laurence
Veteran
- Location
- in the aeroplane over the sea
the last week or so have been a struggle.
there's been little things that have kept me going - yesterday i saw great crested grebes hatch in their nest.
anyway. today i was by the Thames at Kingston. part of me wanted to jump in. i was watching people feeding the birds and just trying to calm down. then i spotted a grebe. i followed it upstream, it was coming close to the bank, so i took some pictures. i decided to head back and on the way i saw its mate, calling to it. so i followed again and got some shots of them greeting each other... and then followed them downstream to see if i could see any nest site.
they were both diving for food and i could get pretty close, so i was snapping away.
then along came two community support officers. they stopped me and wanted my details. why? because i was photographing "possible terrorist targets" which were "the bridge and the riverside". i explained i was on public property and snapping birds, one said "i can't see any birds" - this on the Thames at Kingston!
they basically accused me of being a terrorist and threatened me with further action if i didn't give them my name. i told them of my rights and re-itterated that i was free to take pictures, i even showed them the supposed bridge shots were actually of a grebe eating a fish and refused to tell them my name.
as the grebes had moved off, so did i. i found their (possible) nest site, but my heart had gone out of taking pictures.
what was turning out to be an ok day has now been turned into one of despair. i really don't know why i bother, i hate the world - well, mainly the humans that infest it.
i can lose myself when taking pictures, i hide behind the camera and see the world in a better light. not any more.
there's been little things that have kept me going - yesterday i saw great crested grebes hatch in their nest.
anyway. today i was by the Thames at Kingston. part of me wanted to jump in. i was watching people feeding the birds and just trying to calm down. then i spotted a grebe. i followed it upstream, it was coming close to the bank, so i took some pictures. i decided to head back and on the way i saw its mate, calling to it. so i followed again and got some shots of them greeting each other... and then followed them downstream to see if i could see any nest site.
they were both diving for food and i could get pretty close, so i was snapping away.
then along came two community support officers. they stopped me and wanted my details. why? because i was photographing "possible terrorist targets" which were "the bridge and the riverside". i explained i was on public property and snapping birds, one said "i can't see any birds" - this on the Thames at Kingston!
they basically accused me of being a terrorist and threatened me with further action if i didn't give them my name. i told them of my rights and re-itterated that i was free to take pictures, i even showed them the supposed bridge shots were actually of a grebe eating a fish and refused to tell them my name.
as the grebes had moved off, so did i. i found their (possible) nest site, but my heart had gone out of taking pictures.
what was turning out to be an ok day has now been turned into one of despair. i really don't know why i bother, i hate the world - well, mainly the humans that infest it.
i can lose myself when taking pictures, i hide behind the camera and see the world in a better light. not any more.