The photograph everyone wants from Pamplona, horns filling the frame a meter from a falling runner, cannot legally be taken by a visitor. Pamplona City Hall’s encierro bylaw expressly forbids taking pictures from inside the course and from the fencing itself, and a runner caught carrying a phone or camera faces a fine of up to 600 euros. The narrow corridor between the two lines of fencing, where nearly every famous encierro photo is actually made, is credentialed space. In 2026 exactly 407 people held the municipal accreditation required to stand in it.
That matters because most San Fermín photography advice never mentions any of it. Search the topic and you get stock galleries and generic tips about morning light. Travelers arrive planning to shoot the run from the barriers and discover that access to the route closes at 7:30 in the morning, that spectators are kept behind the second fence with a restricted view, that photography at the nightly encierrillo is prohibited outright, and that the park the fireworks launch from is closed to the public during the show. A camera plan built on assumptions fails in Pamplona, and in a few specific cases it gets fined.
This San Fermín photography guide is built instead on the documents that actually govern the fiesta: the City Hall bylaw published each year, the access rules issued by the Oficina Internacional de Prensa, and the 2026 accreditation figures reported by Europa Press through Diario de Noticias de Navarra. What follows is where you can shoot, where you cannot, and how the people who make the famous images got there.
The Camera Ban Inside the Course Is Absolute
Pamplona City Hall publishes a bylaw before each fiesta listing everything prohibited on the encierro course, with fines attached. Two of its items concern photographers directly. It is expressly forbidden to take snapshots from inside the route or from the fencing and barriers, and it is forbidden to install any equipment that invades the horizontal or vertical space of the run without express City Hall permission. That second clause is the one that covers mounted rigs, poles, and drones. The full list is published in English on the festival site’s rules page.
For runners the rule is even blunter. The regulations require participants to be free of anything that hinders the run, and carrying a phone or camera during the encierro draws a fine of up to 600 euros under the municipal ordinance and Navarra’s Foral Law 2/1989 on public spectacles. The era of GoPro runners ended years ago, and enforcement is real: fines are issued every July, often to people who never knew the rule existed. There is no press exception inside the course while the bulls are running. The festival’s own guidance puts it plainly: the one place you cannot watch the run from is inside the course. You are in there to run and nothing else.
None of this is bureaucratic caution. Six fighting bulls in the 500 to 600 kilo range and two guide steers cover the course in under three minutes, and a runner looking at a screen is a hazard to every mozo around him. The bylaw treats a camera in a runner’s hand the same way it treats drunkenness: as a danger to other people.
The Double Fence Has a Hierarchy, and Spectators Are Outside It
The wooden vallado that lines the open sections of the route has been double since 1941, two parallel lines of fencing with a gap of about two meters between them. The inner line is left clear so runners can escape the path of the bulls. The corridor between the lines is reserved for medical teams, police, and accredited press photographers. Spectators stand behind the second, outer line. That single fact explains why the classic low angle shot through the fence rails belongs almost exclusively to credentialed shooters, and why the view from a public spot is partially blocked by two layers of planking and the people working between them. We cover how the whole system is built and where every barrier section sits in our breakdown of the vallado system.
Public fence spots cannot be reserved. A workable position means arriving around 6:30 in the morning and holding your place until the rockets fire at 8:00, and the access points into the route close at 7:30. The transformation of the streets in those hours is its own spectacle, one we describe hour by hour in how the encierro morning unfolds.
One public vantage point stands apart. The small sloping square beside the Museo de Navarra looks down over the Cuesta de Santo Domingo without any fencing in the sightline, taking in the stretch where runners sing to San Fermín before the release. The festival site itself recommends it, which is also why it fills by 5:30 to 6:00. From there a modest telephoto reaches both the corral gates below and the runners packed on the slope, in the flat, cold light that hits Santo Domingo before the sun clears the ramparts.
How the 407 Accredited Photographers Work the Run
The professional operation behind San Fermín imagery is larger than most visitors imagine. The Oficina Internacional de Prensa, founded on July 1, 2000, received 677 media professionals from 13 countries and 138 outlets for the 2026 fiesta, working out of the Baluarte conference center. For the encierro itself, Pamplona City Hall accredited 407 people. The txupinazo, known in Spanish as the chupinazo, had 176 accredited positions on the Casa Consistorial and Casa Seminario balconies, and the closing Pobre de Mí had 94. The City Hall states the credentialed space is so restricted that these figures barely move from year to year.
Covering the run requires two things at once: the City Hall accreditation, requested through sfacreditaciones@pamplona.es, and the red press vest issued by the OIP. Even accredited photographers do not roam freely. The press office publishes a map dividing the course into stretches with free access, stretches that are prohibited, and stretches requiring a further special accreditation, and everyone must be in their fence position by 7:45, a quarter hour before the release. The working conditions are laid out on the OIP’s own site.
