Have you got a hobby ? Do you need to carry a piece of paper with your human and civil rights documented on it just in case you get arrested or assaulted by a security guard ?

That’s what more and more photographers (both amateur and professional) are having to do. I’m planning to take my camera into London this weekend and for the first time I will have The UK Photographers Rights Guide with me.

Think that’s paranoid ? Well have a read of what happened to Curly recently :

Sex pictures shock! « Curly’€™s Corner Shop, the blog!

“€œI’€™m sorry sir, this is obviously a terrible misunderstanding, but I suppose you realise that we get more and more of these calls every week these days. I was looking at a bloke‒s camera recently, and I can tell you the pictures weren’€™t the sort that you have taken

What I cannot understand is, you said someone in The Sundial rang 999 and reported me, I haven’t been anywhere near The Sundial, I haven’t been anywhere near the park, you said I was tracked by the CCTV cameras, so you should have known that I’d been in the fairground!

So sorry sir, we have to follow these calls, and may I thank you for being so co-operative. Have a good day sir”

Then check out this video where six security guards and a policemen were usefully engaged stopping a photographer in a public street.

Sadly, this sort of thing is becoming more and more common. Photography is not a crime, the vast number of photographers are law abiding individuals.

If you feel strongly about this issue please find out the name of your MP and write to them.

After all we all have cameras and if this continues we are all a potential threat.