the reason he posted it on YBW was as follows
I posted a thread on YBW about Solent boatyards where old Centaurs might be lurking - still no luck with finding the right boat - there have been a couple of near misses but nothing landed yet
People came up with some splendid suggestions plus the lovely pics taken by Vic which have now spread to a few other forums
In the YBW thread this was posted
"I know you are man of the world who will exercise good manners and respect, but for the avoidance of doubt and the benefit of others, please bear in mind that boatyards are private property. As such, it is important to request permission to take photographs and reasonable to expect that it may not be granted."
which is an excellent point.
so I kicked off another thread about the morals of such behaviour
I think that walking around boatyards is one of the simple great pleasures in life available to old sailors.I have to say that there are shots all over my blogs taken without permission and no-one has ever asked me to take shots down - I have lots of people remonstrating with me for not including their boats.If there is some-one in authority around to ask I will always ask - and mention that I would like to take pictures and stick them on my blog.- if some-one is working on a boat (there nearly always is) then I would go and just say hello -There have been times when no-one was there - so I just went ahead.
I love the web and the way that people feel free to express their opinions
twister Ken, who can always be relied upon for a wittily ironic post said this
"So there's this sailor, see, keeps his boat at Mudlslide-on-Sea. She's called Saucy Sally.Every weekend he tells the missus he'll spend it aboard Sally.Saucy Sally is at the back of the boat yard covered in 2 cm of moss.Sally lives above the chip shop.Then his wife sees Saucy Sally's pic on your blog.You could be responsible for a very messy divorce. Even bloodshed."
Sarabande said this
"there may be sensitivities, given the number of thefts from yards. Strangers taking pics near the farm area always make me challenge them, and I've had some useful conversations as a results.Someone 'casing' a yard for good kit could easily be mistaken for a a decrepit nautical mendicant with a proclivity for cutting holes in perfectly good boats, and for setting fire to flowerpots.
Keep Taking Lithographs..."
I had to look up the word mendicant - which according to wikipedia is a begger
quite a few people though it was an awful thing to do
A chap who posts as retired in crete says:I go into dylan's garden, without asking permission, and take photographs/video which I then use in a gardening magazine and post on the internet.
How would Dylan feel about this?
IanC
Hmmm...I would say if there is no-one there to ask, and you have no legitimate business there other than to take photos which arguably you are profiting from, then it's probably a no-no. It no different to seeing, for example, an interesting garage restoring classic cars, and walking round it and photographing it without permission.
I'd also say have a bit of consideration for fellow owners. If you have an arty pic of some mouldering old thing in the weeds, or some jolly chap antifouling between his keels, then fine. However if your pics, on your well known blog, highlight the fact that there's 14 bronze props, 4 outboards, 3 plotters, a liferaft and 2 tenders all up for grabs in a yard with minimal security, and there's a chain link fence here easily snippable, and all this lot ends up at the next boat jumble, then you won't have done anyone any favours.
(And yes, a load of boats, incuding mine, were "done over" in a yard a few years ago)
Storyline:I see absolutely no problem going around taking photos and videos to be shared with family and friends and the occasional person who stumbles across a personal web site or blog. However doing the same and then publishing them on a web site which has high traffic and a commercial aspect changes things completely and I would have thought it would be prudent, more ethical and professional to get permission first. It is a complicated situation because it would be hard to get permission from the owners of all the individual boats that may be featured. Probably best on balance not to publish the results to the world at large and keep them for the smaller band of paying subscribers.It is a pity because I could imagine there would be huge potential for lots of 'arty' stuff but I, for one would seriously consider paying to see the results.Edit: As sarabande has pointed out, life has got more complicated these days because of the web and the huge potential global audience. There may be personal liability to yourself should any crime be committed and some chancer tries to implicate you. It might be good to have insurance but then you may be led up the ridiculous H & S pathway so you end up wearing hi viz clothing and appropriate protective headware !
Oceansprint left a great comment - but he says I used his comment out of context so here it is in context
http://www.ybw.com/forums/showthread.php?381218-Poke-a-nosing-around-boatyards&p=4510916#post4510916
Phil said that the secuity risk has been overstated
I'm with Dylan on this one. There is and never should be a law to stop people taking photos. The way I understand it is you can take anywhere, except where the landowner or public body has stated that photos cannot be taken.I don't get the security angle - anyway whatever security there is will be obvious on Google Earth or street map.As for "bad man", I don't think so, I think its nice that Dylan is at liberty to take his pictures and I really dont beleive that they contribute to the crime rate in any way.
