I am not bandwagoning against sharkdiver here this is more of general photo use comment. Bk brings up a valid point. Bk from message board "...I do not want you pointing your camera anywhere near me. We'll call it privacy issues. That goes for your facebook page too..."

I am pretty sure a model release is required to use any photo if you or anyone can tell who the model in the photo is. If a professional photographer (which has a very loose definition) is going to use a photo for promoting their portfolio then you really need permission of the model.

If a photo is used without permission of the model or photographer in an ad or other media both would have grounds to take action. I would think (my last name is Law) that the model could go after the photographer and the publisher if a model release was not in place.

Saying all of that, I don't think that this is applicable to 99.9% of the photos here b/c we are all sharing and not tying to make a business out of taking photos of each other.

I think it is great that people take photos and we should do it more, you just need to be cautious if you plan on doing anything with the photos beyond sharing them with the BWD community. Give photo and model credits at least. Winddoc used one of my Oregon Coast pictures of him in a post on another site and asked my permission and gave me the photo credit. That was great and I had absolutely no problem with it.

Anyway my 2 cents is based on a small understanding of the photography business and zero legal background....this might all be wrong but you read it on the internet so it must be true!

alternatively, you can tastefully camouflage your subject:

whhhaaahahahaha i just about choked on my lunch when i saw DWD's tastefully decorated pic, haha...am amazed how much entertainment this issue provides...maybe i'm just easy to please happy happy happy, it must be the sun