Saturday, March 5, 2011

Building structure

this was in the mall in providence. i thought it was pretty and took out my camera. i was not entirely satisfied with the image above, and wanted to take more photos. but then 2 nearby security officers with stupid hats and barely 20 years old (or younger; they looked real young) told me that it was not allowed to take pictures of the building. why not? because the building manager does not want it. oh, but is that legal? yes, you are on his property, so he makes the rules. you could ask him, but he is not here on weekends, so right now we have to ask you to stop taking pictures. yes, we understand it is annoying, and we often have to explain this to many people, as they like the building and.. blablablabla... then they told us that it was allowed to take pictures with a normal camera, rather than a professional camera (should i have told them i still have to read the manual?), and it would be ok to take pictures of each other with phones and so on as this is something they cannot prohibit. but yes, yes, with professional cameras, and after 9/11, you know.. malls like this have become potential terrorist targets, and you might be here to photograph the structure of the building! (so i presume its also not allowed to post this pic online, since people with bad intentions can now see the structure of part of the mall!!)
so... you have to do it with this pic.... and my boring account of speaking with these 2 securiy officers... :)

7 comments:

Cesc Sales said...

I like the oval form, the perspective and the small persons...

biebkriebels said...

What a story! They can't control the whole world, really frustrating. In the future you only can take pictures of flowers and and birds... But you captured the oval very nice.

Anonymous said...

Great angle. What a pain to have them stop you though. Sad what a world we live in not to be able to capture and share the beauty we see.

Tim said...

i doubt that any terrorist would bother coming all the way to providence, ma, for a stupid mall that's boring anyway.. :D

Shannon said...

I haven't been inside a mall in years. This is a good shot. Bummer they stopped you, but they were just doing their job. I tried to take one at Petco the other day and they wouldn't let me either, said I'd have to get the manager's permission.

CaT said...

thanks!
yes, i liked this form with all the people; it was the only nice thing about this mall, and so unexpectedly it was there while walking around a bit bored... :)
but yes, shannon, you are right, they were just doing their jobs. in fact, i forgot to mention that, they were friendly and answered our questions, and also told us it is annoying to every time having to tell people that they are not allowed to take photos. but it was just a little stupid that it is allowed to take pics with phone etc... because.. wouldnt terrorists also take pictures in a more secretive way, instead of the way i was doing it? ah well.... next time i should do it not right next to the security.. :)

Stefan Jansson said...

Whenever something silly like this happen I want to gather as many photographers as possible and head for that mall ready to shoot.