Photography in Bowie Town Center illegal?

Today I decided to get a filter for my 50mm lens from Ritz camera in Bowie Town Center. Since it was such a bright day, decided to try and freeze the water droplets of the water fountain on the circle there. A 'cop' (BTC security) pulled over and told me making pictures was illegal. Never engage in a discussion at this point, just let them go, but of course I decided to challenge this concept a little bit more.

I have made many pictures in BTC at times before. One time it was a little bird, to test out my new zoom lens. Ok, the pavement was on the background, but otherwise it was just the bird. Is that illegal too? Today I ran into a spider, who had made a rather intriguing web. I had never it this way before. So, that's a close-up, or is illegal now because the BTC light pole is on the back drop?

On the way out, had to wait at the traffic light and took a picture of their signature water tower. Is that illegal?

Downtown Silver Spring had a crisis like this some years ago. Security would approach people (me too once) to question/challenge their motives when using a camera. The public cried foul, and challenged the mall management by organizing a massive public photo shoot. The reason is that this area is leased from Silver Spring to this company, who then take care of the upkeep. But does that mean they own the street, and you can't make photos there? In an indoor mall the rules are perhaps a little more clear, that's a private area, not so public. Yet, plenty people use their cell phones, or little point and shoot. But when you walk around with a DSLR, suddenly you get herassed.

Butterflies, Kim Chi and Jackfruit

I am not trying to say we are eating butterflies now, this was just in brief what July 3, 2011 looked like. A long weekend, since tomorrow it is Monday July 4.

It has also been a long while that I posted here. Po's blog reminded me that a story with pictures can be so much nicer than an album on picasa. I guess they both serve their own purpose. So let me just try this one more time. If you want to see the picasa album though, where there are a lot more pictures, link over there. It was Po's idea to excersize the macro lens, since she is working on a WPS homework! Sharon decided to come along as well and work with Xavier's camera, which also has a pretty decent macro setting on its zoom lens.

It had rained quite heavily earlier in the morning, and it promised to be another hot and humid day. After the gardens and the

butterfly greenhouse we decided to get brunch at a nearby supermarket called H-market. They have a korean counter inside with lots of KimChi like dishes. It was fabulous. The sushi is also amazing.

Also in this asian style supermarket was a fruit called a jackfruit. The one I got was 16 pounds! We looked up on internet how to properly open it. Not hard. Just cut it along the narrow or wide side through the middle, and then continue in quarters and more if needed. But you do need to rub your hands in vegetable oil, these fruits are very sticky. So bad in fact, soap won't even do a good job after the fact. Lessons learned. But the meat inside is just amazing. Don't eat too much of it, it warned, it's also a laxative.