Helen’s Park

Well, this is a first.

HoustonPhotowalks has officially been told to remove all mention of Helen's Park (7301 Stella Link Rd, Houston, TX 77025) from our website, that we’re not welcome.  The odd part? We never asked. Someone representing them reached out preemptively to let us know that our club cannot visit their park, nor ever mention them on our website.

Oooookay.

At HoustonPhotowalks, we’ve always made it a point to contact locations before planning to visit. It’s one of the ways we’ve maintained great relationships with the nearly 800 places we’ve explored over the last 16 years.  Even for location that require a payment to visit, we ask in advance before showing up.  Occasionally, someone will say they aren't keen to have a few hobby photographers show up for a social gathering.  “No thanks” is always respected, we move on to the next idea in our database of past and future location venu ideas.

But today, someone googled around and found that Helen's Park in Houston is was one of our Future Location Ideas.

Enter W. Kevin Antill of Legacy Mosaic (legacymosaic.com), who contacted us on behalf of Helen’s Park, indicating they represent the "Trust Fund" that manages the park.  They contact us not in response to a visit request, or an inquiry from one of our organizers -- but out of the blue. They wanted to make absolutely sure we knew photographers from our club are not welcome, and "Helen's Park (7301 Stella Link Rd, Houston, TX 77025) must not show up on our website. Not now. Not ever. In fact, this person says they plan to send me a photo of their "No Photography" sign that is erected.  I mean, I'm not going to participate in them violating the No Photography policy by having them email me a photo of their "No Photography" sign.

And it's not just signs.  Apparently, Helen’s Park is so determined to prevent hobby photographers, or any humans with cameras, from enjoying their space, they now have armed guards just in case anyone brandishes a camera on their property.  From their email:

Security guards have been hired to stop any photography from happening.

-- W. Kevin Antill

Let’s pause for a moment and let that sink in:
Threats of security guards.
In an email to a hobby photography club. Because we happened to have the location mentioned in a website database of future possible location ideas.

Apparently, W. Kevin Antill found our list of potential future locations using google and decided to take action — by firing off emails. They made it very clear that HoustonPhotowalks members would be removed from the property by their security forces if anyone is spotted using a camera on their property.

That’s some next-level anti-photography club gatekeeping.

To be clear, we hadn't solidified any planned photowalks there, or contacted them.  It just happened to be one of about 2,000 Houston-area locations we've discovered over the years and added to the database.  But thanks to this unexpected outreach from their representative, we’ll honor their request and remove the mention of Helen’s Park from our “future locations” list.

And instead, we’re replacing it with this blog post about Helen's Park's attitude about Photography clubs.

Why are we as photographers to be feared?

Commercial photographers have taken advantage by leaving trash and overrunning the park with massive wedding parties, etc.

-- W. Kevin Antill

That's right.  Anyone with a camera is somehow associated with possible unprofessional and unethical behavior of Houston-area commercial photographers.  Even though our club has hosted nearly 800 photowalks in 16 years and never had a single complaint, Helen's Park's representative W. Kevin Antill of Legacy Mosaics,  preemptively contacted us to inform us we are not welcome and to remove "Helen's Park" at 7301 Stella Link Rd, Houston, TX 77025,  from our website's potential future visit location's list on our website.

I'm not sure how a group of hobbyist photographers, most being retired or nearly retired, are somehow any type of threat to a location we've never actually visited.  But, ok, we won't visit.  Thanks for letting us know.  We’ll keep doing what we do best: visiting places that support local photography clubs and artists.  We'll be out supporting local businesses, respecting every space we enter, and — as always — leaving nothing behind but footprints, and taking only pictures.

Notes