a warning about creeps and a question...

earlier today, I was standing on the beach in maui with my new wife, who was in a bikini. I noticed a guy about 10 feet away with a canon slr and an l series lens taking pictures of the ocean. he then stood up and held the camera at his side, with the lens facing us. I noticed that he had a polarizer on the lens. as I was looking at it, I was pretty sure I saw the shutter open. then I saw his finger twitch on the shutter button.

I told my wife to go back to our seats and walked over to him and said, "can I see those last couple pictures you took?" he paused and looked at me, then hit play and tried to turn the dial quickly forward to a picture of the ocean. but I caught the picture of my wife's ass/profile (and me) and said, "um, no...that last one." he knew he was caught and turned the dial to that photo. I said, "start f***ing deleting." he tried to just delete one and go back to the ocean picture. I kept making him delete them one by one. there were a bunch. his hands were shaking like crazy. he said, "hang on, let me do this" and went into the menu and deleted the entire folder. he showed me that it had no images in it (and I did watch it delete a pretty good number of pictures). I said, "you're lucky I don't f***ing crack you. get the f*** out of here." he walked away, still shaking.

afterwards, I thought about it and was really pissed that I didn't just take the card from his camera. #1 - I didn't teach him anything. if I took the card, he would at least have been out some money and possibly some good photos he wanted to keep, and #2 - he probably had pictures of other girls in other folders. I went up and down the beach looking for him in order to do just that, but he was gone.

I did think about throwing his camera in the sand, but for some reason felt bad about how harsh that would be. after the fact, I also thought that I should have taken his picture with my phone and given it to the hotels in the area and posted it on tripadvisor, etc.

how would you have handled the situation? I didn't want to get arrested for assault, but I really feel like I should have done something more.

Basically if you came over to me and asked me to show you my last few frames I would have told you to F**k Off.

(Oh and just so you know, it would have taken him less than 5 minutes to unerase the images from his card)

neil_r wrote in post #14615115
Basically if you came over to me and asked me to show you my last few frames I would have told you to F**k Off.

(Oh and just so you know, it would have taken him less than 5 minutes to unerase the images from his card)

so you're taking his side? is this something you do?

LoL no it isn't, and I am taking no sides at all here. In fact I find both his and your behaviour equally pathetic.

neil_r wrote in post #14615170
LoL no it isn't, and I am taking no sides at all here. In fact I find both his and your behaviour equally pathetic.

not sure how my behavior is pathetic. this guy is taking candid photos of women/girls on the beach, probably to put them on the internet on some voyeur site. maybe if it was your daughter you'd understand.

maybe it seemed like I was trying to sound tough by the way I wrote the account, but I'm not some tough guy. I'm actually a very calm, peaceful person under normal circumstances. this pissed me off, though, and I wrote the story to tell exactly what transpired.

if you think my behavior is in line with his, then you may want to reevaluate your moral standards.

My moral compass is fine and has been for over 50 years. I have once taken pictures of someone else's wife who I did not know on a beach. I did it because it was funny, not because I was going to lock myself away in a dark room with a box of tissues. Surely it is about motive and intent.

In my case a very attractive young lady was wandering down to the waters edge, striking a pose for her hubby to snap, then walking back up the beach, looking at his results, berating him for not getting it right and repeating the process, no less that 5 times, I took pictures because it was funny and I felt no pangs of guilt.

If it were my wife, I would think the same way too

Great photo's Neil

Yes great pictures! Should have stepped and sold the lady something her ole man couldn't ... great pictures lol

dexy101 wrote in post #14615264
Great photo's Neil

+1

neil_r wrote in post #14615249
My moral compass is fine and has been for over 50 years. I have once taken pictures of someone else's wife who I did not know on a beach. I did it because it was funny, not because I was going to lock myself away in a dark room with a box of tissues. Surely it is about motive and intent.

well, when your camera is at your side and you are sneakily taking photos so you're not noticed and you are take 50 shots of the same girl who you don't know...

you sure you want to lean on motive and intent?

The only difference between the guy you berated and anyone else who took a photo of your wife is that you know about it.

Yeah, the guy was a creeper, but everything you imagined he might be doing with the results is just that -- your imagination.

What did your wife think?

S.Horton wrote in post #14615294
The only difference between the guy you berated and anyone else who took a photo of your wife is that you know about it.

Yeah, the guy was a creeper, but everything you imagined he might be doing with the results is just that -- your imagination.

What did your wife think?

she was completely creeped out and felt violated.

looks like you edited out the line about me posting about it here because I wanted to be validated, but that's not even close. I was actually wondering if I should have done more, like taken his memory card from his camera. I don't need to be validated for what I did at all. I'm really surprised you all seem to think it's okay. I've also heard about people doing this on the streets of new york taking video up girls' skirts when they're sitting on steps, etc. do you guys have no problem with that either?

Well if you took his property you would probably have gotten a visit from the cops! Last I heard it is not illegal to take pictures of people in public (on the beach or otherwise).

S.n.a.f.u. wrote in post #14615310
Well if you took his property you would probably have gotten a visit from the cops! Last I heard it is not illegal to take pictures of people in public (on the beach or otherwise).

Yeah, that's what I was thinking. Sure he was being a creeper, but I think the guy was within his rights on public property. Forcing him to cough up his memory card... well.. I wouldn't do that myself.

Tonic, I get where you're coming from and think it's a totally creepy thing to do, but 1. There is was nothing wrong with what he was doing other than morally, and to some that may even be pushing it. 2. If you were to have done anything (taking his card, throwing his camera or hitting him) you might be the one dealing with the police. 3. Take it as a compliment, if your wife is that good looking take pride in knowing the she still looks good enough that other dudes not only check her out, but risk being found out as being a creeper to snap a photo of her.