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As some of you may have seen I spent this afternoon at Canary Wharf in London. It was an interesting trip to say the least.
It started off with me leaving home with sunny skies, fully charged batteries and 512Mb of memory to use up. First sign of things going wrong, it starts snowing on the way there. Nearly turn around and go home, but decide to plod on as you get an early view of Canary Wharf as you travel along the M2. My first glimpse of it and it is bathed in sunshine. Game on.
Get there and get parked easily enough, residents parking does not count at weekends. Get my kit and start to walk towards the complex, jeeze it was freezing! Get some nice shots of the towers from across a dock. I then see an interesting looking shiny black building across the road.
I cross over and see that the building is served by a big courtyard with a pub in it. No signs to say private property or no photography. Digitalfailure had warned be about over zealous security staff who were particularly funny about photographers. So I start snapping away thinking no problem, I am not in the main complex so no one will mind. Wrong....
Voice - "OI you cant take photos here"
I look around and see the voice belongs to an over weight, should be retired, far too sweaty security guard.
Me - "Why's that then?"
Guard - "Cos I said so!"
Me - "and you are?"
Guard - "I am security."
Me - "Thats nice. There are no signs to say this is private property and that photography is not allowed."
Guard - "Well I am telling you you can't."
Me - "There are no signs or gates so therefore this is a public place, and I can do what I like, with in reason".
Guard - "That building is private and you cant take photos of it. By order of the building management"
Me - "I'll bare that in mind next time I am here, thanks for telling me."
At this point I kneel down to take a shot of the building he so adamant I don't photograph. This is what I captured......
Guard - "I said no pictures".
Me - "And I said I am perfectly within my rights to take photographs here."
Guard - "Right you better come with me."
Guard looks extremely uncomfortable by this point and is not quite sure what to do next so I give him a helpful hint...
Me - "You could try calling the police."
Guard - "Right I'll do that."
Me - "Yes I am sure they will be very interested."
With that the guard walked off and I carried on with what I was doing with a sly grin on my face.
I continue on to the main Canary Wharf complex. This is differen't, big signs saying private property this time. Still nothing to say no photography. Pass two men of middle eastern apperance, each with a small compact digital camera. They were quite excitedly showing each other their photographs. I saw numerous tourists with camcorders and compacts taking photos and videos of everything. Just the ticket, clearly allowed in here. Wrong again!!
Within five minutes i was approached by another security guard. A younger far more pleasent guy this time. Who explained that photography of the buildings was not allowed and that it was private property. This was all due to the current security situation. He went to say that if I continued I could be escorted off the complex as a tresspasser. Due to the guys nature and he clearly knew what he was talking about and didn't argue. I was a little annoyed that i was singled out over and above the miriad of tourists who were present, but not a lot I could do about it there.
So one me and one to the guards.
So I am thinking we could organise a flash photography mob in the middle of Canary Wharf and see what happens. :wink:
Still I went on to get some fairly decent images that will be appearing in my gallery soon.
It started off with me leaving home with sunny skies, fully charged batteries and 512Mb of memory to use up. First sign of things going wrong, it starts snowing on the way there. Nearly turn around and go home, but decide to plod on as you get an early view of Canary Wharf as you travel along the M2. My first glimpse of it and it is bathed in sunshine. Game on.
Get there and get parked easily enough, residents parking does not count at weekends. Get my kit and start to walk towards the complex, jeeze it was freezing! Get some nice shots of the towers from across a dock. I then see an interesting looking shiny black building across the road.
I cross over and see that the building is served by a big courtyard with a pub in it. No signs to say private property or no photography. Digitalfailure had warned be about over zealous security staff who were particularly funny about photographers. So I start snapping away thinking no problem, I am not in the main complex so no one will mind. Wrong....
Voice - "OI you cant take photos here"
I look around and see the voice belongs to an over weight, should be retired, far too sweaty security guard.
Me - "Why's that then?"
Guard - "Cos I said so!"
Me - "and you are?"
Guard - "I am security."
Me - "Thats nice. There are no signs to say this is private property and that photography is not allowed."
Guard - "Well I am telling you you can't."
Me - "There are no signs or gates so therefore this is a public place, and I can do what I like, with in reason".
Guard - "That building is private and you cant take photos of it. By order of the building management"
Me - "I'll bare that in mind next time I am here, thanks for telling me."
At this point I kneel down to take a shot of the building he so adamant I don't photograph. This is what I captured......
Guard - "I said no pictures".
Me - "And I said I am perfectly within my rights to take photographs here."
Guard - "Right you better come with me."
Guard looks extremely uncomfortable by this point and is not quite sure what to do next so I give him a helpful hint...
Me - "You could try calling the police."
Guard - "Right I'll do that."
Me - "Yes I am sure they will be very interested."
With that the guard walked off and I carried on with what I was doing with a sly grin on my face.
I continue on to the main Canary Wharf complex. This is differen't, big signs saying private property this time. Still nothing to say no photography. Pass two men of middle eastern apperance, each with a small compact digital camera. They were quite excitedly showing each other their photographs. I saw numerous tourists with camcorders and compacts taking photos and videos of everything. Just the ticket, clearly allowed in here. Wrong again!!
Within five minutes i was approached by another security guard. A younger far more pleasent guy this time. Who explained that photography of the buildings was not allowed and that it was private property. This was all due to the current security situation. He went to say that if I continued I could be escorted off the complex as a tresspasser. Due to the guys nature and he clearly knew what he was talking about and didn't argue. I was a little annoyed that i was singled out over and above the miriad of tourists who were present, but not a lot I could do about it there.
So one me and one to the guards.
So I am thinking we could organise a flash photography mob in the middle of Canary Wharf and see what happens. :wink:
Still I went on to get some fairly decent images that will be appearing in my gallery soon.