No Trespassing

For a photographer, a "No Trespassing" sign pretty much always translates to "I'm sure that sign was meant for everyone else BUT me." After all, I'm not damaging property or defacing buildings (although I secretly love true graffiti artists, but again - how can you call that defacing when it's art?!). The thing is, all artists need inspiration - and inspiration comes from roads less traveled. At least it does for me. I decided to take my Mini out for a little adventure on Saturday and ended up in an industrial area of Charleston. I'm not sure what's behind all of these closed gates, but there were a lot of caution signs -- "don't light matches," "don't spill oil," "keep out." I would not be dissuaded though and figured it seemed like a good spot for some snaps.

I wasn't too far into my expedition before a truck pulled up behind me. At this point I was inside one of the fenced-in areas, but the gate was open, so technically I wasn't trespassing. The guy was friendly enough about it. I tried the whole "I'm just really into the industrial look" line as I flashed my camera and smiled faux-sheepishly, but he said if anyone else saw me, they'd call the police. Well fine, I thought -- if we're talking potential jail time, I guess I'll be on my way. Jumpsuit orange is really not my colour. I thanked him and headed out to the main road. Then I remembered I wanted a few more shots, especially of this train car I had passed earlier. I stopped to take the shot and he yelled at me from across the way with hands in the air like, I can't believe this girl is still taking photos. "What, I can't be here either?" I yelled back. Disgruntled at the whole scene (after all - the main road is a public one and I was outside the fence at this point), I finally left. But as I zoomed away, I thought to myself, hey - I still have temporary tags on my car. So if they did call the police, they can't track me unless they catch me. x