First experience being told 'not to photograph'

"no Photo Please!"
nophoto.jpg


Minilux Zoom.
Acros 100 pushed to 400 with HC-110-B, 5mins@31C
 
I was just down in Key West on Mallory Square at susnset. It is just a giant tourst fest with all sort of vendors and street actors almost every person thee has a camera.

One vendor was making these cool palm baskets. I stopped to grab a photo and as soon as I hit the shutter he looked up.

Generally, I will either shoot without their seeing me or sort of wave/ask/smile etc...jsut prior to taking the pic. I did not think he would look up.

I sort of felt akward so I smiled and walked toward him and his baskets with the intention of lookng at the baskets and maybe getting a few more photos of him in action.

Suddenly he started ranting that I was an asshole for taking his pic and need to leave him alone. I told him he was an ass and that if he wants to sit in the middle of a giant tourist area making cool baskets then gets angry when his work is appreciated his business model is waaay off.

It is a cool PIC :) I will post it later.
 
... I HATE how the terrorists have ruined the world.


Would be more accurately phrased as questioning what the world has done to itself in response to terrorism.

I'm still waiting for someone to explain the link between photography and terrorism. Every terrorist has eyes and a memory.
 
I told him he was an ass and that if he wants to sit in the middle of a giant tourist area making cool baskets then gets angry when his work is appreciated his business model is waaay off.

It is a cool PIC :) I will post it later.

Oh, yes. Please do. :D
 
I'm still waiting for someone to explain the link between photography and terrorism. Every terrorist has eyes and a memory.

We should require Moleskine notebooks and pencils to be registered with the police, and teachers should note which students draw pictures unusually well, so that information can be entered into antiterrorist databases.

:bang:
 
Last edited:
One has to be especially careful doing street photography. There is some balance between being respectful and taking risks--but I probably don't know what it is. I was in NYC recently and twice people objected to me shooting them--one bicycle cab driver in Central Park and a young thuggish looking guy at Coney Island--my worst experience by far however was at the Cal. State Fair last weekend. . .

I took a shot of this cowboy character. He came up to me and thought I was taking pictures of his kid--he was furious (he was also toothless and seemed paranoid--likely issues with amphetamines which induces paranoia). I deleted the shot at his request--he kept threatening me so I told him to get out of my face or I would get the police. I'm not about to get into a brawl in the middle of a public venue. A few minutes later I am accosted by several sheriff's dept. deputies. I demand to know why I am being detained. They couldn't give me a reason so I told them to get lost. They threatened to drag me off with force so I showed them my bar license and cited 42 USC Section 1983 (it gives citizens a cause of action for deprivation of Constitutional rights). They kept being ugly so I backed off the bluster a little. After letting one of them look at the shots on my camera they let me go. The crank fiend had grabbed the cops and turned the tables on me. I offered to let the gestapo look at my flickr page to see I wasn't up to some sort of chicanery and I showed them my student i.d. from a workshop--still the intrusion was unwarranted and less than diplomatic. If I had more energy I might file a 1983 action--in the end I just want to get more good shots!
 
Damn, I want to tell my story, too!
I don’t have my Bessa for really long now (half a year), but I’m young, so I lost no time:p
When I went out for my first street photography trip, I took a picture of two people, that were gesticulating really engaged. One of them saw I took the picture. I was just on the way to them, to ask, whether the photo was okay, or if I should delete it afterwards (what I would have done), when one of them was already screaming at me. He asked what came into my mind and stuff... He also asked if I only took a picture of them because of their skin colour, or why (of course, not). That’s how he went on, the other one wanted him to calm down, but it wasn’t too easy. That was no nice experience on the first of day of taking street photographs. :(
 
Last edited:
The whole endeavor is not without risks--one reason I like compacts with tilt LCDs for hip-shots where you can actually frame the image. Canon G12 bring it.
 
Power Plant

Power Plant

I spotted a very interesting PG&E plant near a small costal town in California three or four years ago. Wonderful metal pipes and turbines in mega size, and I thought it would make a artful B&W print. I drove up to the gate, exited my car and began framing the image in my rangefinder. At that moment a white police vehicle pulled up in front of my car and two uniformed armed para military types politely state I was not allowed to photograph the plant and that I must leave at once. I made no attempt to argue and got back into my car but not before I snapped the shutter. I waved as I drove off thinking how different my world once was.
 
I got a TV camera man all worked up last week.

I took a quick snap from the sidewalk of a reporter being filmed on Courthouse ground. I was meters away from the camera man and the reporter and behind the camera man - it's not like I was in the shot.

I'm interested in continuing to photograph these press gatherings and interviews - am I within my rights to shoot situations like this on courthouse ground from the sidewalk? Can I go further and stand amongst the press?

I stand with the press all the time, even with major celebrities and political figures. I dont care one iota about the TV cameramen's attitude and neither should you. I cooperate professionally -- that is it. What he wanted was exclusivity. Dont get punked by these types.
 
Back
Top