Drawing a crowd

[Art Rodriguez]

This past Saturday I was doing a shoot with my cousin. We went to a river near her hometown. As we got there it started to rain so we couldn't walk around and use places we like to use. Since we were there we decided to take pictures under a large bridge that went over the river. 15 minutes into the shoot a truck pulled up and parked real close to us. 4 men got out went to the back of the truck and started staring at her. She got very uncomfortable. What got me was that there were other areas were they can park that wasn't as close. It was pretty obvious why they parked were they did. After that the shoot didn't go to well and we didn't get what she wanted to try. She could not concentrate and kept looking over to were the men were. When we would move out of their line of site, they would also move. She wants to be a model and I know if she ever does a location shoot there will be a crowd. But as she is not use to it yet I didn't know what to do. What did upset me was that her younger sister was with us and she was getting scared. When doing a shoot people usually walk by and smile and go on there way. That wasn't the case here. Has anyone ever had this happen to them? Am I wrong for being upset? Sorry for the long rant.

Art

[Mark_Cohran]

Oh yes, this happens a lot. A couple of years ago I was shooting a model on the beach in southern Oregon, a place called Bandon Beach. There are wonderfully photogenic rock formations there, and usually there aren't a lot of people around. Some guy got it in his mind to follow us all over the beach. We tried to make it clear we were avoiding him, but he was too clueless or stupid to get the hint. Finally, we gave it up as a lost cause.

I probably could have confronted him and asked him to go away, but in a public place I had no recourse if he chose not to do so. And, it readlly wasn't worth the aggravation.

I'm not sure what you can really do in such situations except move on. Confronting 4 guys probably isn't the wisest thing to do. You can always go back at a later time.

Mark

[Art Rodriguez]

For a split second I wanted to go over and tell them not to make it to obvious because they were scaring the girls. One of the reasons I didn't was because I'm a small person. But the main reason was because of my cousins, one is only 13 years old. One of the things she wanted to do was once we got the pictures we wanted she wanted to go out in the rain so I can take pictures of her in the rain. I think that would have looked pretty good. That never happened. Like you, we just basically gave up and decided there will other days.

Art

[daclozer]

I had a guy following me in Vegas, so I just turned and started taking pictures of him.. I was with a pretty large friend, so I figured if the guy tried something my friend break him in half. The got freaked out when I started pointing at him and ran across the street... I don't think he was playing with all of his marbles... I would have been very concerned and left if 4 guys in a pickup did that and I had a female model around.. Too may crazy people in the world today to take chances.. We have a beautiful historic church with these towering steeples that I would love to shoot at night. Only probelm is it is a bad area and the crack dealers or crack heads probably would probably knock me in the haed for my camera gear...

[deadpass]

That's why if I'm on location, I have my carry piece on me, altho in Texas, they probably would have had theirs as well. Unfortunately this kinda stuff happens, had it not been raining you could've just gone somewhere else and hoped they took off. Tough situation, but I would've just packed it in for the day.

[theflyingkiwi]

it's a shame that had to happen. I would have thought the best thing to do since the guys decided to hang around and that would to be to somewhere else. Leave the area and try and find another place to the photoshoot or go back another day.

It's a shame that people are like that. But what can ya do. there are 4 of them and only one of you. You could have started to take there photo and then see what happens.

You could have got your 13yo cousin to ring the police and say that she is being followed by 4 guys in a truck :)

[Art Rodriguez]

In hindsight, we should have just left. I did ask my cousin if she wanted to stop and leave. She told me no. She really wants to get a portfolio together and I think that had something to do with it. She lives an hour from me so we can't get together often.


You could have got your 13yo cousin to ring the police and say that she is being followed by 4 guys in a truck :)

LOL! I never thought about that.

Art