A dust removal apparatus of a photographing apparatus comprises a movable unit and a controller. The movable unit has an imaging device and is movable. The controller strikes the movable unit against a boundary of a range of movement of the movable unit as a dust removal operation. The controller counts the number of times of the dust removal operation, measures an elapsed time from the point when counting the number of times of the dust removal operation commences. When the elapsed time is less than or equal to a time period and the number of times of the dust removal operation is equal to or greater than a predetermined number of times, the controller halts the dust removal operation until a predetermined time period has elapsed.