No photos at the weekend.

Today was a first for me. I got told I couldn't take photos, and had to leave a location. I did check the website beforehand, it said commercial photography needed a permit, this is a hobby so no problem. But oh no, the jobsworth (JW) had to throw his weight around.

I arrived and took pictures of the location, JW didn't like that. He told me I couldn't take photo commercially, I said it's only a hobby. Not convinced he loitered close by. I'm not sure what his problem was, maybe a "big pro like" camera meant I could only be a pro photographer. When Sam arrived JW's spider sense went into overdrive. He marched over and told us we needed a permit. And that would only give us a weekday pass, no photography was allowed at the weekend. Again I said it was just a hobby and there wasn't a commercial angle. He then said if you post on Facebook etc that was marketing and wasn't allowed. I had to laugh, I had seen plenty of pictures of this place on social media. It seemed to me the location would be benefiting from any marketing.

It was a weird situation, a tourist location that you can't photograph and certainly can't post on social media.

We left and started shooting just outside the walled off area.

 We chanced it for one sneaky shot with me on the other side of the fence and Sam inside.

Caught by JW, he then compared us to children. So it wasn't all bad.

Which one do you think looks better, the black and white or colour version?

Then one as we left the park.

I haven't photographed many men so it was a change to have to think about different angles and poses. Especially when JW had made a great location off limits.

But even with the change I liked what we achieved, and I had another photography experience.

What a tourist would have thought had they tried taking some pictures and been marched off, JW even threatened to call the police. I'm sure they have more important things to do.

At the end of the day no-one died, the structure didn't collapse or suffer any damage and I got some good photographs and a story to tell.

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