Thanks for all this info David. It is concerning to me because this would drastically cut down on my photo ops for my art work. When I go to a show or other event, I take hundreds of photos of dogs/horses, etc. There is no way I could find the owners to get a release of all of them, I just point left and right, etc, and shoot, dozens of different animals at a time, pretty fast pace, owners coming and going from the rings, I'd never find them again.

Even if I could round most of them up, I show (dogs and horses) myself and when you are out there showing, you don't want to be bothered by someone asking questions or asking about a release.

Also, I have found that if you tell someone why you are taking their animals photo, (to possibly paint from) they get all excited and think that you are going to do a painting of their animal right away. When in reality, the photos will be going into a file with hundreds of other photos of that breed of animal and most likely will never be used for a painting, except possibly for a foot here or tail there.

I'm not saying a release shouldn't be used, what's legal is legal but it would be impossible in most cases to have the opportunity to even approach an owner with a release so the photo ops really are reduced. (luckily I do know many dog and horse show people so I would have a few to photo with permission, but I know a lot of artists out there who photograph at events and are painting from them and don't realize it is wrong).

Good topic to clear things up!