what the heck is a tripod permit???????/

Yeah, we looked at the guy with open-mouthed frowns and couldn't believe it! And this was before 9/11 - I think it was around '96. All we could think was that you can't shoot a projectile from a point-and-shoot, but it you had a tripod...!
Yeah... Only in DC!

There's a beautiful outdoor mall in Reston, VA - in the early '90's we shot 4x5 architectural stills at Christmas - can't do that anymore as security will stop you. Apparently the mall is copyrighted and they've banned professionals from taking pictures of it - this is so dumb - you can't make this crap up.

Needless to say (yet, I'm going to!), I now keep a Nikon 5700 P&S with me as often as possible, and look for things to lean on. Probably going to save my sheckles and get a used 8700 someday soon.

-Lew ;-)