Incident in London: Police Stop Boulder Photographer By U S Embassy
Sunday: 16th October 2009
After a fun time photographing the vibrant activity at the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park near London’s Marble Arch, I decided to head to a nearby Starbucks. I set off down Upper Brook Street, came upon the U. S. Embassy and noticed the statue of General Eisenhower. I like how the afternoon glow off the overcast sky was lighting the statue, so I fired off several shots, took some time to more carefully compose the frame and fired some more.
I then strolled out to Grosvenor Square, to get some snaps of the huge FDR statue. I then hopped off the back of the monument and back onto Brook Street and turned up North Audley Street. I then saw a light blue Mini that was practically glowing the way the light was hitting, and it was just begging to have its photograph taken. It sat on the other side of the oneway street, and even though I knew no traffic would be coming from the other direction, out of paranoid habbit while in London, I threw a glance over my left shoulder as I was about to step out in the street to set up for the photograph.
All of a sudden a police car was right in front of me, coming to a halt after approaching from the wrong direction on the one-way street. Three officers hopped out and came up to me. “So, you were taking photographs of the Embassy” they announced, as they began to ask me questions about who I was and what I was doing there. I stayed cool, offered to show them the photographs in my camera, and at one point even joked about getting their photograph before I left.
To be frank, they were very polite. They even made it very clear that it was perfectly legal to take photographs anywhere in England. After taking the information from my US drivers license, spending sometime on their radios, I was free to go. They weren’t really keen about me getting their group shot, but they did let me get one of their police car. And after they left, I again looked over my left shoulder, and when I saw the street was clear, I stepped out, squatted down, and got my photograph of that glowing blue Mini.
