DuPage forest district lowers fees for professional photographers

Sheila Rutledge is about to save some money.

In response to her long-running complaints, the DuPage Forest Preserve District is lowering the fee it charges to professional photographers who conduct photo shoots in area preserves.

Under the new system, photographers shooting still portraits such as wedding or yearbook photos will pay $45 a day if they are residents, or $65 if they live outside DuPage. In addition, DuPage resident photographers who plan to shoot in preserves regularly can buy a $150 annual permit for portrait sessions.

The district previously charged professional photographers $200 a day. Rutledge, a Warrenville-based photographer, said that fee was excessive and unevenly enforced.

“Historically, the district offered a ‘one size fits all' commercial photography permit fee,” according to a forest preserve memo. The new fee schedule provides different levels for different disciplines of commercial photography and videography.

The memo indicates the new fee schedule will bring DuPage more closely in line with other area forest preserve districts.

Rutledge, who often likes to shoot portraits of clients at St. James Farm near her home, protested the old, “exorbitant” fees for more than a year with phone calls to district officials and comments at several public meetings.

Since 2010, Rutledge received two warnings and one ticket for photographing clients without a permit. She challenged her ticket last year in court and it was thrown out. Rutledge said her violations were three of about a dozen issued in the past five years and she worried the old ordinance was not consistently enforced.

This week, Rutledge said she is thrilled about the new fee scale.

“This change is pretty much exactly what I was asking for,” she said. “A lot of people say that government doesn't work, but in this case it did and you just have to be persistent.”

Forest officials also amended the fee scale, so groups like movie studios are charged up to $1,200 a day if the permit holder is not a DuPage resident. Previously, someone filming a nationwide TV commercial or major motion picture would still pay the same $200 fee as photographers like Rutledge.