When the cornishman went to the big city

I feel like having a small rant about when and where we are allowed to take photos. Recently I had a trip up to London, 'great' I thought ‘I’ll have hundreds of photo opportunities.’

The trip was because of my last project that I chose to do on the Night Riviera train that runs from Penzance, Cornwall to London Paddington. I wanted photographs from the trip so I could include them in my book I was creating and for general research. Firstly I had a few trips to Plymouth station. One visit I began snapping away before a member of station staff came up to me saying I needed permission first. Understandably in the culture we live in now were terrorism is a big threat precautions have to be taken, but this is the southwest the biggest act of terrorism is a hi-jack of a Ginsters lorry.

Importantly I needed photos of my journey and at the major stations. Luckily because it was at night I didn’t have any bother throughout my journey, (most people just thought I was a train spotter) It wasn’t until I got to Paddington where I was stopped and asked to not use my tripod, which I could understand due to health and safety but there is a limit. After Paddington I went to the new St Pancras station out of curiosity and got some great shots of the new structure against the old building. However once again I was asked to stop using my camera and tripod by two security guards.

I would not suggest taking a tripod around a busy city such as London just because of its shape and presence; I got onto the tube and the amount of worried looks I got from commuters thinking I was carrying some kind of rocket launcher! My problems continued with security around the city and I almost came into conflict with a busker I took a photo of in an underpass because I didn't ask his permission to take a photo of him first. My main issue was when I got to the national history museum where I wanted to take a picture of the building lit up, when a woman came up to me and said 'I don't think you can do that' I smiled and said well a few shots wont hurt anyone. Next thing I know this woman had gone straight to the security office and the biggest Polish security guard Id ever seen came towering above me was asking me to leave the premises.

To be honest this has put me off London as a whole just because of this insecurity and distrust towards everyone that walks its streets not to mention these organisations terrified of someone tripping over the leg of a tripod. I’m defiantly not the only one whose had issues when trying to do what I love doing.

BBC news report on this issue [link]

I wanted to know if any of you have had similar issues and what you've done about them?