1900 M Street

1900 M Street by Andy Roth on 500px

Photo #29
I had one more stop on my morning mini-photowalk before I needed to get to work. It was a building on the corner of 19th and M Street in Washington DC that I walked past every day. I positioned myself on the sidewalk in front of the building and took this one shot before a security guard came out of the building to confront me. The conversation went something like this:

Her: "Hey! Hey! You can't take pictures of this building!"
Me: "Yes I can"
Her: "No you can't"
Me: "Sure I can. I'm standing on public property. I can take pictures of whatever I want."
Her: "You have to stop!"
Me: "Why?"
Her: "You can't take pictures of this building!"

The conversation went on like that for a couple minutes before I decided it wasn't worth any more of my time. Unfortunately it is a common thing for security guards and even police to be ignorant of the law. Ignorance is a stubborn problem to solve. Perhaps the next time any of you are in NW DC with your camera, you should visit 1900 M Street and give the guard another lesson.