Post the Times/Places you have been asked to put your camera away!

Haven't been asked to put away my camera yet, but I'm sure there will come a day. Seems like we've entered a phase of paranoia in the world where anyone who looks like they know what to do with a camera is looked at askance if they shoot in public.

Oh, I just remembered another time...I got to know a groups manager pretty good and when they were coming to town I asked her if I could do pics and interview on of the members (who has since been murdered) for the magazine I was shooting/writing for. I got to the show and was greated by a scumbag of a road manager, she refused any fans or any media to shoot photos - in fact when a fan took a photo she sent security to attack this fan, literally, and rip the film from their camera. When asked who I was shooting for I told her it was directly for the groups management. She asked "who approved it" and I told her - she insisted she never heard of the girl who approved it. I told her to check her BEEPING pay check because she's the one who signed it. I had to put my stuff away and watch the show and wait for the interview after. Waiting, asking, waiting some more I was blown off until the guy left - even though I was told repeatedly he'll be out, etc. Contacted the manager the next day and told her what happened so she took care of it I was told but the group member never knew I was there, the road manager never told him nothing. That's what happens when scum get a little bit of control.

I've been asked to stop shooting three times. Once in a theater when I was "blagging" which was a fair cop.

Another time I was driving down the road, a car pulled out of a side turning in front of me and the car behind it pulled out too, forcing me to break heavily. Another car pulled out of the same side turning just after I passed. A little further down he road a Van pulled itself across the road in front of the first car and armed police started jumping out (Unusual in the U.K.) then car in front of me rammed the car in front of him and the one that was behind me pulled along side me and armed police jumped out of that one too.

I was in the middle of an armed police operation!

I have carried a P&S in my car ever since I started driving so I grabbed the Olympus Mju compact that was in the glove box and started wandering around taking pictures. The Police weren't too pleased with me but there was nothing they could do about it at the time. After it was ll sorted a high ranking copper asked me for the films that I had shot and I refused, stating that if he forced me to hand them over I would sue him for assault (thats the law in this country).

The copper asked me my intention with the photographs so I told him that they would be placed with an agency. He explained that there were two officers involved who had been working undercover on this operation and that press exposure could be fatal for them, such was the nature of the investigation. He asked me if I would allow him to censure the photographs on that basis and I agreed to.

The final result was te police took the films and P&P'd them at the area H.Q. and returned them to my local station in under two hours. the iInspector then called me into the station where he removed the photo's that he didn't want used, along with the negatives. I was given a dozen rolls of film as compensation and later recieved a letter of thanks from the Chief Constable.

The next time I was told to stop shooting was one day on my way to the office. I saw on the other side of the road that there was a lorry parked up with a Police car at either end of it. Instinct told me that there was something going on so I parked up and asked another lorry driver if I could climb atop of his lorry. The elevated position gave me an excellent view of the back of the other lorry which was perfect for when they opened the doors and let out 8 illegal immigrants. These poor souls had been in the container for over a month whilst the container made its way from Sri-Lanka to the U.K.

One of the coppers told me to stop taking pictures, I refused. He repeated the order, I carried on taking the pictures. When I came down from the top of the lorry he arrested me and put me in the back of the police car. As he started looking at my camera to see how to open the back of it I explained the law to him and that he had already wrongfully arrested me and was about to commit criminal damage so he left the camera closed. I was released without charge about an hour later.

When I contacted the agency to place the pictures with them they said that the pictures were not salable as news because the incidence of illegal immigrants being caught in this way was so common.

I had a fan ask me to stop shooting during the last basketball game. She said that my flash was causing her to blink too much. I ignored her and kept on shooting. The next think I know she grabs the strap to my backup and my heart sinks. luckily a campus police officer was near and saw her grab my back up cam. He walks up ask her to put it down and she refuses. He ask her to leave and she refuses. So he places her under arrest and she resist. 3 more officers dog pile her and I am steady snapping away no more than 3 feet from her. Shes cursing and spitting and finally the officers get her cuffed and leg shackles on her. They have to practically drag her out the door. Later that night I found out that she was a visiting fan for the other team who was loosing by 30 points at the half. I didn't press charges because she already had 2 counts of assaulting a police officer and 1 count of resisting arrest.

