Mister and I were walking around downtown Denver, taking pictures of beautiful architecture. We also took pics of building reflections. It’s something we enjoy. And it’s fun.
Anyhoo, we were super digging the various reflections in the building shown above. There was no one around (it was a Saturday morning) and we were just having a grand time. That’s when I noticed a security guard walking toward us. At least I thought he was walking toward us. We were the only souls there, so he had to be walking toward us, right? Yep. And he walked right up to us. And he spoke to us. The exchange went something like this:
S.G.: I’m supposed to tell you you can take pictures of any of these buildings you want, except that one (and he pointed).
Me: Why?
S.G.: I don’t know why. I just do what they tell me. Now, I’ve warned you once. If you keep taking pictures, I’ll have to call the police.
Me: We were only interested in the reflections. But I’m curious – what is that building anyway?
S.G.: The Marriott hotel.
For reals? A flippin’ Marriott sent out the photo police?
The windows were reflective, so there couldn’t have been a privacy issue for guests. It’s a Marriott – not a top-secret spy facility – so there couldn’t have been a security issue. It didn’t make any sense. And friends, when things don’t make sense, there is absolutely no point in trying to rationalize. It’s a waste of time. About the only thing to do in the face of insanity is to respond insanely. So we smiled and said we’d stop taking pretty pictures. That made him happy. Go figure.
Before we all walked away, the security guard told us that if we stood on the other side of the street, we could take all the Marriott photos we wanted, and he couldn’t do a thing about it. I wanted to ask him what he’d do if I did stand on the other side of the street, and used a gi-normous lens. But I didn’t. He was just doing his job. His asinine, stupid job.
But I don’t blame him. What does he know? Instead, I blame Marriott. Maybe they should spend a little more time vacuuming sock lint from the filthy carpets and a little less time threatening to throw people into the picture pokey.
I’m just sayin’…