Overzealous Security

[NPUK]

Had my first experience of overzealous security yesterday morning. I may have overreacted.

No Photography Here#1 by NPUK, on Flickr

No Photography Here#2 by NPUK, on Flickr

Luckily I’d already got a half decent shot from across the road earlier in the morning…

Streets of Leeds - Whitehall Road by NPUK, on Flickr

Full drawn out story below if the photos grabbed your curiosity….

I'd been out for a walk around Leeds and just before I left I went to a much photographed office development, part of which I suspect is owned by the local council. Just after I entered I spotted a man sat having a coffee and a cigarette. I was going to take a photo but decided against it as we had made brief eye contact and I didn't want to disturb his peace so I carried on past. I then stopped to take a photo upwards of the building and nice cloudy sky (which ended up rubbish anyway). At this point it turned out the man in question was a security guard and walked to me and asked if I had permission to take photos there. I said no and that I didn't realise it was private property but agreed to his request for me to stop.
As I walked off it bugged me that I felt he was a bit overly quick to be on my case given that I'd only taken one photo, didn't have a tripod or even a DSLR. I then walked to the adjacent public pavement and pointed to the ground, gave him a thumbs up and took his photo. He clearly wasn't happy and came marching over to me and said I wasn't allowed to take photos of him or the building because they were on private property. We got into the whole discussion of photographing anything was allowed from public property, including him.... So I fired off another couple of shots at which point he started putting his hands up towards the camera so I had to warn him not to touch the camera. I suggested to him that if he hadn't been so hard and fast with the rules then I wouldn't have been either, which would have meant he wouldn't have had his photo taken against his wishes.
I then walked off, with him and another security colleague following me. I turned back towards them thinking they were going to try insisting on deleting my images but in the end he just said... "Enjoy the rest of your day" and I responded with "You too", but it really put a dampener on my enjoyment from then on. Luckily I was about to go home anyway but I was surprised how much it changed my enjoyment.

Not sure if I overreacted but if he had used a bit of selective judgement he would have gotten a better result for him, and maybe a lesser result for me.

 

[lindsay]

Interesting tale. Maybe it was just his boredom, maybe it was under-fulfilled ego (jobsworthness), or just being a bit thick, but it sounds like to dealt with him in the right way.
The portraits/ street are good and rather interesting, the built environment a bit under-exposed (unsurprisingly with not much time to think about the shot).

 

[Eucris]

Had my first experience of overzealous security yesterday morning. I may have overreacted.

Full drawn out story below if the photos grabbed your curiosity….

I'd been out for a walk around Leeds and just before I left I went to a much photographed office development, part of which I suspect is owned by the local council. Just after I entered I spotted a man sat having a coffee and a cigarette. I was going to take a photo but decided against it as we had made brief eye contact and I didn't want to disturb his peace so I carried on past. I then stopped to take a photo upwards of the building and nice cloudy sky (which ended up rubbish anyway). At this point it turned out the man in question was a security guard and walked to me and asked if I had permission to take photos there. I said no and that I didn't realise it was private property but agreed to his request for me to stop.
As I walked off it bugged me that I felt he was a bit overly quick to be on my case given that I'd only taken one photo, didn't have a tripod or even a DSLR. I then walked to the adjacent public pavement and pointed to the ground, gave him a thumbs up and took his photo. He clearly wasn't happy and came marching over to me and said I wasn't allowed to take photos of him or the building because they were on private property. We got into the whole discussion of photographing anything was allowed from public property, including him.... So I fired off another couple of shots at which point he started putting his hands up towards the camera so I had to warn him not to touch the camera. I suggested to him that if he hadn't been so hard and fast with the rules then I wouldn't have been either, which would have meant he wouldn't have had his photo taken against his wishes.
I then walked off, with him and another security colleague following me. I turned back towards them thinking they were going to try insisting on deleting my images but in the end he just said... "Enjoy the rest of your day" and I responded with "You too", but it really put a dampener on my enjoyment from then on. Luckily I was about to go home anyway but I was surprised how much it changed my enjoyment.

Not sure if I overreacted but if he had used a bit of selective judgement he would have gotten a better result for him, and maybe a lesser result for me.

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It seems to me that you proved him by behaving like a prat. Some photographers are their own worst enemy.

 

[NPUK]

the built environment a bit under-exposed (unsurprisingly with not much time to think about the shot).

The building shot was taken a couple of hours before, but I've been struggling with getting right exposure levels recently so maybe I'll revisit that one.

 

[NPUK]

Six of one, half a dozen of the other. It seems to me that you proved him by behaving like a prat. Some photographers are their own worst enemy.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I behaved like a prat.... Which part do you think is prat like..? Taking a photo of him from a public place..? Given that I'd already given him the benefit of the doubt and left him alone.. until he decided to be a stickler for rules that I'm sure weren't put in place to protect from people doing what I was doing.

 

[gramps]

Personal opinion as a 'street' photographer myself.

Taking one photo from the private property that he is 'responsible for' is enough to elicit a response ... that's part of what he is employed to do.
By taking more photos of him (even though 'entitled' to do so from 'public' space) you seemed to have managed to antagonise two security personnel for what seems to me to be no good reason.
How will they react to other photographers in the future?
How much better would it have been to thank him for pointing out the issue, maybe strike up a conversation with him and leave with a handshake?

 

[Brazo]

Problem with these encounters regardless of who is ‘right’ is that you lose energy to them and that 100% affects your photography.

I’ve been harassed by a security guard before whilst on public property and whilst I was technically right the whole encounter left me fed up and not wanting to photograph further.

 

[NPUK]

By taking more photos of him (even though 'entitled' to do so from 'public' space) you seemed to have managed to antagonise two security personnel for what seems to me to be no good reason.
How will they react to other photographers in the future?

I respect your opinion Gramps but it's not like he can react any less favourably than he already had done with me. If nothing else, at least he might refrain from telling people they can't take photos of the buildings even from public space which is what he was telling me.
If he's only doing his job (which is fair enough) then he needs to get his facts right first, or else expect to be corrected.
Surely it's more beneficial for other photographers that I enlightened him to the finer points of the rules that he's enforcing.
But given your comment, if I see him again I might approach him and have a calmer discussion about exactly where the physical boundaries are because I'm sure a small part of that site is council owned.