Taking pictures of people who dont want their picture taken?

[timmyquest]

Today i was sitting in the barber thinking of a possibly good picture of small town america (that is the barber shop its self), i glanced over and a mother of a little boy was talking to an old man, the man had one of those caps on that old guys wear, he had a cane in his hand and his other was holding his head up.

He was leaning towards the women showing his intense desire to comprehend what she was saying.

She was very emotional because of the subject, as such her hands were moving her facial expressions very expresive.

After watching for a couple of seconds it dawned on me that at that moment in time i wanted nothing more then to take this picture...but then it occured to me that even if i did have my camera with me they would most likely get offended.

So i'm just wondering, do you guys ever take pictures of strangers in close quarters? What do they say? How do you handle any argument or dispute?

[maderito]

I almost always ask permission - especially if the subject is the main object of the shot and/or can be identified.

I leave it to the professional paparazzi to risk life and limb while grabbing shots of unwilling subjects. :shock:

[timmyquest]

Its just that things like that take the "moment" out of it...i dunno

[John_T]

Yeah, but the next moment you might get punched and your camera stomped!

[marie]

reading your lovely description of what you would have liked to photograph I would have loved to have seen a shot of the scene timmyquest


here is the worst reaction I ever got ( see picture below) and I was gone by the time he jumped down and ran after me :lol: :lol:
( I am just joking about that )
everyone was taking shots of that big lion there anyway.
and so was I.
its a well known tourist spot ( trafalgar square) in London,

http://www.PhotoShare.co.nz/PhotoShareGallery1/100543/102575/candid9194.jpg



he was fine about it.
it was the flash startled him I think

I have took many many happy kind of candid shots of people.
if and when they happened to see me everything was always ok.
I only ask when I think it needs to be asked.
(sometimes on a business premises the owner won't like it )

otherwise you'll have lost the shot and the plot if you think about it too much... for too long

happy candids to you
:)


marie

[John_T]

If I recognize that that "moment" is personal and private, I respect that and and leave the people their privacy. I have also learned to recognize when people definitely don't want their picture taken, or for one reason or another could react unpleasantly to having their picture taken. I like my privacy respected and I can get very POed if I feel my privacy is being invaded, so I try to give others what I myself demand.

I've had a potato thrown at me in a market place, and a couple of rough shoves or words other places, but if I had caught some deal going down or somebody with somebody ele's wife, I might not have gotten off so easily.

[TeraGram93013]

Hiya Timmy.

I absolutely love taking shots of folks in the middle of their day-to-day lives.

Very rarely do I ever have a problem with it.

I must say, however, that some cameras are much better for this than others. With my little Fuji 2800z I could snap away any old time and few were any wiser. With my 10D I might was well have a neon sign over my head.

Doesn't stop me though. :wink:

Well, I am more cautious with the 10D than I ever was with the Fuji. It is still so new (bought last week of December)!! I keep it in my Tamrac backpack whenever I'm not actively shooting, so a lot of instant moments have already been lost to me because I must struggle to get it out of the case. If I didn't have a three year old with me most of the day it might be another story.

The 10D has a big advantage over the Fuji in that it is much better in low light situations. I don't like using flash much at all and avoid it as much as feasible. I think of it this way: I'm already intruding on their lives by capturing their private moment, so I should be as covert as possible because their knowledge of the shot further disrupts their lives (its kind of like the Heisenberg Principle!)

I've shot hundreds and hundreds of "spyshots" (fwiw I manage the Spyshots (http://www.fotolog.net/spyshots) group over on Fotolog). I've had exactly two confrontations in the past year.

One was a couple eating outside a popular Santa Barbara restaurant. The guy got all pissed off stomped over to me. I had stuffed my Fuji into my purse before he got to me. He started fuming at me and I just said that I saw a sweet and tender moment and am just expanding my skills as a photographer. The lady walked over a few seconds after he did and was trying to calm the guy down. I said to her "would you like to see the image?" and she agreed. She was actually kind of fawning over it and so I offered to send them a print of it. She gave me her business card and that was that.

The second time was a Santa Barbara's Farmers Market. There's a blues musician who is there all the time. He makes comments to pretty ladies who walk past and is, well, generally obnoxious. He's a good musician though. I feel he has worked himself into the fabric of what is Santa Barbara and therefore is as photographable as the Mission.

