Photography and the fear of terrorist attacks

This article tries to help resolve the conflict between some photographers, who want to be free to take photographs of major strategic buildings, and the police and security agencies, who are concerned that some of these photographers might be  terrorists who are taking photos. of these buildings in preparation for a terrorist attack.

Few if any genuine photographers are interested in taking photographs of the entrances to major strategic buildings and the means of escape from these buildings. The entrances to most major strategic buildings are of no interest to genuine photographers.
It’s the same situation with the means of escape from these buildings – the fire escape. Usually, fire escapes are of no interest to genuine photographers.
The reason for this is simple – generally speaking, they are not interesting enough.
To justify a photograph, the entrance to a major strategic building would have to have some really unusual features. Even if it did have some unusual features, some photographers would not bother to take a picture of it except under certain conditions.
Typically, these conditions might be a certain time of day when the entrance is illuminated by the sun in a certain way, or when it is half in shadow.
It’s difficult to understand how the fire escape from a major strategic building can justify a photograph. Again, it would have to have some really unusual features.
In reality, fire escapes hardly ever have any unusual features, so few if any genuine photographers would bother to take photographs of them. In any conditions, even if they were illuminated by the sun in a certain way or if they were half in shadow.
Genuine photographers often like to take pictures of the complete major strategic building, including the entrance to the building (but usually this is only possible if they have a very wide angle lens or a fisheye lens fitted on their camera.)
If you are a genuine photographer, be aware of the security concerns. If there is no reason to take photographs of the entrances  to major public buildings, or the means of escape from these buildings – and there isn’t usually any reason to do so, avoid taking pictures of them.
Hopefully this article will help the police and security agencies identify genuine photographers, and hopefully it will also help genuine photographers avoid any problems.