Has anyone got into trouble with the law because of photography?

Jim Neiger wrote in post #14965545
I guess I chickened out, but I recovered my images and avoided jail or worse.

You didn’t chicken out you used a good dose of common sense, City of Miami police officers are a strange breed and while I cannot prove it, it is commonly rumored there are on the edge of the thin blue line gangs within that department, in other words the responding officer and his backups will have one common story versus your singular story should something shall we say as a “not legal action” by an officer goes down.

Police corruption is a long ingrained thing down here, for example many years ago I was photographing the Miami riots after Arthur McDuffie had his skull caved in by a group of City of Miami officers doing a traffic stop where acquitted of the charges against them.

I was in Overtown photographing a number of rioters who at the time had chased off a news crew while one of them was using the cameraman’s abandoned camcorder held by the lens to smash the windows out of their abandoned car which was eventually set on fire.

While wrapping up I was approached by two Metro-Dade officers who advised me in no uncertain terms I needed to leave the area as it was “unsafe” for me to be there, I being a bit naive and fitting into the area disagreed and suddenly found myself smashed to the sidewalk and in the process had the lens of my camera chop through my lower lip and chipping a good sized chunk of an upper front tooth out somewhere else.

I was pulled back to my feet and once again advised to leave the area “for my safety” and bleeding profusely from my face and enduring the pain of a broken tooth I considered their advice to be some good advice and quickly retreated back home to Broward.

Wayne

I had a problem with a University Campus Security Guy telling me that som one complained about my taking pictures on the campus. At the time he walked up to my truck and tapped on my window I was cleaning the lens on my camera. He asked me to take my driver's license out of my wallet and give it to him so that he could document who I was. I was at a trail head where the public and students used for walking though the wooded area. The county helped to pay for the paving of this 2 mile long walking/biking trail and it's open to the public. I gave him my drivers license and waited for him to come back to my truck and give it back to me. He was a young kid in his early 20's and probably over zeolous and just on the job.

I later found out that the guy is the cousin of my X step Daughter. Coincidence or not?

Last year, I was in downtown Toronto with a friend taking some photos. There were a couple of bicycle cops watching people and we happened to get a couple of photos with them included. They ended up seeing us taking photos and called us over. They asked if we got some photos of them and asked to see them. I thought for sure they were going to tell us to delete them. After looking at them, they gave us each a business card and asked if we could send the photos to them. One of the cops had said the only time people take photos of them is when they think the cops will do something wrong and that it would be nice to have good photos for a change.

Not your typical cop/photographer outcome, so I was happy things went the way they did.

ydube wrote in post #15023245
Last year, I was in downtown Toronto with a friend taking some photos. There were a couple of bicycle cops watching people and we happened to get a couple of photos with them included. They ended up seeing us taking photos and called us over. They asked if we got some photos of them and asked to see them. I thought for sure they were going to tell us to delete them. After looking at them, they gave us each a business card and asked if we could send the photos to them. One of the cops had said the only time people take photos of them is when they think the cops will do something wrong and that it would be nice to have good photos for a change.

Not your typical cop/photographer outcome, so I was happy things went the way they did.

The vast majority of law enforcement and military personnel I have ever gotten to deal with have all been great, reasonable, and generally all round friendly people.

Luckless wrote in post #15023576
The vast majority of law enforcement and military personnel I have ever gotten to deal with have all been great, reasonable, and generally all round friendly people.

Same here. If you give them the benefit of the doubt, they'll give you the same. Sure there are pricks on power trips but that's exactly what huffy photographers are being when they go hyper defensive of their rights.

I've been shooting glamour and nudes for the better part of 35 years - I frequently shoot bikini, glamour, and fashion in public settings, and have even shot nudes in public accessable spaces at hours when there is very little human traffic. In all those years, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I had an encounter with an officer.

I was shooting on private properly that beloned to a friend of mine and was using one of my regular models. She's 25 years old, as tall as I am, but very slender. We had just finished shooting with a motorcycle and leathers, and had started shooting a series of military themed shots. We were staged at an area where two driveways converged. As she was changing into her outfit (short shorts and a tank top in US Marine red & yellow and a fake pistol), I heard the sound of a large vehicle coming down the drive. Since my cameras were set up in the middle of the drive, I ran toward them and waved down the driver of a UPS truck. He stopped, I moved my cameras, we exchanged a few pleasantries, and he drove off. As he drove away, my model was walking down the other drive in costume and carrying the pistol (a realistic airsoft replica).