So there I am one afternoon, daughter was maybe 2.5 at the time, and had her own camera slung around her neck. I'm shooting veggies and flowers (she was shooting asphalt, shoes & sky) and all of a sudden see this guy just enraptured with what he's playing. I had to have a shot. So I got close enough for a good frame-full but not in his face (the Fuji has a 6x zoom). All of a sudden the guy is SCREAMING at me that I had no right to take his picture and who did I think I was and yadda yadda. Needless to say my daughter was *freaked out*. I never, in a hundred years, would have guessed this guy would have that reaction.

The more I thought about it the more it pissed me off. I spent probably a good thirty minutes calming my daughter down (who, fwiw, is about as non-flappable a child as you'll ever see, so this really was traumatic for her). I spent the next day making phone calls to the SB police, a lawyer friend and the SB Chamber of Commerce to get their read on the situation. The cops actually wanted me to file charges against the guy!

The overall opinion was that I had absolutely every right to take that guy's picture, afterall, the Farmer's Market is a city-sponsored public event.

Now, whenever my daughter is not with me at Farmer's Market (not often) I make a point to get that guy's image. He's seen me twice and has just turned his back on me (but not before I got a great shot). I'm planning on getting a dozen really good images, printing them as 5x7s and dropping them into his guitar case some day.

I know its childish.

[maderito]

Hiya Timmy.

I absolutely love taking shots of folks in the middle of their day-to-day lives.

Very rarely do I ever have a problem with it.

TeraGram,

I thoroughly enjoyed every line of your post.

Good photographers have a real hunger for the shot - and will take risks to get it. For me, taking the risk is asking permission to take the shot (yes, it hurts when people say, NO F?*&*G WAY). But I do admire your approach.

[JoeTampa]

First off, no one in a publc place can legally object to having their picture taken. They can morally object, and you cannot use their photos in most "profitable" ways without their permission (i.e. a release), but when you are in a public place, you have no expectation of privacy. That being said, what happens AFTER the shot is taken is obviously of great import, so if you want to be able to use the shot you took, some decorum and smarts are in order. When I shoot on the street, if someone notices me about to take a shot, I lower the camera a tad and gesture a "is this OK" look to the subject(s). A lot of times, there is no problem. I will usually then chit-chat with the subject and offer a print for a signed release (I keep VERY short releases in my bag for the occasion).

If someone takes issue, I either do not take the shot, or after taking the shot offer to delete it. I rarely (have to) delete it, but instead keep it for my own personal edification (check it out for quality, etc).

Most of the time with street photography, the principle of "it's better to beg forgiveness than ask permission" works, but choose your subjects carefully. One thing I am VERY careful about is children. I will either ask permission first (offering prints at the same time), or if it's spontaneous, will immediately go over to the parent (even if the parent was unaware), explain what I'm doing, then offer a print, etc. Shooting pics of children with no explanations, especially with a long lens, is practically begging for a visit from the local police. Quite frankly, if I saw someone shooting MY daughter without explanation, *I* would be so inclined.

HTH.... - Joe


P.S. No confrontation here, he was gone before the file was written to disk, and no release needed! :)


http://www.notablephoto.com/gallery/outdoors/gallery-006.jpg

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[pradeep1]

I have taken a lot of candid shots using my G3.

I turned off all sounds. Turned off the focus assist light. I then use the swivel LCD to compose and sneak off shots before anyone is wiser to what I am doing.

If they look at me, then they think I am fooling with my camera, not taking pictures.

Of course, it is different with a SLR...there I use the techniques and ideas suggested above.

[mvrekum]

It depends on the situation if I ask for permission or not before I take the picture. For a candid you simply can not ask for permission, because if you do, the person or persons are triggered and the candid is gone.

So I first take the photo and then I aproch the person or persons to ask permission to use the photo. Taking a picture is not against any law, but using it without permission is. No mather if I get permission, I always give them my card.

As an illustration, no permission was asked for this image:

http://www.photofile.nl/postings/fancy_fair.jpg

But I did ask permission from this girl to take her picture (found her on the beach):

http://www.photofile.nl/postings/liberty.jpg

You can see the difference in the 'candid' effect.

Martin

[Warman]

I have been trying to do some shots like that but i honestly lack the nerve.
One friend told me once that fear stops great photography and i always think about that but never realy do get the courage to shot at the necessary distance. This is one of my tries but as you can probably see i was pretty far away. Maybe a telefoto lens will help! :P

http://bragatel.pt/warman/snap.jpg

[charlesu]

I'm planning on getting a dozen really good images, printing them as 5x7s and dropping them into his guitar case some day.

That's wronderful!!!