Hi Erik,
I was outraged when I first read about your being hassled by the overzealous security guard for taking a photo, but didn't make it out on July 30. However I saved the message, and the year is rolling around again. It occurred to me, why not make this an annual event? Every July 30 could be "Shoot One Bush Day" in San Francisco.
What I would further suggest is that we meet at One Bush Street, take copious photos of it and its security guard(s), then walk around taking pictures into the windows of and/or inside any business that has a camera outside, or a camera inside which is pointed out onto the street. And that we then proceed en masse to City Hall, where we enter and walk through various offices taking pictures (this building being the home of the people who approve all the red light cameras invading the streets). All the time, handing out fliers telling people what we are doing.
Please let me know if you like this idea.
Yours in liberty,
<<< starchild >>>
Outreach Director, Libertarian Party of San Francisco
Photographing One Bush Street et al.
Saturday, July 30th
noon
free
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Defend your right to photograph in public! And take some pretty pictures in the process!
Photographer Thomas Hawk was harassed yesterday for photographing One Bush Street in San Francisco (http://thomashawk.com/2005/07/one-bush.html). He writes:
"Yesterday I was shooting some photos of One Bush St. (the building where Bush and Market Streets intersect) when their security guard came out of his little glass jewelbox lobby hut to ask me to stop taking photos of the building. He said it was illegal. I moved to the sidewalk and continued taking photos and he again asked me to stop. When I told him I was on a public street sidewalk he said that actually they owned the sidewalk and that I was going to have to stop taking photographs.
[...]
I'd encourage anyone with a camera to stop by One Bush if you're in the neighborhood..."Let's take him up on that!
This Saturday at noon, we'll gather at One Bush St. to take pictures and then continue on a walk around downtown photographing other buildings, but also anything else that strikes our fancy. Think of it as a photo outing with a purpose; a protest and playtime.
----/ Venue Info /------------------------------------------------------
all around downtown
One Bush Street
San Francisco----/ Additional Info /-------------------------------------------------
From the http://www.multipledigression.com/bush website:
We stood up for our rights! And took some pretty pictures!
The photo outing/direct action/protest was a success. We had about 20 people - including a cameraman for CBS 5 news - show up for taking pictures of One Bush, and about eight of them continued on around downtown photographing various buildings. The response from security was varied -
At One Bush the guard initially told us that we weren't allowed to take pictures of the building, then when it became clear we weren't going away changed his story to saying that we weren't allowed to take pictures while on their property (which may or may not be true, depending on whether the part of property in question can fairly be considered an easement ).
At 345 California the guard was much quicker to respond and got straight to the not-on-our-property line, though he was clearly uncomfortable with the group of us taking photos from just off the proerty.
At the Transamerica Pyramid I encountered by far the most polite guard, who simply asked - with a smile - that I point my camera upward rather than in toward the lobby. When I said there were a few ground-level shots I wanted to get he seemed a bit frustrated but I promised I wouldn't come back and bomb the place. He was still nice enough, and said that as long as I was taking their picture they'd be taking mine. I told him that was fine.
Plenty of photos were taken, of course: there's a huge flickr photo set , mine are up on my web site , CBS aired a brief bit on us last night which should be up on their web site soon.