The Travelin' Librarian

Wow, three stories in one day. The first from a professional photographer taking photos of the Port of Los Angeles. Seems the FBI paid him a visit.

So I inform them that I was under the impression that everything I was doing was legal. Security guards can’t chase you off of public streets, and that I’m free to shoot whatever I want in public view. I inform them that my rationalization was that anything you can see from a public street isn’t private (if they’re trying to protect some secret, they shouldn’t put it there), and if I really wanted to canvas the place, Google Maps’ satellite view is a much better place to start. They confirm that yes, what I was doing was completely legal, but they’re just doing their jobs, that it doesn’t make sense, and that the "heightened security alert"… "will change soon". They informed me that most of their job lately has been following up with photographers who take photos in the port complex. They also informed me that they try their best to inform private security guards how to deal with confrontations with photographers, and that most of the guards have a bit of a skewed view on what’s legal (oh my god this is true), and they’re trying to correct that. They have had to correct guards who have insisted that photos be erased, or worse, have confiscated equipment in the name of homeland security. This doesn’t help anybody, and makes their jobs harder.

Read the full story on the iStockPhoto forums.

Next from someone taking photos of the Red Line, amazingly enough, also in Los Angels.

Well last week here in Los Angeles, I was waiting to board the redline (subway) and snapped a picture with my cell phone camera. Not the best picture in the world, but I was just putzing around, waiting for the train, holding a quizno’s to-go bag. Almost immediately, a vest wearing man with METRO emblazoned on his back who had been mopping the area nearby rushed up to me and the exchange went something like this:
Him: Hey! It’s against the 9-11 Law to take pictures down hear man!
Me: You mean the Patriot Act?
Him: No pictures.
Me: Could you explain? What law do you mean?
Him: You are lawyer?
Me: No.
Him: No pictures. You could be a terrorist. Very strict!
Me: How about I take a picture of you?
Him: F**k you…(I couldn’t believe it either)

Read the full story on Keith’s MySpace blog.

Don’t try to take hi-res photos at Union Station, even if you do work for NPR.

Then the security guard returned. She informed us that we would have to cease taking pictures immediately and leave. I asked what the problem was, and she said that this is a private space, and we didn’t have permission from management to take pictures. I told her that we were testing equipment for potential use by NPR, showed them our press passes, and noted there were plenty of other people walking around with cameras. She seemed sympathetic to our position, but said she was relaying orders she’d received from someone higher up. I asked if we could speak with them, then twittered it:

Just got told by security to leave. Asked to speak with a supervisor to explain why we can’t take pictures at union station.

Then it gets more bizarre.

Throughout the conversation, which I should point out was conducted in a cordial, but firm tone, we received mixed messages from the security guards. One told us the problem was that we were using a tripod, while another insisted it was because we had "that thing" on top of our tripod. They then changed the story again, and said that journalists couldn’t take pictures without permission from management, and that Union Station is a private space run by a private company, not a public space. They never gave us an answer as to why we were first allowed to take photos in the first location, but could not do the same here.

Read the full story on Andy Carvin’s Waste of Bandwidth.