I thought nothing more of the event and we shot for about another 90 minutes. As we were wrapping up for the day, I notice a sheriff's cruiser coming up the lower drive. I really thought nothing of it as I expected he was there to talk to my friend, the property owner, and I continued to pack away my gear. The model, nude at the time and cleaning camo grease paint from her body and face, simply put on her dress and continued to clean her face. After a moment or two, the deputy got out of the car and I walked over to him and asked if I could help him.

He was a pleasant fellow and asked me how my day was going. We chatted a bit and he asked me if a UPS truck and come through there recently. I told him it had and he then said that his office had received a call from the driver saying that there was somthing funny going on and that there was a guy taking photos of a 12 or 13 year old girl in very skimpy clothing and she was waving a gun around. I started laughing, introduced him to the model, gave him my business card, and the model and I let him see our IDs. He was chuckling just about the entire time. He asked about the gun; I explained it was an airsoft but also mentioned I had a Concealed Carry Permit that I offered to show him. He declined and said he didn't really need to be there and that we looked like we were having a lot of fun. He also mentioned that since we didn't try to hide what we were doing and were both friendly and cooperative it totally reassured him that the UPS driver didn't understand what was going on. He wished us both a pleasant day and that was the end of that.

He received a report. He was required to investigate and his attitude and our attidue made for a very pleasant encounter.

cdifoto wrote in post #15024008
...pricks on power trips ...that's exactly what huffy photographers are being when they go hyper defensive of their rights.

While I agree with treating LEO's like human beings, and having enough common sense and common courtesy to be civil and friendly, and to not getting one's back up over trivialities, there are times when it is important to stand up for your rights.

Mark_Cohran wrote in post #15024157
I've been shooting glamour and nudes for the better part of 35 years - I frequently shoot bikini, glamour, and fashion in public settings, and have even shot nudes in public accessable spaces at hours when there is very little human traffic. In all those years, it wasn't until a few weeks ago that I had an encounter with an officer.

I was shooting on private properly that beloned to a friend of mine and was using one of my regular models. She's 25 years old, as tall as I am, but very slender. We just finished shooting with a motorcycle and leathers, and had started shooting a series of military themed shots. We were staged at an area where two driveways converged. As she was changing into her outfit (short shorts and a tank top in US Marine red & yellow and a fake pistol), I heard the sound of a large vehicle comind down the drive. Since my cameras were set up in the middle of the drive, I ran toward them and waved down the driverof a UPS truck. He stopped, I moved my cameras, we exchanged a few pleasantries, and he drove off. As he drove away, my model was walking down the other drive in costume and carrying the pistol (a realistic airsoft replica).

I thought nothing more of the event and we shot for about another 90 minutes. As we were wrapping up for the day, I notice a sheriff's cruiser coming up the lower drive. I really thought nothing of it as I expected he was there to talk to my friend, the property owner, and I continued to pack away my gear. The model, nude at the time and cleaning camo grease paint from her body and face, simply put on her dress and continued to clean her face. After a moment or two, the deputy got out of the car and I walked over to him and asked if I could help him.

He was a pleasant fellow and asked me how my day was going. We chatted a bit and he asked me if a UPS truck and come through there recently. I told him it had and he then said that his office had received a call from the driver saying that there was somthing funny going on and that there was a guy taking photos of a 12 or 13 year old girl in very skimpy clothing and she was waving a gun around. I started laughing, introduced him to the model, gave him my business card and the model and I let him see our IDs. He was chuckling just about the entire time. He asked about the gun, I explained it was an airsoft but also mentioned I had a Concealed Carry Permit that I offered to show him. He declined and said he didn't really need to be there and that we looked like we were having a lot of fun. He also mentioned that since we didn't try to hide what we were doing and were both friendly and cooperative totally reassured him that the UPS driver didn't understand what was going on. He wished us both a pleasant day and that was the end of that.

He received a report. He was required to investigate and his attitude and our attidue made for a very pleasant encounter.

cool story

In the middle of the night, on my first "night photography" outing with my photo buddy, We were stopped by a plain clothes police officer. We had been taking photos of buildings (over 600 years old) in the area, and close by was a religious temple which happened to be require 24 hr/day 365 day/year police protection. The police officer (who identified himself) had called for back-up before approaching us, and after he started asking us questions he probably realized we were too focused on things like the cobblestone streets and stained glass windows to even notice that there was some sort of "sensitive" building around the corner.

Interesting article... Man gets arrested in California for recording cops... looks like he will be getting a nice hunk of change soon!

http://www.infowars.co​m …-days-for-recording-cops/