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A Brush with the Law…
Inspired by a Salgado photograph of Mumbai train station that I saw a couple of weeks ago, I decided to try and replicate the blurred crowd effect that he achieved, albeit a little closer to home. Liverpool Street Station has an upper balcony with good views of the main concourse below, so I thought this would be an ideal venue for shots with a static station clock and timetable and blurry people rushing by. I planned to use digital and film - the images on film would be used for the “Photography of Movement” module in the City and Guilds course that I’m doing.
So, picture the scene - I’ve found the ideal spot, set up the tripod, mounted the camera, checked the settings, taken the first picture - then “Excuse me Sir, what are you doing?”. I felt like saying “What do you think I’m doing?”, but instead decided to be polite to the British Rail employee. Good move, as John the team leader quizzed me about why I was daring to take photographs in a train station. I explained that I was a photography student, whilst waving a Jessops Student Discount card in his face. Another good move, as it turns out that all commercial photography is completely banned, unless you pay for some kind of licence. Even so, I had to sign a form saying that I wouldn’t use the images for commercial gain, and I was allowed 30 minutes maximum in the station.
I went back, set up again, took what will hopefully be some effective images for my course, before being interrupted by another BR employee. “What are you doing?”, “I’ve spoken to John and signed the form”, “How long will you be?”, “15 minutes tops”, “Make it 10 sir”. Power-mad.
And I originally thought that it would be fine to take pictures in what is one of the most public places I can think of. Silly me.
Canon IXUS 240 HS Review
Canon PowerShot SX240 HS Review
Nikon D800 Review
Samsung DV300F Review
Olympus OM-D E-M5 Review
Nikon Coolpix P510
Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ30
Canon PowerShot SX260 HS
Fujifilm X-Pro1
Sony Cyber-shot DSC-HX200V
#1 Sebastian
I almost got arrested while taking this picture on Grand Central Station in NYC.
http://www.zonageek.com/fotos/galerias/nyc/view.php?pos=3
I used an elevator to get to a balcony. There were no signs and doors were open... but I discovered that you weren't suposed to be there... with terrorism threats and all that.
A very polite policeman questioned me for 10 minutes and let me go, after telling me that you can use the east and west balconies, but not the north ones.
12:13 am - Sunday, April 27, 2003
#2 Stephen
What ws the shutter speed of your photo Mark. Sebastians was 3 secs which seems to give a slightly more pleasing blur, though the whitebalance of yours seems more neutral.
I have occasionally experimented with a similar technique simply to get the busy feel to the image
http://st.instantlogic.com/images//Photos/{F9094B7E-4E3F-4D39-8F16-DED16E069CF8}/{D3C543AA-818E-4428-9EE4-D8435194FC30}lg.jpg
and
http://st.instantlogic.com/images//Photos/{F9094B7E-4E3F-4D39-8F16-DED16E069CF8}/{8694A751-FBAA-4BC5-9D97-D142D0232CDD}lg.jpg
3:06 pm - Sunday, April 27, 2003
#3 Mark Goldstein
The shutter speed was set to 1/3rd of a second, with the aperture at F/22, and the white balance to Auto.
I was finding that if I set the 10D to a slower speed, the image would over-expose and completely wash-out, as the station had a glass roof and was very bright inside. I think I needed to use an ND filter to reduce the light and allow a slower speed. I'll have to invest in one...
1:00 pm - Monday, April 28, 2003
#4 Sebastian
Mine was 3 seconds, not 1/3... but I was able to get away with it because Grand Central is not a very bright place when the sun is not hitting the windows.
7:35 pm - Monday, April 28, 2003
#5 Tom Morris
The amount of hassle photographers get is so bloody stupid these days. I have had brushes with security guards, and my photography teacher has had a brush in with a Bobby while taking some photos in the Canary Wharf area. They cited "terrorism" as the reason why she shouldn't take pictures. Come on, a 70-year-old Swedish woman is being harrased about terrorism? The world has gone absolutely mad.
Glad you got a good image out of the tiresome buggers that police and security are.
(Also, it's worth getting copies of the relevant laws, mounting them up on bits of card. I'd highly reccomend Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984, Terrorism Act, and a few more... I'll post later, gotta go.)
3:24 pm - Tuesday, April 29, 2003
#6 Mark Goldstein
Security guards seem to be particularly bad at stopping you from taking photos. I was about to take a picture of a door (!) on the outside of a building in London when a security guard asked me what I was doing. Maybe I was moved on because he couldn't quite believe that I wanted to photograph a door, but even so...
3:32 pm - Tuesday, April 29, 2003
#7 ScottyH
This story reminds me....
Every Saturday morning I used to bundle my son into the car to take him for football coaching on Hampstead Heath.
One Saturday I decided that I was going to take some serious photographs. Eventually I walked to the top of Parliament Hill, propped the camera on the tripod and took some photos across the expanse of central London using a long telephoto lens. In the middle of an open field I erected the tripod, mounted the camera and framed the photograph in readiness to release the shutter.
Then I noticed him - the park attendant. He got out of a little Corporation of London van a hundred yards or so in front of me and stepped into the frame. I should have released the shutter and then this man's face would have been immortalised.
'Excuse me. do you have a permit to use that equipment?'
He explained that it was to do with safety - a child might trip over the tripod. I looked around urgently for children who might be about to career into the tripod and injure themselves. At least one hundred yards to my right, a group of kids played football. They were the nearest human beings.
I strode off to the park entrance to read the by-laws, something which I evidently should have done on the way in. There it was, in black and white, 'no support apparatus for imaging equipment permitted'
So apparently the issue can be safety - a place can be too public. Or a park attendant can have too little to do.
5:16 pm - Tuesday, April 29, 2003