The first time I crawled through the fence to take some images here I found the owner of the property back at my car ready to give me a deserved dressing down for trespassing.

At first I got defensive and tried to justify myself and then allowed myself to imagine what I would be like if I discovered a photographer wandering around my property. I apologised, introduced myself and briefly discussed the issue before asking John if I could take some more images. From there he began to describe all of the beautiful parts of his large property including the times of day the light was best.

Now that I know where John lives it will be simple to drop in and ask next time I am in that area. What do you do though when driving hours through country side and have not seen any sign of a house and you spy an inviting derelict building just asking to be photographed. How would you ever know even who to ask permission to enter a property even if you wanted to. Would you simply accept that jumping the fence for that one or two frames before the light was gone is just something you must be disciplined about and not do?

I have no real answer here but I can say if you can get permission it feels good and there may be benefits and photographic opportunities that would not have come any other way.

Photo: Robert Rath, ‘Day 656, Trespasser’, 8s f/11 ISO160 15mm