I’m sick and tired of being told to stop taking photos on the street, so I was flabbergasted when a security guard did this!

I’ve been taking photos as long as I can remember, and in my case, that's a very long time. I’ve been lucky enough to travel to far-flung places around the world, and even in countries where you might imagine secrecy was very high on the agenda, I never used to have a problem taking snapshots of life unfolding on city streets and around town. But lately, even in my home town of Bath in the UK, I’ve been increasingly made to feel like a criminal whenever I dare to take my camera out of its carrying bag. One particular recent incident came as a wonderfully refreshing change, but first, I’ll share three of my more regular recent encounters.

I was standing on a street corner, minding my own business and admiring the beautifully picturesque appearance of a historic building that had been transformed into a restaurant. It was so eye-catching that I lifted my camera to my eye and started to take a few photos from various angles, aiming to do full justice to the makeover. Less than a minute later, the owner came charging out and told me to stop taking photos of his restaurant. I thought for a moment about arguing the toss, saying that I was perfectly within my rights to take photos of a building in and from a public place, but wasn’t in the mood for an argument. Plenty more fish in the sea, or restaurants in town.

Another time, I was taking some photos in the old covered market, while testing a Viltrox AF 50mm f/1.4 Pro lens for a review on this very website. A stallholder made a beeline for me and demanded to know what I was doing. With every scrap of courtesy and politeness that I could muster, and with no trace of sarcasm, I said, “I’m taking photographs.” Apparently I’d taken several photos which was many too many, and I was therefore up to some mischief and clearly doing something dodgy. Silly me.

Then there was the occasion when I had an hour to kill before picking up my daughter and granddaughter from an evening concert in the neighboring city of Bristol. I thought I’d put the time to good use and take some night shots of the shopping center, which had been trendily designed by a high-ranking local firm of architects, of international acclaim, for whom my daughter actually worked at the time. Security pounced on me in a flash, saying that I couldn’t take photos in the shopping center without a permit, which I’d have to apply for in advance. My question is, “Why on earth not?”

To add insult to injury, Bath is the second most visited tourist destination in the UK. Visitors come in their hordes and sometimes you can’t move for people taking photos of each other and of anything and everything around them, using their smartphones. I’ve been particularly impressed by the organization and efficiency of Japanese tourist groups, who sometimes seem to form a circle which revolves in one direction while smartphones are passed from one person to the next in the other direction, presumably so that everyone has photos of each other in front of the same landmark. And the very best of luck to them, too. But hang on a minute. Why is it ok to take photos wherever you like and of whatever you want with a smartphone, but not with a ‘proper’ camera?

All of this leads up to an incident just the other day that knocked my socks off. Driving into Bath, I passed a company called Vanguard Self Storage. It might sound unremarkable, but they had some serious eye-candy in the foyer, in the shape of a fully restored de Havilland Vampire jet aircraft, suspended from the ceiling. I just couldn’t resist, so I cheekily pulled into their customer car park, jumped out of my ca,r and walked up to the front window. From outside the plate glass window, I started taking a few hasty shots of the aircraft but was immediately spotted by the security guard from behind his desk at the back of the foyer. He jumped up and made a beeline for the front door, and I thought, ‘here we go, time for another telling off’.

To my utter amazement, the security guard opened the front door, gave me a beaming smile and said, “You won’t get any decent photos from out there, come on in and have a look around.” He then proceeded to give me a potted history of the Vampire, which was designed in the 1940s, only the second jet fighter to be flown by the RAF, and the first jet-engined plane to ever takeoff and land on an aircraft carrier. And through all of this, I was encouraged to take as many photos as I liked. What a refreshing change! Why can’t more people engage with photographers in this way, instead of treating them like criminals?

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