street photographers, who has been in trouble with the police/security before?


V

verselines

Member
Hi everyone,

I'm not sure if this is the appropriate place to post, but I figured that this would be the place to reach out to all you street photographers, rangefinder users or not.

I'm a journalism student doing an assignment about the september 11 attacks, more specifically, how september 11 has influenced our lives. Being a fan of street photography myself, one of the things that came to mind was how the increased paranoia and security has sometimes got some photographers into trouble. If you've ever got into trouble with the authorities, or feel that your rights have been eroded, I'd like to hear your story...do drop me a PM!

Cheers and thanks for your time :)
 

No troubles with the police; actually, the police helped me when I got into trouble with some random strangers.
 

Provided the ground on which you stand is public area, then nobody can restrict your photography.

If you stand on private property, if you are asked to leave the premises but fail to leave within reasonable time, then you are trespassing. Trespass is often used to stop ppl taking pictures.
 

Actually, I have been having an idea of shooting a model with a backdrop of a plane taking off and landing.

After searching for a few months, I found a spot, the land was directly taking off in front of me. This place is near the tm ferry terminal, at thje boundaries of airfield.

The sign said no parking. And trespassers could be shot. I alighted there and wanted to take several test shots before an actual shoot.

I only managed to get several virgin atlantic flights taking off before a special police on bike came specifically for me. There was a surveillance camera I guess they didn't like a lone stranger with a camera taking pics of planes. The policeman asked me to delete the photos ( I was carrying my old eos 40d), and told me to take photos across the road.

I gave up the location, as the planes appeared too tiny in the photos....

(If u have a good location for model shoot with airplanes, pls let me know)

Raytoei
 

Another place where the police will very quickly ask you questions is in front of the Istana entrance. Try and hang about at the little park across the road from the Istana entrance and take pics. They have surveillance cameras.
 

Me and my friends were taking photos all over Singapore after that local terrorist scare with the video tape of the MRT stations.

We were stopped not only by policemen but more often by members of the public (usually the older folks) who would question our motives, follow us around and even reprimand us for being "suspicious". This is even after repeated reasoning that we were students doing a project and needed to take photos of the area and we are talking about places like Toa Payoh library, etc etc.. non-sensitive areas.

The ones that got into issues with the police were those that took photos of sensitive areas, like the immigration buildings and such.
 

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at one time, me and my group, we were shooting black and white film in china town upper cross stress near pearl hill at the back of red-star cantonese restaurant.

we stopby a hostel converted from an old building before, my friend trying out his newly bought (old minty) nikon F5 and shots a few in the old hostel compound, immediately were stopped by the guard-man who is an apnn(ah puh neh neh), stopped all of us and asking us why are we at the compound, and told us, we are not allow to look around and take picture in this compound.

our group then comply and withdrew ourself from the building and move on to nearby building, however, never did we expected, the ******* apnn guard called up Police, PTU Police unit in less than 5 min, come with 3 uniformed policemen, hunting and chasing for for my friend in second floor of old shop house nearby. Despite my friend shabby look (he looks casual in dressing), he was stopped for searches, and policemen check through all his cameras, DSLR, NRIC, and even called up SG police HQ to verify his identity. All of us come to argue wiht the police, and confronted them, explaining we do not have any intention to access the hostel, also we have comply to leave the place.

So you see, how stupid is singapore building management and the guard house apnn, calling for policemen in day time just because we few carry DSLR entering the premises? we don even shoot any picture yet.

My own experience, i was stopped by London Metropolitan Police, due to i shoot a sensitive building, a diplomatic officer building in london, the security camera captured me, and the security guard came after me and a metro policemen, search my DSLR photo and my passport. At the end release me since they can not find any offensive photo in my camera.

Singapore now is too sensitive about terrorism fighting, there is no where we can shoot a lot of good photo. there are many time i just feel super frustrated over this small piece of heartland, we are not even allow to shoot a picture of street and places we like.
 

Generally, security guards do not understand how copyright and trespass works. Note security guards do not hv power to compel search of your body or items. The training that security guards undertake prior to employment as security guards is not as comprehensive as policeman

Police ought to know. However, even if they don't, it is not advisable to piss off the policeman, coz police hv powers of search n arrest and other powers that can make things quite unpleasant for you or at the very least waste alot of your time.
 

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Best to know your rights better than other people. So that when you are confronted by the police (that seems to be the ace in the hole for people that don't know the law) you can better defend yourself. But as long as there is nothing incriminating or illegal, and that it was taken in a public area, they cannot do anything to you. At most they can shake a fist but that is their right too.
 

Not by police nor security but mediacorp! :sweatsm: :sweat: :bigeyes: :confused:

 

dacteo said:
Nice capture bro! Any story to share here?
Click to expand...

haha bro, this was yesterday afternoon just after my business appointment at UE Square... saw mediacorp doing a film set there with zoe tay & *can't-recall-the-other-guy's-name*. Me being KPO, i took out my ever ready m8 & happily snapped a few pictures!
Allow me to come clean first - I was standing at least 2m behind the film crew and definitely in no way interfering with their shoot... the lady in yellow was PERSISTANT about no photography... I thought she's really sweet looking so I snapped a picture of her! :p
 

newghost said:
haha bro, this was yesterday afternoon just after my business appointment at UE Square... saw mediacorp doing a film set there with zoe tay & *can't-recall-the-other-guy's-name*. Me being KPO, i took out my ever ready m8 & happily snapped a few pictures!
Allow me to come clean first - I was standing at least 2m behind the film crew and definitely in no way interfering with their shoot... the lady in yellow was PERSISTANT about no photography... I thought she's really sweet looking so I snapped a picture of her! :p
Click to expand...



haha....nice capture!!! the last mediacorp show i watched was "golden pillow" in my secondary schools days.
 

newghost said:
haha bro, this was yesterday afternoon just after my business appointment at UE Square... saw mediacorp doing a film set there with zoe tay & *can't-recall-the-other-guy's-name*. Me being KPO, i took out my ever ready m8 & happily snapped a few pictures!
Allow me to come clean first - I was standing at least 2m behind the film crew and definitely in no way interfering with their shoot... the lady in yellow was PERSISTANT about no photography... I thought she's really sweet looking so I snapped a picture of her! :p
Click to expand...

Haha round and cute pose! Haha
 

 

magicianhisoka said:
Haha did you continue after being told to stop? :p
Click to expand...

Well, there wasn't anything of particular interest thereafter.... let's just put it this way, if there's a scene to frame... i'll definitely aim to catch it :)
 

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