The quality this system produces is judged annually. The Concurso Internacional de Fotografía del Encierro, a City Hall backed contest open only to accredited photographers, reached its sixteenth edition in 2026 with 33 participants and 91 photographs across the ten stretches of the course, one prize per stretch and 1,000 euros for the overall winner, taken this year by Miguel González with an image from Mercaderes. Ten stretches, ten winning frames: the contest is a reminder that every section of the course photographs differently, something you can see for yourself in our photo tour of the route from the corrales to the callejón.
Balconies and the Bullring: The Vantage Points You Can Buy
For an unaccredited photographer the balcony is the honest answer. The buildings along Santo Domingo, Plaza Consistorial, Mercaderes, and Estafeta rent balcony places for the run, and the elevated angle over the course is the only legal way for a visitor to shoot down into the street with a clear line of sight. Balcony access has one operational catch that ruins unprepared mornings: you must enter the building early, because the streets below are closed off for cleaning before the run and access is cut. Once the route closes at 7:30 you are either already upstairs or you are not getting there.
From a balcony the event is short. The herd passes a given point in seconds, so photographers treat it like sports work: pick the composition in advance, prefocus on a landmark across the street, and shoot the two bursts that matter rather than panning wildly. Morning light in the canyon streets is dim and directional. The 8:00 release in early July means shaded streets under a bright sky, which pushes ISO higher than most travelers expect.
The Plaza de Toros is the other paid option. Entry to the ring for the end of the run is ticketed, and giant screens replay the full course while the crowd waits, which makes it the one location where you can photograph runners and see the whole event. And the unglamorous truth acknowledged even by the festival site: the most complete view of the encierro is the RTVE television broadcast, which is why balcony veterans watch the screen indoors and step out just before the herd arrives beneath them.
The Encierrillo Bans Photography, and the Fireworks Close Their Own Park
Two of the fiesta’s most photogenic events are the two where the camera rules surprise people most. The encierrillo, the nightly transfer of the six bulls from the Corrales del Gas up to the corrals of Santo Domingo, runs about 440 meters at roughly ten at night in enforced silence. Attendance requires a free pass collected in advance through the City Hall system at Civivox Condestable, and taking photographs is prohibited, with flash banned specifically so the herd is not distracted, as laid out on the City Hall’s encierrillo page. It is the rare festival event you attend with your camera down, and locals consider that the point.
The fireworks are the opposite problem: fully photographable, but from a different place than most visitors assume. The Concurso Internacional de Fuegos Artificiales fires nine nights running, July 6 through 14 at 23:15, from inside the Ciudadela grounds at Vuelta del Castillo. The park itself is closed to the public during the firing and nearby streets are closed or restricted from 22:00 to 23:30, so the shooting positions are the lawns and streets around the perimeter, not under the shells. Arrive before the street closures, bring something stable to brace against, and frame with the citadel walls rather than fighting for open sky.
A final word on drones: the bylaw’s ban on equipment invading the airspace of the run without express City Hall permission, combined with Spanish drone regulation over crowds, makes flying anything over the fiesta a fast route to confiscation and a fine. Leave it at home.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you take pictures at the running of the bulls?
Yes, from the right places. You can photograph freely from behind the second line of fencing, from a rented balcony, or from a paid seat in the Plaza de Toros. You cannot take pictures from inside the course, from the fencing itself, or from the corridor between the two fence lines, which is reserved for medics, police, and accredited press. Those prohibitions come from Pamplona City Hall’s encierro bylaw and are enforced with fines.
Can you run the encierro with a GoPro or phone?
No. Carrying a phone, camera, or any recording device while running is prohibited under the municipal ordinance and Navarra’s Foral Law 2/1989, with fines of up to 600 euros. Runners must be free of anything that hinders the run, including backpacks and bags. Fines are issued every year, frequently to visitors who did not know the rule.
How do photographers get press credentials for San Fermín?
Media accreditation is issued by Pamplona City Hall, requested through sfacreditaciones@pamplona.es, and paired with a mandatory red press vest collected from the Oficina Internacional de Prensa at Baluarte. In 2026 the City Hall accredited 407 people for the encierro fence positions. Accredited photographers work within a zone map of permitted stretches and must be in position by 7:45 am.
Where can you photograph the San Fermín fireworks?
From the streets and lawns around the Ciudadela, outside the security perimeter. The competition fireworks fire at 23:15 every night from July 6 to 14 from inside the Ciudadela at Vuelta del Castillo, and the park itself is closed to the public during the show, with nearby streets closed or restricted from 22:00 to 23:30. Arrive before the closures and shoot from the perimeter.
Every article on the Encierro blog is authored or reviewed by active bull runners with direct experience in Pamplona.