Union Station, Toronto

A shot of Union Station, Toronto, taken on 27 August 2011, shortly after Jack Layton's funeral. The rays of light streaming through the holes in the roof looked so pretty that I had to photograph them. Immediately after I snapped this, a security guard yelled at me for taking photos without a permit. Since he was across the tracks and there wasn't a whole lot he could do, I shouted back that it was a public place, that it wasn't for profit, that I didn't need anyone's permission, and that it was enough that I found the scene pretty, then kept shooting.

The erosion of civil liberties in this country bothers me considerably -- particularly the fall of the idea that all that's not explicitly prohibited by law is permitted, in favour of some strange, topsy-turvy idea that one must obtain permission to do anything slightly out of the ordinary (like taking a photo, for personal pleasure, in a train station). It was sad that this exchange should occur the day we paid our last respects to a strong defender of civil liberties and social justice.

To the photographers out there: don't ever stop photographing whatever you want to photograph when you're out in public. Don't let anyone take that right away from you.

This was a 1/40th of a second exposure at f/8.0 and ISO 1600. I shot this with a Canon Rebel T2i digital SLR and a Canon IS 17-85 mm lens zoomed to 38 mm. This image is not to be used for any purpose without the photographer's express permission. Image copyright © 2011 Vikram K. Mulligan.