Second of two utterly gorgeous days here – yesterday we had our first trip to the beach, and today, on the way back from the local coop, I was overcome by a Marillion moment as I spotted blossom on one of the trees by the roadside.
Obviously I instagrammed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/0FsMMStp5Q/
And then, after I’d fed the small children lunch and hung the washing out, I went back with my actual camera. You may remember from (one of) my other blog(s) that I started trying to improve my photography last year. I’ve come to the conclusion that I’m a fair weather photographer ;), apart from the occasional use of my photo tent, and flowers definitely do it for me.
So there I was, stood on the pavement, squinting up at the sky, struggling to macro focus on things above my head, when I heard someone call out. I’m not sure it was the first time he called either – I was concentrating and I’m half deaf.
I turned around, and there was a police car pulled up onto the cycle path part of the road, with the driver leaning across towards me.
The conversation went something like this
“What are you doing?”
“Um” waves camera “taking pictures. Why?”
“Well it looks suspicious.”
“there’s blossom”
“You were kind of peering.”
“I’m taking pictures. Of blossom.”
I was confused, and I’m pretty sure it showed. As far as I’m aware, there’s no law that prevents me taking pictures of flowers from a public place, and the pavement is a pretty public place. I wasn’t obstructing the pavement, treading on anything, or causing a public nuisance, and as far as I’m aware, there’s no terrorist alert in the neighbourhood.
He sort of shrugged and smiled, and drove off, doing a U turn down the road and passing me again. He was perfectly polite and friendly throughout the exchange, but that doesn’t outweigh the fact that the entire thing was, quite frankly, weird. I half heartedly took a few more shots, but soon stopped and went home, really quite shaken up. I don’t like confrontation, and that felt like confrontation. I’m pretty into observing rules, and the implication was that I was doing something wrong, and I felt bad.
Once home, obviously I took to twitter. And quickly came across Daddacool having his own police related rant. Which led eventually to this extremely useful card.
@liveotherwise @TheMoneyShed @FieldAgent_UK @RoamlerUK @clicandwalk_UK useful cut out and keep (on you) card: pic.twitter.com/ptsOO069Iu
— Daddacool (@daddacool) March 11, 2015
(Despite the mention of Amateur photographer, I can’t find this picture on their site – apparently they gave away lens cloths with this wording on, and then a bit later, there was an updated version which covers the whole country, not just the Met. See more here.)
Anyway, I shall be printing out one of those cards, and stuffing it in my camera case, as well as memorising the wiki page on photography rights in the UK.
Was it all worth it? This is my favourite picture from those I took. What do you think? (Click to embiggen)
I’d also like to hear if you’ve ever had any difficulties out and about with your camera, this was a first for me.
Linked up with image of the week.
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