Not my best shot for sure but there’s a reason-I stepped over the line.

On the evening of 9/11/06, security was extra tight around Washington DC, and in particular at the White House. I was in town overnight and out photographing after work with my little Casio. At the south lawn fence, I was struck by the fact that they have put up some heavy chicken wire in addition to the long standing beautiful wrought iron fence. You can make out both fences in the photo.

I can’t imagine what good that chicken wire is doing but it is now all deformed from people bending it out of the way so they can shoot unobstructed pictures of the White House. It struck me as a sad commentary on the day-to-day realities of violence and terrorism--We now protect the White House with chicken wire.

So I set up a shot to capture what I felt. I would use my ultra-light travel tripod to take a time exposure with flash. The flash would capture the 2 fences and the time exposure would get a clear recognizable impression of the White House.

Just as I was about to hit the shutter, a police officer stopped me—-No tripods allowed. Despite the fact that this was the lightest, medium size tripod on the face of the earth with a tiny point and shoot camera mounted, I was stopped and had to settle for handholding a long exposure.

Even for me this one is barely recognizable so I expect few people will check it out. But the image turned out even sadder than I envisioned.