We were asked to leave the premises
Hello and welcome to the second day of the Great Co-Posting Experiment. If you were here yesterday, you know that Ehpem and I will be co-posting some of our images from my recent trip to Victoria.
It’s been interesting to compare our shots, many of which were shot when we were almost literally shoulder to shoulder. A lot of the time, Ehpem was using a full frame DSLR and a wider lens than I had, a combination which made a surprising (to me) amount of difference in how much of a scene he could capture. He’s also noticeably taller than I am, which also had a larger-than-anticipated effect on the images.
Anyway. The parking garage. Ehpem has been here before and was happy to return so I could have a look around. We were inside 20 or 30 minutes, and nothing very exciting had happened (other than making dozens of photos, that is). All of a sudden, a hulking monster of a security guard burst through a door and approached me. Much aggression on his part – not to mention how he was practically spitting on me when he talked yelled – as he let us know that we were on private property and we had to leave. It was a little surreal, actually. Ehpem said, “I thought this was city property?” and the man said, “NO. IT’S BEEN PRIVATE PROPERTY SINCE IT WAS BUILT IN 1961.” (Yes, he spoke in all caps.) (Also, he’s apparently the Official Historian.)
So, we left.
Later, we talked about how the parking garage’s security wasn’t all that great: we were there for sort of a while before getting yelled at by the guy.
But enough talk about the rude Canadian. Here are some photos (Ehpem’s first, then mine.)
You can see Ehpem’s post here.
Ehpem:
Me:
Victoria, British Columbia
photographed 4.23.2015
UPDATED INFORMATION
It’s not just Canadian parking garages who object to being photographed! Look what I just found in my hometown in Texas:
Posted on May 17, 2015, in Photography and tagged 365 photo project, architecture, black and white photography, E&M Collaboration, melinda green harvey, monochrome, NIK Silver Efex Pro 2, one day one image, photo a day, photography, postaday, victoria. Bookmark the permalink. 28 Comments.
One Day | One Image 
I had a similar encounter a few years ago when photographing a bus-station. The ironic thing was the bus-station in question had a display of street-photography images on their internal walls at the time. The hipocrisy of this completely passed them by.
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It’s sort of more fun, though, when people miss the obvious!
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I once also walked into a pub wearing a back-pack containing my camera gear. Around 30 seconds later everyone in the bar had either left or had migrated to the far end of the room and was watching me suspiciously. This was just after the London bombings in 2007 so that was probably why, although it just goes to show that photographers are always held in suspicion, it is something we just have to live with. All this just for walking around with a little box that takes pictures…
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Once again, your photo is far superior to ehpem’s. Don’t ask me why.
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I see what you did there!
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I forgot to mention that I was chased out of a parking garage years ago for taking photos. I guess this guy took the same Parking Garage Security Guard course in college.
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I don’t get it! Why are parking garages such huge concerns for security that you aren’t allowed to photograph in them? Guess I’m glad I haven’t been caught yet.
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You’ve just been lucky! But you have to let us know when it happens, and we’ll induct you into the club!
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I suspect it is because before 9/11 there was a previous attempt to blow up the world trade centre with a car bomb in it’s parking garage. Since this 1961 parkade in Victoria is a landmark of similar profile to the WTC, this can be considered a rational concern.
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Thanks for the explanation, Ehpem. Now I get it.
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I think you can get a Parking Garage Security Guarding at clown college. Based on what I saw in Victoria, anyway.
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It’s odd to me that both commenters so far have had similar experiences. This was my first time anywhere to be asked to stop and leave.
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I’ve only been asked to stop taking pictures one other time, in Dallas, which I didn’t even remember until just now. Believe it or not, it was a security guard who asked me to stop taking photos of…wait for it…the entrance to a parking garage. What’s WITH that?!
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Melinda, this confession has required an edit to my post, which has now been made. What IS it with you and garage security?
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Again, I enjoy thinking about the differences in your two photos. Here I see Ephem’s as concerned with lines and yours as concerned with the objects themselves: the drainpipe (if that’s what it is) and the walls. Maybe I see more object-ness because of the color, which takes the image more into the realm of reality, whereas Ephem’s black and white is more an abstraction.
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Interesting comment Linda. For me I was interested in the one pipe and the light on the wall – I did not even notice that electrical conduit that I left unattached at the left and which Melinda carefully put into its box. When Melinda and I were corresponding about which photos to use, she referred to this one as the PVC picture. Maybe her inner architect is showing in the composition.
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Also, I have a bit of a thing for those yellow parking signs that are all over this town. They show up in a lot of my photos, often in a corner. Don’t ask why, because I don’t actually have a rational answer.
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You’re not supposed to have a rational answer! Those yellow stripes in the corners of images will be the way future art historians identify your work. Theses will be written on them, and most of them will be unable to identify a rational answer, though all will give it a try.
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It’s possible that I was just showing off that I knew the term “PVC.”
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My mother is an art historian. She has never expressed an interest in yellow anything in the corners. In fact yellow is her least favourite colour.
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Thanks, Linda – I’ve enjoyed your thoughtful comparisons of our two co-posts, and look forward to what you have to say about the rest of them! For some reason, Ehpem asked me to process and post this one in color, but it’s still really monochromatic. I enjoy parking garage photos (when I can get away with taking them!) because I like the play of light/shadows on the industrial materials.
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Yeah, there’s a lot to like about parking garages. Looking forward to your next post.
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Reblogged this on Benji's Photo Blog and commented:
Image the hell that we as photobloggers go through!
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