city scapes, kids and karens

ive been trying to get back to the roots of photography for me which actually is going back to the seeds; i.e. pre-roots, with old slow, meter-less, film cameras in the form of medium and large format (okay im cheating on the large format. i just picked up a 1955 vintage Crown Graphic in 4x5 and running a 6x7 film back on it)

i shot some stuff with my YashicaMat 124G and shared the black and white images in a couple of other threads.

today i took my Speed Graphic downtown with the tripod and Weston Master III light meter. the range finder doesnt appear to be working properly so it entails using the focusing glass, then removing the graflok back and inserting the roll-film back. setting the camera's exposure, taking the picture and then swapping back to the ground glass for the next image. kind of contrary to the "speed" part of Speed Graphic.

so i stopped across the street from the city's municipal theater/auditorium that has a beautiful limestone front with a fountain and gold clock on its face. because of the crop factor of 6x7cm film in a 4x5in camera the lens acts like a 234mm lens (more or less). im in front of another iconic place in town (a bar) and im setting up the camera. working the settings, framing, metering blah blah blah.

out comes some woman and demands to know what im taking pictures of. i reply McMorran (the auditorium). in the past couple of years the city decided to make it a green space out front with astro-turf and a small stage with a canopy and on the other end of the frontage, some big adirondack chairs and a small splash pad. well as luck would have it there were 3-4 KIDS playing in the water at the splash pad.

when i told her i was shooting the auditorium, she said "but there are kids over there." "Good, i hope theyre enjoying the water."

"you cant take pictures of those kids". "I'm NOT taking pictures of the kids. im shooting the auditorium and the fountains" (they would have been in the lower left corner of the image on 4x5, and mostly obscured by hedges and other stuff out front along the street)

"year but there are kids over there" "theyre NOT in the image im going to make. in fact ill be lucky if most of the auditorium is in the picture."

"i dont want you taking pictures of those kids. youre an adult." i start dismantling the roll-film back and setting the camera to lock open the shutter and adjust the aperture, put the ground glass back in and tell her "come here." i show her the film back and the 6x7 opening, then tell her to look through the camera back. i explain to her that "the only thing thats going to be in the picture is this small center section of the image and none of the kids will be in the picture."

i get it, the whole creeper thing with kids but ive been doing this a long long time. a) there is nothing to prevent me from shooting anything that can be seen in public without going to extreme measures to see. like using a ladder to see over a hedge or bush. or over a fence. etc. b) i understand people dont know jack squat about photography other than what they see/post on facebook or insta c) i really wanted to tell her that if she thought what i was doing was creepy or illegal, shut off facebook on her phone and call the police...

my only first time dealing with this crap but it was pretty annoying...

here is a previous photo of the auditorium. the stairs and sidewalk are gone, now at ground level. the gravel area and picnic tables are gone as is the low brick wall and flowers.

the second picture is from the south end of the plaza at the edge of the splash pad

local newspaper (which no longer really qualifies for a newspaper from Gannett News) and a couple of local web based news/info sites got some pretty mediocre shots of the ribbon cutting. i thought this was a much better angle, with the fabulous clock in the background.

and i didnt even put my arm out of joint patting myself on the back..lol

Ltdave wrote in post #19556081
so i stopped across the street from the city's municipal theater/auditorium that has a beautiful limestone front with a fountain and gold clock on its face. . . . out comes some woman and demands to know what im taking pictures of. . . . when i told her i was shooting the auditorium, she said "but there are kids over there.". . .

my only first time dealing with this crap but it was pretty annoying...

Nowhere in your story do I see the woman identifying herself and saying why she has the authority that makes her rules the ones to follow. Was there anything like that? And what was the outcome? Did she give up and leave you alone after looking through the camera?

OhLook wrote in post #19556188
Nowhere in your story do I see the woman identifying herself and saying why she has the authority that makes her rules the ones to follow. Was there anything like that? And what was the outcome? Did she give up and leave you alone after looking through the camera?

because she never did identify herself. just a server or the bar tender at the bar with an air of superiority.

she went back inside but i dont know if she knew what she was looking at, looking through the camera.

Ltdave wrote in post #19556437
because she never did identify herself.

Just as I suspected. Some people think that simply being themselves puts them in the right.

I don't know the laws in your country so can't really comment about your legal situation. In New Zealand it is lawful to take photographs of people (no age limit applies) in public places.

see: https://www.police.gov​t.nz …s-or-filming-public-place

Technically if it were in NZ (and I suspect similar in the US) you could tell said Karen to go elsewhere, but realistically you have no idea of the mental state of some folks, so it's always useful to at least advise people if asked, you're a photographer and give a simple reason that you're taking the shot that you are.

Other countries around the world have completely different laws!

joeseph wrote in post #19556495
I don't know the laws in your country so can't really comment about your legal situation. In New Zealand it is lawful to take photographs of people (no age limit applies) in public places.

see: https://www.police.gov​t.nz …s-or-filming-public-place

Technically if it were in NZ (and I suspect similar in the US) you could tell said Karen to go elsewhere, but realistically you have no idea of the mental state of some folks, so it's always useful to at least advise people if asked, you're a photographer and give a simple reason that you're taking the shot that you are.

Other countries around the world have completely different laws!

Yep. No expectation of privacy when in a public space, or even a private place if visible from the public space provided nothing extraordinary is done by the photographer to see into the private space. i.e. I can't get a ladder to see over a fence or a hedge, in order to see into a window, even if the shades are wide open...

I just didn't feel like being confrontational