Searush is with him:My boat sits alongside Caernarfon Castle & people photograph the two of them all the time. In fact SWMBO & I purposely look at all the postcards, calendars, cups & plates etc to see if SR is on them. We have placemats, mugs & a panorama from when she was based at Conway, but while she shows up on the Internet from time to time, sadly, most of the Caernarfon touristy stuff predates our arrival on the Seoint.WTF are people fussing about? Try sueing google for pics of your house, car - right load of stupid fearty posters we have on here!
I think that people are right to think about the risks - and after all for me as the bloke taking the snaps the risks - no matter how small - are external. Having said that all the boat yards I have ever seen are easily viewed from outside through the chainlink fence and can be photographed and cased without any form of tresspass.
The thread then took a sudden lurch into face-book and taking snaps of children at school sports days and things got a bit heated for a while - but I think that the flaming has calmed a little
Westhinder said:The level of paranoia on here is remarkable. The odds of some scrote trawling through the internet, seeing a picture of a boat and thinking 'thats a nice prop/outboard/plotter etc. I'll have that' has got to be far less than some other scrote nicking the same stuff when they happen to be passing. The odds really don't warrant worrying about.
Jord
John said
I don't buy the "making money" argument.
Google, postcard publishers, newspapers, TV news and the press in general do not ask permission to take or publish photographs and are not expected to. I suspect most of these will make far more money than Dylan will from KTL (I'd love to be wrong about that thought). Maybe the extremes of the Paparazzi should be curtailed but for the moment the assumption is, that things can be photographed and published unless someone take measures to prevent a specific case such as banning cameras from art galleries.
zz would not even go into a yard I think I'd feel a bit weird wandering into a yard that I had nothing to do with, just out of curiosity. Although I'm often tempted.
Westhinder said
Moodynick's point about not wandering around on private property without permission is valid, and Dylan, as a seasoned journalist knows that.
However, I have great difficulty with many of the replies which focus on the perceived potential for criminal abuse of pictures that are taken for artistic purposes. Reading all this, I cannot help but wonder what has happened to our societies. Suspicion seems to be the dominating mood, cynicism the order of the day.
You can call me naive if you like, but are we not letting ourselves be carried away on this ever growing stream of suspicion?
Just a thought on a friday night from someone with 25 years of experience in the TV-newsroom of a leading public broadcaster.
ffll says;Interesting this-my old boat lies on a mooring at a noted view point and as such appears in Calendars;picture postcards;and expensive large photographic images that are for sale.
My current boat appears on Google Earth Street View.
Should someone have contacted me for permission before using the images for profit?
then today - Monday - a few people posted asking me to keep poke-a-nosing
Little sister
It is indeed one of life's great pleasures for sailors (and dreamers) old and young. You are not a bad man, you are indulging in one of life's great pleasures, and allowing others to share it vicariously.
Anyone who was worried about someone seeing their boat would surely have it in a secure, hidden location, rather than the average boatyard which is typically neither of these things.
Keep up the good work!
pete has modified the image of Katie
Don't worry I have been down and got permission from those that don't give a damn if a picture of their boat/window appears on the web. Unfortunately there were a few that were not about so have made it "better???" for you. 
I shall leave the penultimate quip to yantlet - a kiwi of this parish
This thread has made my day, here was I thinking the sun had finally set on the Great British Reserve, when along comes proof positive that it's alive and well and maybe even holding hands with the Reds Under The Bed!
Tam-lin - who owns an immobile Centaur wanted to return to engine wells:Of course Dylan is a bad man - he wants to cut up a Centaur!
Dylan,
Please keep up your continuing PSA (public service artsy) of tired old boats in even more tired old yards. Your work is crucial to maintaining balance in the universe and providing us low-life, negligent, and sometimes deceased owners with the only free adverts we can get for luring some unsuspecting ‘lubber into carting away our priceless possessions thereby relieving us of our endless but unpaid yard fees.
Love what you do and the way you do it,
TomH
I think that the fact that people do have reservations about films or stills taken of old boats then I have to take them seriously. Any fear is geniune. The basis for that fear could be graded from irrational – (father Christmas might break into the house and steal the cakes I made for the Christmas Fairy) to reasonably sensible (I put my seatbelt on because I might crash my car). I have to take any fear seriously. I shall give more consideration to removing some of the context.
