Freelance PJ Identification?

[jklewer]

I am shooting for my university daily newspaper and I am trying to figure out if there exists some kind of ID badge that is somewhat common to freelancers. I am not questioning how to get credentials and all that stuff, I am wondering if any organizations like PPA or World Press Photo issue badges. The university gives me press passes for selected events I will be covering, but they don't really identify me except for my name and the newspaper's name.

For instance, I will be covering womens tennis this week, where there is no media pass required. I would like to have an ID badge of some sort to display anyway so that there aren't any questions. In the future, I will be trying to cover other local events in the LA area on my own (rallies, protests, speeches, whatever else I can get into the middle of) for the purposes of writing my own photo stories for my portfolio. I would love to have some kind of ID for these events if something exists for the instance.

Even if there is something around my neck on a lanyard, people won't wonder as much about who the camera guy is!

Thanks guys (and girls), John

[JawsofLife252]

In my experiences if people see a camera that isn't a point and shoot they assume your press. However, I understand your situation. Is your paper Associated Collegiate Press (ACP)? If so, ACP has press ID's that your publication can issue you.

I was Photo Editor at my university newspaper and my worry was inexperienced photographers in the city (Philadelphia) shooting spot news without identification. Spot news with police on location happens daily at our campus.

[jklewer]

My paper is ACP, so I will definitely check with them on this. The only thing I think might be an issue is the fact that Im not on staff with the paper. Some of the photojournalism majors are staff photogs, but the rest of us are freelance, unpaid. Hopefully they can still help me out though. Thanks for the help, John