Very Frustrating...

You take two hours out of your evening, lug all your gear across London, get stopped by the police TWICE, and you still don't produce a picture worthy of showing anyone, none sharp, none properly exposed, except one - which you see above, I thought this one was pretty good.

Yes, stopped by the police twice, under the "Terrorism Act." Both scenes sort of went like this:

*Policeman sees tripod*
"Well well well, whats goin' on 'ere then?"
*Thinks to self, what the f*ck does it look like?*
"Just taking some photos, officer"
"Can't allow that I'm afraid, its a security risk."
*I look up and down Embankment to see at least 5 people on compact cameras taking pictures, and countless mobile phones*
"Why is it a security risk, officer?"
"Because you could be a terrorist or something, doing reconnaissance work"
*I bite my tongue and move on*

Seriously though, I doubt any terrorist with more than sh*t for brains doing recon work would use a bloody great tripod to take pictures of his target, from the other side of the river, and stick around for 30 minutes. It's not some elaborate double-bluff!

I did figure out what it does mean though: the terrorists may not have sh*t for brains, but that policeman certainly did, and so did the other one.

Harrowing.

Dom

P.S I'm sure not all policeman are stupid, but with more and more reports of photographers being harassed as terrorists, it certainly seems that the number is on the rise.