Flower on a bit of string

My photo wander today was full of what would have made interesting (in my opinion) images: a sleeping gun-toting guard, a beggar, the railway-crossing guy and the old woman who just sits at the side of the road doing nothing.

I asked the guard (once I politely made my presence known) and the railway-crossing guy for permission but was denied both times. I didn't approach the beggar or the old woman partly due to lack of confidence in dealing with women with no English, and partly due to predicting refusal anyway.

I can't think how to get round the problem of photographing people who are likely to deny permission every time I ask for it. I have posted images in the past where permission has not been sought (and even denied on a couple of occasions) but am thinking about it a lot more now, partly due to what's going on the forums just now and partly because I'm still new to the country and don't have the confidence to know if I'm doing anything wrong or not.

I don't know what the answer is. Perhaps learning more Arabic for the pre-permission-asking banter is required. Perhaps a little baksheesh is the way it's done. Perhaps I'm just being impatient and the shots will come eventually. Or perhaps I just need to get out and about a little more away from my immediate area.

Anyway, no people today. Instead, here's a flower on a bit of string twenty feet away from three gun-toting security guards who thankfully took no interest in me as they were having a massive argument with a policeman.

Here's the updated blipbank:

Arabic post
dusty Pepsi bottles
brown flower
flower on a bit of string
bike wheel
light bulb
bashed-in wall
kittens
The Beatles (new entry)