No Photos Allowed

When you travel on a photo trip you are very aware of places you cannot take photos. The first one was North Korea. This was something I was prepared for. As part of a tour of the DMZ I visited an observatory that looks out over the border to North Korea.

I was able to see the 160-meter tall North Korean flag pole, the propaganda village with fake windows, the industrial zone where South Koreans previously worked, the electronic signal blocker and a small border city. All of this was clearly viewed through binoculars, but I couldn't take pictures.

As I walked out of the observatory, I told my guide about my photography trip. He was interested and said follow me. We walked across the street and stepped up on the sidewalk. He said we are in a camera blindspot right here. You have five seconds to take a picture. So I did. And I have a picture of North Korea.

The Buddhist temples had sign that said please refrain from taking photos. That could mean that photos are okay, but just don't take them. After a service was over, a man coming out of the temple told me that I could go inside and take photos so long as I took my shoes off. So I did. And I got a photo of the large golden shrine.

And finally the photo museum encouraged photos, however, they could not abide by talking. We were shushed several times as we discussed the photographs were looking at.