rear bumper, for nearly half a mile. He made no attempt to get me to stop, but definitely did his best to be intimidating. Eventually, as I passed the recreation area entrance and left the vicinity of the plant, he broke off, but stopped and continued to observe me as I continued on my way.

When I posted my photographs on Flickr, I discovered I was not the first person to be treated this way by Georgia Power security personnel. Another photographer on Flickr had an even worse experience, as described on one of her photos. In her case, the security guard approached her and asked her to erase her photos.

That set me off, and I wished even more fervently that I’d stopped and gotten some firsthand experience with these paranoid security people. Can you imagine asking people to erase photos taken on public property? I couldn’t. It’s Hitleresque to say the least.

On January 21, I sent the following inquiry to Georgia Power’s corporate communications department by way of their web site.

After being closely followed by one your company trucks while taking photographs from the public highway adjacent to Plant Bowen, I read on another photographer’s site that photography in these areas is against “company policy” and that your security people have forced people to erase photographs taken there. Please explain how your company policy affects people on a public highway.

Today, January 30, I received the following reply from Lynn Williams of Southern Company, parent company of Georgia Power.

Mr. Johnson, the response below was provided by a security employee at Plant Bowen:

Covered Bridge Road is a County Road that divides our Plant Site with GPC Property on both sides. Due to the nature of our business and our high threat level of risk, anytime a vehicle or person is observed leaving the county road entering on to GPC property, Security will attempt to speak with these individuals and request some form of identification. If these individuals are observed photographing while on GPC Plant property we advise them that photographing of the plant site is not allowed without permission from GPC Plant Management and request that they erase the photos. We provide them with the number for Corporate Communications if they would like to make that request. At no time has anyone ever been forced by Security to erase photographs on GPC Plant property or from the Roadway surrounding the property.

Not knowing any particulars of Mr. Johnson, I would suspect that he could have been observed making photographs from the County Road. If this were the case possibly the Officer was attempting to obtain a vehicle description and License Plate Number from the vehicle to submit a report of this observation of someone making photographs from the roadway to submit to Corporate Security.

Great. “Corporate Security” now has my license number and vehicle description on record. I wonder what they plan to do with that information? Clearly these people are counting on the fact that most people do not know their rights as photographers. With very few exceptions, in this country, if you can see it, you can photograph it legally. The exceptions are sensible ones: Nuclear generating plants, military bases and operations, and people with a reasonable expectation of privacy. Bowen isn’t nuclear, it’s not military in nature, and I didn’t shoot pictures through any bedroom windows. I’m covered.

There are people, though, who do not question authority. She says their security people ask for identification and ask that photos be erased. I wonder how many people would have the knowledge and the presence of mind to know that they aren’t required to erase pictures, and in fact are not even required to identify themselves to a private security officer on public property, outside his area of authority.

Therefore, this morning I decided to push a bit harder. I sent the following back to Ms. Williams.

I’m afraid this isn’t an acceptable response. Your security employee states:

“…photographing of the plant site is not allowed without permission from GPC Plant Management.”

I would like to know what law supports your employee’s statement, or what special rights your company may have to restrict photography otherwise protected against US law. The only things that may not be photographed from public property, even in this post-9/11 era, are nuclear plants, certain military operations and installations, and people who have a reasonable expectation of privacy (such as people inside their own homes). Your plant falls under none of these categories.

If your employee (the one following me in a pickup truck) made a report to “corporate security” about my taking photographs from a public street, and that report included my license number and vehicle description, I would like to know what will be done with that information. My actions were completely legal, and if your company claims they aren’t, perhaps the proper authorities should become involved.

We’ll see where it goes from here. People should not be hassled, interrogated, or treated like criminals for simply recording a visual image of things they can see. The New York City subway and the BART system in San Francisco have both been in the news for trying to prohibit photography in their facilities; in neither case is there a law or statute in place, but Port Authority police and BART fare inspectors have abused photographers regardless.

It’s got to stop.

If you are a photographer in the United States, I urge you to read (or even carry with you) an excellent pamphlet published by an Oregon lawyer called “The Photographer’s Right.” You can download it in PDF form and print it in any convenient size. If anyone knows of a comparable document for photographers in other countries, please let me know of it and I will post a similar link here.