How to avoid a thumping?

[Big_B]

I took advantage of the nice weather at the weekend and went off for an explore with my camera. Reaching the lake I decided to take a picture of something (a tree I think it was), but didn't notice that there was this... shall we say generously proportioned guy in the background.

To cut a long story short, he thought I was photographing him…. Didn’t like it much… he was bigger then me… I had to scarper pretty quick…

Sooo… that got me thinking about people photos. When I was travelling round South America, it was dead easy. As a gringo you were expected to talk to strangers. I found it really fulfilling having a chat with locals, I learnt a lot and they were pretty interested in my life. Afterwards they were usually completely fine with me asking for a photo.

In England I don’t feel quite the same about approaching some complete stranger and asking them for a photo… I suspect they would think I was weird. However at the same time I certainly don’t wish for a repeat of my experience of the weekend.

So the point of this (rather lengthy post) was to ask how you guys do it. Do you just take a quick photo and hope you don’t get thumped, or how do you approach them? What sort of reactions do you get back?

[cmM]

british grumpyness ... :? Lol
I never tried photographing strangers. but I will one day. Hope I come back with all my gear and my teeth :wink:

[Ikinaa]

IMO you should have the right to shoot what you want as long as it's public. If someone is in a public place, back luck for him.
If he doesn't want to be on the picture (you sure don't want him on the picture as i understand :twisted: ) he could have come to you, talked to you, asked kindly if he may see the picture you've taken, then eventually asked if you could delete the picture if he doesn't want to be shot.
To put it more crudly : If this guy doesn't want to be shot, I guess he doesn't want to be looked at also. So why doesn't he hide somewhere.

[DC]

Tricky one this. Most people over here don't want to carry an ID card, let alone have their picture taken for who knows what purpose :roll:

Anyway, if you don't want the guy in your pic, then perhaps a little explanation to him that you're taking a picture of said tree and he is in the frame. Would he mind moving for a minute, or does he mind being in the pic. Then it's up to him.

Alternatively you could try flattery. something like, hey you're a big guy, how'd you like to provide some scale to my tree picture, you can turn sideways so you're not recognisable....etc..etc..
You get the idea.

[timmyquest]

IMO you should have the right to shoot what you want as long as it's public. If someone is in a public place, back luck for him.
If he doesn't want to be on the picture (you sure don't want him on the picture as i understand :twisted: ) he could have come to you, talked to you, asked kindly if he may see the picture you've taken, then eventually asked if you could delete the picture if he doesn't want to be shot.
To put it more crudly : If this guy doesn't want to be shot, I guess he doesn't want to be looked at also. So why doesn't he hide somewhere.

In the states thats how it is...at leats as i under stand it

[Lamplight]

I recently took some pictures from a bridge overlooking the Nashville skyline. I was using my zoom lens and simply looking through it at full zoom to see what I might find, just for fun. Well down at a dock below me were a guy and girl just sitting and talking. I thought it would make a neat picture and so I snapped a couple. Later, when I got the shots onto my computer, I could see something I hadn't noticed through the viewfinder: the guy was watching me take his picture and he looked PISSED. :D:lol:

[G3]

I recently took some pictures from a bridge overlooking the Nashville skyline. I was using my zoom lens and simply looking through it at full zoom to see what I might find, just for fun. Well down at a dock below me were a guy and girl just sitting and talking. I thought it would make a neat picture and so I snapped a couple. Later, when I got the shots onto my computer, I could see something I hadn't noticed through the viewfinder: the guy was watching me take his picture and he looked PISSED. :D:lol:

Years ago I had a buddy that got into a very similar circumstance, except that he was confronted by the guy. It turned out that the guy was apparently running around on his wife with the girl that he was with that day and he thought my buddy was a private investigator spying on him and taking pictures for evidence. My buddy talked his way out of it and ended up taking the film out of his camera and giving it to the guy (it was a fresh roll, so no biggie). He told me he was pretty worried about what the guy was going to do for the first few seconds of the encounter, though. I guess if you really are a PI on a case like that, it pays to be in stealth mode.....