Watch where you Point that Camera

[katty]

cont'd at...http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0523/p11s01-ussc.html

Watch where you point that camera

By Susan Llewelyn Leach | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

If you pull out a camera on a New Jersey train, you will have company - law enforcement company. If you size up a shot on the New York subway, you'll probably be questioned by security and told to keep the lens cap tightly on. Even if you plan to snap some innocuous bank building from a public sidewalk, you might find guards telling you it's not allowed.
"Is photography becoming illegal in the United States?" asks Jim McGee, in a column for the online photo magazine Vivid Light Photography.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0523/p11s01-ussc.html

[Steel City Slim]

1. Who Would Have Guessed

Thank you for the link.

[JPZenger]

2. This is becoming common

I've gotten dirty looks from many security guards when I've taken photos of architecture. I was chased off the grounds of a hospital complex for taking a photo of the outside of a building. I can just imagine what would happen if I looked like an Arab.

[NewInNewJ.]

3. In the last few months

I have has several college age family members visiting, and while riding on NJTransit, they took several picts. and had no problems at all.

[DTinAZ]

4. reminiscent of East Germany

I visited East Germany in the early 80's, and there were specific restrictions about taking pictures of trains, etc., but also implied restrictions about taking photos of anything political. I went ahead and took photos of a bizarre tapestry in the city hall of Magdeburg, and then I was apparently followed, because outside, when my friend was taking pictures of large "Arbeit Macht Frei" banners posted on a nearby building, a policeman started heading straight for us with a very unhappy expression on his face. I grabbed my friend's arm and we hurried away.

I can understand the potential public safety issues involved in allowing potential terrorists to photograph things that they might then want to blow up or sabotage, but those in positions of authority should tread very carefully in how they handle this issue, lest our nation slip further down the slippery slope towards an authoritarian abyss.

[damntexdem]

5. No, don't watch where you point that camera --

make sure to point it, and click, where it will upset the Homeland Gestapo.