Ok, it's 6:00am Sunday morning I'm suffering from a cold and have been awake for sometime, unable to get back to sleep I get up and have a peek out of the window - it looks like it's going to be a lovely misty surise. Decision made, I get dressed, grab the camera and tripod and head for the fields. I've been wandering around taking a few shots when I see the perfect view of the rising sun behind a group of trees so I set up iin the middle of this field and just wait a few minutes for some cloud to clear when I hear a noise behind me. There is a Land-Rover charging across the field straight towards me. 'Oh, no', I thought, 'it's the farmer, I'm going to get shouted at for trespassing or something' . He pulls up along side me...

'Oh that's what you are doing' (he points at camera)
'Er... yeah ... I couldn't sleep so I thought I'd get some nice shots of the sunrise'
'I saw you carrying it and thought you had a gun, thought you might be poaching'
'Me? No, this is the only type of shooting I do' (laughs nervously)
'Oh, well that's ok then. I'll leave you to it'

And off he went...

Ok, so everything was fine, but I was wondering if anyone on here has had a similar experience or has actually got into trouble for taking pictures somewhere they maybe shouldn't?

I hate those kind of encounters, but in this modern world they seem to be more frequent. I've been asked to put away my camera when using it in stores. One time I was only trying to capture the interesting structure of the ceiling, but the security guard wouldn't have it. ;']

Well; how about this: 

My wife and I were coming back from the Twin cites in Mn when we saw this beautiful red sunset throwing the cracking towers at a refinery into black silhouettes. We stopped on the overpass and took some pictures. We noticed there was a frontage road on the highway in front of the refinery. So we pulled onto the road and took several pictures of the sunset. They were beautiful pictures. 

Then two security guards in all black dressed like an assault force arrived with guns and bullet proof vests. They demanded to see our driver’s licenses, copied them down and our car licenses. They demanded we erase our pictures as we were photographing a secure location. We did what they wanted then they said they were reporting us to the FBI... 

We expected to hear from the FBI within a couple of weeks, but it has been about a year and no call from the FBI. Home land security up close and personal. There were no signs that pictures were not allowed or that it was a security location.

They also said they had us on camera taking pictures from the bridge. It was about 4 blocks from the refinery.. 

Wow, sounds like you had a pretty close call there Jeditojan! A while back I did a lot of shots of a nearby power station in black and white (a few of them are in my gallery), although I took them from a public footpath that run around the site I had push through some of the undergrowth and stick the lens of the camera through the fence that surrounds the place, it was at a time when there was still a lot of fear about terrorist activity so I kept expecting to feel a hand on my shoulder, lol.
However I remember when I used to work there - on my first week I was stopped at the gate by the security and asked for my pass. I said I hadn't been issued with one as I had only just started and they just said ok, and let me in anyway! Doubt that would happen now.

That must have been scary... did you use photo recovery software afterwards? :)

I think my only "close encounter" was with a herd of cows at night. I was taking a shot of a big gnarly tree in the middle of a field. I had researched the field during the day and it was clear.  Thing is at night the farmer obviously moved his cows.  So i thought nothing of it, they werent near me or the tree. So i am happily setting up the  shot, camera down and pointing, settings looking good. Take one shot (i have to run over to the tree to fire a flash on the camera's timer) and the coast is clear... but gradually i notice that there are cows in every direction. Keeping a distance but basically encircling me. I take another shot realise they are coming closer and closer and decide to head for the exit. Thankfully they didnt demand i delete my photos or anything...

LOL, Rich!!!! Sounds like something I would run into!!!! HA HA HA!!! So far I've never had a close encounter like anyone's here, but I have often thought about going to AREA 51 to take some pictures. I hear they are really strict about coming too close to the place. You think your out in the middle of the desert alone and all of a sudden a band of "Men in Black" appear in black SUVs, followed by a flight of choppers! You definetly don't want to go visiting alone!!!!! LOL :P

I'll bet there's a 3d model of the refinery on google earth :)....

I've had that before, taking pictures of an APC at play on salisbury plains some disgruntled squadies came over and gave me a grilling, luckily enough at the time I could pull rank (working in the security services) and tell them to go hang unless they could tell me exactly what I'm not allowed to photograph. To make the fun even better I dropped the film when changing it the next day and had the pleasure of watching it roll slowly (but not slow enough for me to catch it) down a river bank into the thames so the twenty minutes of arguing (including with their staffy) were pointless.

I've also had the fun of kayaking down a river, turned round to take photo's of the guy behind coming over a drop while I drift a fairly flat spot to suddenly feel a thump in the back, some nice man had stretched barbed wire across the river. My lucky escape was that I was (by chance) wearing my instructors kit rather then my lightweight gear so I had a Letterman on me and could snip the wire before it started draggin me downwards. (If you haven't played much in rivers - generally something on the end of a string or rope (or barbed wire) placed in moving water tends to submerge :(. )

Quote - LOL, Rich!!!! Sounds like something I would run into!!!! HA HA HA!!! So far I've never had a close encounter like anyone's here, but I have often thought about going to AREA 51 to take some pictures. I hear they are really strict about coming too close to the place. You think your out in the middle of the desert alone and all of a sudden a band of "Men in Black" appear in black SUVs, followed by a flight of choppers! You definetly don't want to go visiting alone!!!!! LOL :P

Please, please please, go and try... I'd love to see a shot of that.  :lol: