Salling, Aarhus, Denmark: no photographing allowed here, please delete your pictures!

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Niels

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Thats what she said, the 18 year old girl, stylish dressed, some badge on chest showing her undisputet power, and ready to use it!

I had been photographing all day using zone system, also in the Salling mall in the center of Aarhus, but for the first time I used the RF focus, and now displaying for the world to see: this man is taking pictures! No more than 3 minutes went before the girl confrontet me.

Said I, 51 years of age, old leather jacket, worn jeans, and worn out through a whole day of christmas shopping: "Sorry Miss, this is an oldfashioned camera with real film, pictures can not be deletet!". A lie, allready on the defensive.

The girl obviously didnt konow what to say - real film, a stunner!

And (quite frankly irritatet) I dealt another blow: "Besides I see. and have not seen, any resctrctions towards photographing!"

In the crazy frenzynes of Xmas shopping, there were only two persons now, her and me. High noon.

"But if you insist, I will of course stop right away."

I chickened out - youth with official badge wins. She grabbed victory, like a thirsty man grabs a martini, shaken not stirred. Good, said she triumphant, turned on high heels and clickydiclack off to the next important task.



Kind Regards

Niels
 

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Greetings LCT! :=)

?? Not private mall, but Salling (mall). A reputet, slightly snoppish, warehouse lying in Århus - Denmarks 2. largest city with a wopping 250.000 inhabitans.

Anyway I was taken a bit by surprise by the girl - last time I was asked to stop (and get out..) was a few years ago when I entered private premises to do pictures of a flood allmost collapsing a bridge, equipped with DSLR and the works. Fair enough.

The R-D1 really works well shooting from the hip i close envioments. Morale is, I guess, to think twice when you want to focus for real 😀

Kind Regards

Niels

PS: those 600 pixels pictures allowed in here sure aint big..
 
It gets crazy sometimes, and it gets irritating. A few times I've offered them my cell phone with a "Here, just press "send". I have the police department on speed dial. Tell them to come over and arrest me" then as I walk away, mutter "Fine! You explain it to your boss why we're not doing the story about this place."
 
gb wrote:

"Also how many cell phone cameras did you see teens using? At malls here in US it's crazy. "

Quite. This point makes any attempt of prohibiting photographing at best, inconsistent. More so as cell phone cameras keep getting better - you dont have to be the wizard of oz to foresee the compact camera segment getting all eaten by the cell phones in a few years.

Come March there will be a Bob Dylan concert here in Oslo, Norway. His Bobness will have to face my R-D1 and som thousand cell phones as well, photo ban or not.

Kind Regards

Niels
 
Al Kaplan said:
It gets crazy sometimes, and it gets irritating. A few times I've offered them my cell phone with a "Here, just press "send". I have the police department on speed dial. Tell them to come over and arrest me ..."
Click to expand...

I've done the same thing. Not one "taker" for such an offer yet! It is a highly effective way of determining if they are just popping off or if they are serious.
 
Last edited:
Al wrote:

"Fine! You explain it to your boss why we're not doing the story about this place."

Yeah this quote has to be drilled, again and again... :angel:

Kind Regards

Niels
 
...and I'm not telling a lie! My blog IS considered a "publication". Yours too. Mine has paid ads thanks to Google, and Yahoo and other places rate blogs for popularity, and can come up with all kinds of statistics about where your viewers are from, how many hits per day, or even per hour.
 
aren't malls private?

anyway, i'm not living too far away from århus denmark, and i've found out that none of the local malls "allow" photography. that is, if the security guards spots you shooting, he'll come and point out the fact that one cannot take pictures. i've also found out that there are two very workable ways around it, carry a definitive point and shoot camera (and preferably appear to be shooting pics of friends or family, or simply shooting in such a manner that it won't get noticed), or simply come up with a fancy enough reason to shoot something in there and get a written permission (which sort of takes the spontaneity out of the whole thing).

i suppose that every sign that says no (or don't or not etc) has a negative effect on customers, so i must say i understand the lack of such signs.
 
Yes, malls are private, but with the demise of "Main Street" as a shopping destination malls have also become somewhat of a legal never-never land as they've taken on the position in the community of "downtown". It's often the only place where the movie theaters are. Some have upscale restaurants, often with an entrance that doesn't require you to go into the mall itself. They're social gathering places in many communities. If they do post "No Pictures" signs I doubt that it would be enforcable as a criminal act, and they're unlikely to sue you in a civil proceeding.

About the only thing that they can enforce is a "We Reserve The Right To Ask You To Leave The Premises".

Inside a store it's another story. They often don't want competitors photographing their merchandise and displays.
 
In Oz malls and shopping centres are classified as 'privately owned but with public access' ... to stop you photographing (by law) it has to come from mall or centre management as a request. If you fail to comply, then they can take action.

I looked into this a while ago because I was actually monstered by two very unpleasant policemen at the local shopping center a while ago. Some well meaning citizen had rung them and reported me for daring to take photographs.

I subsequently received a full apology from the local police sergeant when I pointed out the legal situation to him ... but the way I was treated by those two uniformed thugs in front of a lot of intrigued bystanders for nearly a full half hour will stay with me forever!
 
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