Re: Is the street photographer an endangered species?

According to Ryan Robbins <redbird007@xxxxxxxxxxx>:

"DoN. Nichols" <dnichols@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:ee2c661g66@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
According to Bill Crocker <wcrocker007@xxxxxxxxxxx>:

[ ... ]

On the same subject, has anyone actually experienced any attempts to
prevent
you from photographing public buildings, bridges, railroad yards, etc? A
couple years after 9/11, I started reading that photographers were being
harassed, and sometimes actually arrested because they were taking
pictures
of what is not considered forbidden areas, off limits. I haven't seen
this
myself, nor do I know anyone personally who has run into this.

I have. I stopped to photograph some Canadian geese...

How do you know they were from Canada? ;)

I asked to see their green cards -- of course. :-)

After noting the
patch on his shoulder, which identified him as a security guard for the
CIA, I realized that this was one of their many unmarked buildings. I
was *very* cooperative in going through the shots and deleting any
which included the building -- even though they included some of the
better shots of the geese.

I would argue that cooperating actually endangers the rights of the rest of
us to take photos in public. Because now you're just giving the government
the idea that it can continue intimidating photographers.

They only do this in respect to the buildings where the CIA or
similar organizations work. And they have not just recently started
this. I was at an autocross sometime back in the early 1960s which
happened to be held in the parking lot of the NSA (National Security
Agency) -- one which concentrates on intercepting telecommunications via
RF -- or did so back then -- and the rules were no photographing in the
directions of the buildings. One guard stopped a woman from shooting
the autocross from a certain viewpoint, and a higher-ranking guard
showed up and countermanded that -- saying "The rules said 'with
sophisticated photographic equipment'." (The woman was using an Kodak
126 Instamatic. :-) So -- overall, they were not being really
unreasonable, except for that one guard. The reason for the
restriction, as I understand it, is to avoid capturing where the
antennas on top of the building were pointing. Since this was in the
Washington DC area, it is quite likely that some were pointing to
various embassys and such. :-)

I've worked in buildings where cameras were not allowed -- for
security reasons, and wasn't about to press the issue, even though I am
now retired.

What buildings were these?

Do you really expect a lot of detail from someone who held a
security clearance?

They were on an Army post (where I worked), inside a security
compound (where I worked), and there were things visible outside the
buildings which were classified and thus should *not* be photographed
casually. I was able to get permission to bring in my cameras to
photograph one of the projects which I had just completed, with the
government providing the film, and the government labs processing the
film once it was exposed. I showed my camera to be without film going
both in and out, along with the pass to bring it (and the lenses) in and
out. And this particular project was not even classified.

Enjoy,
DoN.
--
Email: <dnichols@xxxxxxxxxxx> | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
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