New York
New York State runs no statewide photo permit; OPRHP permits shoots in state parks region by region, and New York City is an entirely separate permitting regime.
Guidance, not legal advice
Permit
Conditional
Issuer: New York State Governor's Office of Motion Picture and Television Development (Empire State Development)
Cost: Varies by property and locality, see the film office
The state film office is an incentives and liaison shop (tax credits, agency introductions), not a permitting authority; there is no statewide filming or photography permit. Permits attach to the property manager: the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation (OPRHP, NY State Parks) requires filming, photography, and sound recording permits for commercial work in state parks and historic sites, handled by the regional office for each park, with scripts or treatments requested for filming and shoots restricted to the permitted location and hours. State parks inside New York City have their own two-step request process. New York City itself is a separate regime under the Mayor's Office of Media and Entertainment, covered in our New York City record.
Drone / airspace
Commercial drone work requires FAA Part 107
State parks restrict drone use and New York City effectively bans non-approved takeoff and landing. For Part 107 and state drone law, see Drone Authority.
Street / public space
Yes: you can photograph what is visible from public space in the US
Private property sets its own rules regardless of state law; the MTA and Port Authority have their own photography rules on their systems.
Practical notes
- OPRHP permitting is regional: the office that permits Niagara Falls State Park is not the one that permits Long Island parks, so contact the region, not Albany.
- Do not extrapolate NYC rules to the rest of the state or vice versa; the handheld exemption logic of MOME does not exist upstate, and upstate's lighter touch does not exist in the five boroughs.
Sources
Keep shooting
Knowing the rules is half the job. The craft side: