Sometimes, It's Better to Seek Permission
I used to love the adage that it's sometimes easier to beg forgiveness than to seek permission. There are many things that I've done in life where I thought there were risks in performing them. If they worked out, great: if not, I hoped I'd be forgiven. Many years ago, I wrote about how a friend and I ran into each other while trying to photograph the same thing. We were looking to get night shots of a historic Ottawa building that was lit up with Christmas lights, only the premises was surrounded by an iron gate and fencing. When a car exited the grounds through the open gate, my friend and I snuck in and found a spot where we could capture better images . But we had to wait for someone else to open the gate before we could get out again. From a legal standpoint, we were trespassing. But considering our intentions, I don't think anyone would have ever pressed charges if we got caught. We would have begged forgiveness. For a couple of weeks, I've been thinking of go...
