Rob Studdert <[email protected]> wrote: > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAUan2DXBsk > > Sneaky photographers...
Actually, that guy's been rather lucky. I've been stopped by the French police in Dunkirk, last xmas, taking one of my usual nighttime photos of the steel mill over there. Their line of argument? There are half a dozen Seveso class plants, i.e. they're working with toxic substances, so I can't photograph them. I was about to ask them what would make it any more dangerous to take photos in comparison to walking a dog, speeding along on a quad or fishing which is what dozens of people were doing there at the same time. I bit my tongue instead because one doesn't argue with the French police. They can take you to the station and keep you there for days on end without having to inform anyone, not even a judge or a prosecutor. I simply packed everything back into the car while they spent half an hour on their phones and radios with my ID card, inside their vehicle. Oh, and they were extremely suspicious about me speaking French although my car had German number plates. I told them that foreign languages can be learned with a little effort. They didn't seem to like this concept. Note to self: French officials will in the future have to deal with me in German. That sure will be fun. Now, for our coming Easter holidays I'll either obtain an official photo permit from the Dunkirk port authority that I can wave in their faces or that'll be it as far as my 30 years of travelling to France are concerned. Pity, really. Ralf -- Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany Blog : http://the-real-fotoralf.blogspot.com Audio : http://aporee.org/maps/projects/fotoralf Web : http://www.fotoralf.de -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
