The Right to Bear SLRs

Thomas Hawk doesn't look like a troublemaker. With his hair neatly combed and a polo shirt tucked into his black corduroys, the 38-year-old father of four more closely resembles an investment adviser, which is his day job in San Francisco. But as his after-work alter ego -- a budding photographer who roams city streets with a Canon EOS 5D in hand -- trouble seems to find him. Usually it comes in the form of police officers or private security guards, who accuse him of trespassing while he's taking shots of buildings and public spaces. "Where I'm different from most photographers," says Hawk, who catalogs his most dramatic confrontations on his blog at www.thomashawk.com, "is that I'm not going to back down." Read on.