However, with a city ordinance that restricts commercial activity on the beach, taking photographs on the beach could mean a fine.  

According to Isle of Palms  ordinance 2002-14, Sec.7-3-20, “no person shall sell or rent, or offer to sell or rent, any goods, merchandise, or services, or solicit any trade or business, on the beach, beach accesses, public parking lots, or the Breach Inlet bridge, except pursuant to a franchise granted by city council, or pursuant to a city-sponsored activity or event.”

According to professional photographers Bill and Kelli Nixon of Kelli Nixon Photography, they got a call in October from a girl who rented a house on the Isle of Palms specifically for her wedding.

The rental company, Island Reality, did not tell the bride-to-be that no photographers were allowed on the beach. As a result, she was extremely angry for not being made aware of this law after spending $8000 on the rental home for the week.

The bride could not be reached for comment.

“Several of us told her that they would not shoot the wedding because there is a $1100 fine,” Bill said.

He said that even though he and his wife have a commercial

license, they are not going to break the law.

However, for a bride that has booked a year in advance to stay, they have to tell the bride that they cannot shoot on the beach.

“We are really not a nuisance; we don’t have a stand out there,” he said.

The Nixon couple, who run their business from their Mount Pleasant home, do all of their business off of the island.

“If someone wants beach pictures, we have to have the beach to provide for that. If we stick to the letter of the law, the only beach available is Folly Beach which is a good 40 minutes away,” he said.

Bill Nixon feels it does not make sense to have this ordinance which endangers considerable tourist revenue for the area.

“It is a public beach, not a private beach. Regulating it for tourists who are spending thousands of dollars for rental property and then told they cannot have a professional photo made, does not make sense,” he said.

Lt. Raymond Wright of Isle of Palms Police Department said, “to my knowledge, I don’t believe we have charged anyone with that [illegal photography on the beach.]

“When someone wants to have [an activity] on the beach, they call me.”

Wright said that he tells them what they have to do and advises them they cannot have professional photography on the beach.

“To my knowledge no tickets have been given for violation of that ordinance. People have been warned and they have been advised,” he said.

Oftentimes people might rent the house on the beach and want to have the reception behind it. Rental companies refer the renters to the police department.

Amber Dooley with Island Realty Vacation Rentals said that they get a lot of people asking about weddings and receptions.

“I direct them to the Isle of Palms Police Department,”  she said.

“We are protecting our owners.”

(Helen Ravenel can be reached at helen@moultrienews.com. Read more stories online at www.moultrienews.com.)

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5 comment(s) found!

Posted by: Peter Finger Photographer On: 3/31/2009

Comment Title: This is just nuts!
IOP officials should rethink this. Keeping someone from walking up and down the beach trying to get business is one thing ( I have been on hundreds of beaches, thousands of times in my life and I have never seen this by the way, never once), but to stop a professional from completing their job is crazy! I have taken my clients off this beach and I bring them to other beaches. Here we can shoot with freedom, enjoy the businesses, have lunch or dinner, etc. Take your portrait business, your weddings, your engagement shoots to a beach where you are welcome! Bring your money with you. Shame on IOP for this law!!
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Posted by: Larry On: 11/21/2008

Comment Title: Thanks for the article
If tourists stop renting the homes on the IOP, how does that "protect the owners?" And, when did owners need protecting from photographers taking pictures of families renting their homes. Sounds like a crazy ordinance to me.
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Posted by: William Hamilton On: 11/20/2008

Comment Title: Not what it was
What, besides watching your kids play in the surf, can you still do at the beach? You can't have cookouts, drink beer, fish, take your dog with you, beach your sailboat, surf in most places and a lot of other things. I can no longer keep track or what is allowed where and when on which beach. My childhood memories would have been very different had life on the beach been as regulated as it is now. We sold our IOP Condo at Wild Dunes after my father passed away. We just didn't see a value in it that justified the huge payments, regime fees and taxes. We visited Coney Island this summer. They were closing the Astroland Amusement park to build more Condos. I just got back from Pensacola, where the beach was a dessert scraped clean and flat by Hurricanes with a few, huge, apparently indestructible Condominium buildings. FEMA and the State of Florida had abandoned maintaining most of the island's infrastructure because it had been repeatedly destroyed. Only the central part of the Island still had roads, water and sewar. I remember the Folly Beach of my youth, the little amusement park, the ice cream vendors, driftwood cookouts on the beach and fishing with great fondness. We did most of that on IOP as late as 9 years ago. I hope we all made a lot of money selling off our beaches. I hope it was worth it. We only got out to the beach once this summer and really didn't miss it that much.
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Posted by: Blueturtle On: 11/20/2008

Comment Title: Southern Hospitality?
Looks like Southern Hospitality has disappeared in your town. I can understand banning the actual selling of things, but a photographer who is invited by the bride? Well if I was a bride I wouldn't start my new life, in a place that is so unfriendly. Just so you know, I found this story because the link was posted on an international forum. Your fame is growing.
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Posted by: PPPhoto On: 11/19/2008

Comment Title:
Is the act of taking photos an act of selling or renting, or even soliciting? That is generally done before hand, not while taking the photos, and therefore not at that location. Unless there is more to the ordinance than what is quoted above, nothing in it prevents the act of taking photos by either a pro or amateur. Just don't hand out business cards while on the beach, that would violate the ordinance.
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