I have to say that it would not bother me if some-one filmed my boat ashore or afloat – during 50 years of sailing small boats all I have lost is four gallons of diesel siphoned out of the slug while she was in Wells. I hope their filters clogged with diesel bug – the scroats deserve nothing less.
It’s all a bit pathetic isn’t it.
Why would a thief bother to photograph something rather than just take it?
If I leave something visible to all, I expect all, if they are around, to see it.
Otherwise I cover it up.
Or take it home.
If you can see something from where you have a right to be, you can take a picture of it. Even if you have a huge telephoto lens. Just ask the duke and duchess.
Have you ever seen a sailing magazine
that did not include dozens of photos
showing the boats of strangers
in the distance, behind the bikini-clad colleague,
docked beside the author’s boat, and so on and so on?
I doubt that you have.
I am weary of the modern passion for “security”
that makes it a crime for retirees
to sit on a park bench and watch children at play.
We already know the US government is watching all of us
with drones and concealed cameras and satellite surveillance,
and nobody has taken more of my wealth than the government.
Carry on, Dylan!
Keep showing us the nautical kingdom
through the eyes of a surly poet.
One last note-
the folks whose boats you have shown us
don’t seem to be complaining at all!
Maybe that’s worth considering for a moment…
Keep on doing what you are doing Dylan. YM once published a picture of us back to front so they could illustrate a point about yachts, mobo’s and Colregs – in order to do so they have to obliterate Temptress’ name from here stern (it would have appeared back to front). I was most miffed not that they’d used a picture of our boat but that they’d implied we’d had a near miss with a sizeable mobo. No one should be banned from taking pictures but some commercial uses of them may be questionable. As it was when I raised it with the publisher they kindly sent me a print of the original “right way round” photo.
I remember when I worked in Russia before all this newfangled democracy kicked in. They were the days. We would always have our photos checked when being processed, and any we’d obviously taken by accident were removed, and obviously we’d be asked not to be so foolish again. Sometimes if you were seen pointing a camera at the wrong subject you’d be given a glare that helped you refocus. If you particularly wanted a picture of something in the background, then encouraging a beautiful co-worker to pose in front of you never failed. Although on one occasion the background was a battleship. Smiles and apologies all round, walk away arm in arm.
I strangely miss those days, but I can relax, it seems that they’re still here. And all you need to do Dylan is encourage someone help out. I guess she doesn’t necessarily have to be Russian either.
I look forward to your next report.
We don’t seem to mind when some company send their crew out to take photos of our homes and what ever may be around out homes, our vehicles (some worth a mint) and make them available for the world to see. Then Dylan takes some photos / videos of some boats and this ends up to be wrong. How narrow minded are we. Just because it is a boat and boat owners believe they are in a class by them selves Dylan’s picture taking is a problem, yet I in Canada can see you live in house, what kind of vehicle you drive and probably guess of the contents of your home based on what shows in the pictures. We can do one of two things. Stop companies from posting us on the web, or just take appropriate precautions and deal with it.
I agree Gary – however, if people are worried then that makes it a real issue
I shall try to ask about taking pictures before I post them
if an yone asks for stuff to be taken down it comes straight off the web
Some people makes a big fuss over stuff on the net.. Its free for you to use and so are pictures no body can make it a law for sharing. The government makes copywrites a law and puts people in jail for it so they can get money basically there greedy selfish and unfair that’s why Ive been wanting to change some of there laws on copywriter and some more things..Government doesn’t want to share they’ve even goes as far as lying on the net and newspaper and media trying to make themselves look like there good people…
I’ve been viewing the KTL videos for many months, and yesterday I ordered the DVDs for volumes 4 & 5. While I was making the order, I noticed your address. Living in the US, I find the UK to be interesting…and this morning, knowing your address…I’m afraid that curiosity got the better of me and I checked out your house and neighborhood using Google. Having just now read this blog section (I’m not kidding, I actually ran into this blog section only hours after having done the Google spying), I realize that I’ve been a bad guy. I hope that you’ll understand, forgive me – and not cancel my two DVDs! You have my address from my DVD order, so I give you permission to Google spy on my house any time whatsoever – you can even zoom in real close and maybe see my boat on its trailer, if you wish!
that is funny Jim,
no worries the stuff is there on google earth and my address is all over the web
I hope the disks arrive soon