About a decade ago I was living across the river from Greenwich (the important one). I'd wander the area frequently as it has some lovely old buildings bracketed by large green lawns - the area makes frequent appearances in films, especially the Queen's House Colonnade.
Outside the National Maritime Museum (free access) on a grassy area about 200m x 100m, with precious few people around, I set up my aging DSLR on top a feeble little tripod - I think to experiment with some ND filters either to reduce the skyline contrast, or run some longer shots to try to remove people.
Perhaps five minutes in some lass rushes over and insists this isn't allowed.
She couldn't explain why, precisely, it wasn't allowed - just that it very definitely wasn't.
I was free, I suppose, to move about 30 metres away - to stand on the footpath and compose a very similar shot through the wrought iron fence.
Tripod users will find they're not welcome in a lot of places where it's otherwise ok to take photos. This isn't a British thing, I've seen it in touristy areas around the world.
Yes, I've been to plenty of touristy places with weird - and inconsistently enforced - rules.
I totally appreciate that in a crowded space, protracted tripod fiddling inconveniences other tourists, and I'd avoid doing that on principle anyway. In this instance, as noted, big empty space, not a thoroughfare, very few people in sight, etc.
I recall at the Mosque-Cathedral in Cordoba (edit - I had misremembered as the Alhambra) they maintained it very dimly lit, low-key lighting - I sat cross-legged on the floor, way out of anyone's way, and used my gorillapod (about 30cm diameter, 30cm high) to try to get a non-blurry, non-flash shot of the ceiling. I was quickly advised this was not allowed. Meanwhile, world+dog was flashing their phones / cameras, ruining everyone's experience as your eyes had no chance to adjust to the lighting. (And also, I suspect, producing quite awful photos they'd soon delete.)
About a decade ago I was living across the river from Greenwich (the important one). I'd wander the area frequently as it has some lovely old buildings bracketed by large green lawns - the area makes frequent appearances in films, especially the Queen's House Colonnade.
Outside the National Maritime Museum (free access) on a grassy area about 200m x 100m, with precious few people around, I set up my aging DSLR on top a feeble little tripod - I think to experiment with some ND filters either to reduce the skyline contrast, or run some longer shots to try to remove people.
Perhaps five minutes in some lass rushes over and insists this isn't allowed.
She couldn't explain why, precisely, it wasn't allowed - just that it very definitely wasn't.
I was free, I suppose, to move about 30 metres away - to stand on the footpath and compose a very similar shot through the wrought iron fence.