I don't know if she has been to court or not but the police did contact me asking for the pics for their case. I wound up selling 2 of them to the local paper and got a short interview in with the pics. The school sent me a formal apology letter which was not needed as it was not their fault. Heck I made some $$ off of it so it couldn't have been that bad right?

The other time I was asked to put my camera away was about 4 months ago. Hillary Clinton was speaking here and I got word of her flying in on a helicopter. So I grab my gear and haul butt down to the the fair grounds where the copter is going to land. I park on the side of a public road, and stand on 100% public ground. The copter is coming in and 3 police officers pull up and tell me to put my **** camera away or they will arrest me. I keep shooting and they persist with threats and words. She lands I get my shot, She gets in the suburban and drives off. The cops leave and I run my cf card up to the paper.

The key is knowing the law. If you know the law then you cannot get arrested for not breaking the law.

...unfortunately they frequently have the catch-all offense of "Failure To Obey A Police Officer".

Hasn't happened--------up to this point.

Riff Raff wrote in post #4742919
...unfortunately they frequently have the catch-all offense of "Failure To Obey A Police Officer".

In general, however, according to the statutes of my state (yours can be different), the Police Officer has to be acting to provide a lawful and legally binding order. For example, an officer cannot order you do do something illegal, nor can the order infringe upon your constitutional rights, and if they order you to stop doing something that is legal that "failure to obey" order will subsequently fail to stand as a charge at trial (as long as the action which preceded the order is found as legal). Example in fact, in 2004 (here in Portland) a man standing beside his bicycle on the sidewalk was ordered to move along when he stopped to watch of group of cyclist demonstrating. As he was not blocking the sidewalk, he refused to do so (he wanted to watch the demonstration). He was subsequently arrested and charged with obstructing traffic and failure to obey as police officer. The court found that since he wasn't riding the bicycle and wasn't impeding traffic, he was not engaged in a legal activity and the failure to obey the police officer charge was dismissed as well.

Police officers are paid by the public to serve the public good. It is as incumbent on them to know and adhere to the laws as much as the public. An unfettered ability for officers to be able to order public actions without regard to the legality of the actions of those citizens is not a comfortable proposition and the courts recognize this and in most cases ruled appropriately.

Officers do have wider latitude when it comes to public safety, so in cases of emergencies (fire, armed robbery, traffic accidents, etc.) the courts have recognized the ability of officers to restrict what might normally be considered legal activities of the citizenry.

Mark_Cohran wrote in post #4743128
In general, however, according to the statutes of my state (yours can be different), the Police Officer has to be acting to provide a lawful and legally binding order. For example, an officer cannot order you do do something illegal, nor can the order infringe upon your constitutional rights, and if they order you to stop doing something that is legal that "failure to obey" order will subsequently fail to stand as a charge at trial (as long as the action which preceded the order is found as legal). Example in fact, in 2004 (here in Portland) a man standing beside his bicycle on the sidewalk was ordered to move along when he stopped to watch of group of cyclist demonstrating. As he was not blocking the sidewalk, he refused to do so (he wanted to watch the demonstration). He was subsequently arrested and charged with obstructing traffic and failure to obey as police officer. The court found that since he wasn't riding the bicycle and wasn't impeding traffic, he was not engaged in a legal activity and the failure to obey the police officer charge was dismissed as well.

Police officers are paid by the public to serve the public good. It is as incumbent on them to know and adhere to the laws as much as the public. An unfettered ability for officers to be able to order public actions without regard to the legality of the actions of those citizens is not a comfortable proposition and the courts recognize this and in most cases ruled appropriately.

Officers do have wider latitude when it comes to public safety, so in cases of emergencies (fire, armed robbery, traffic accidents, etc.) the courts have recognized the ability of officers to restrict what might normally be considered legal activities of the citizenry.

exactly, they can threaten "If you don't put that camera away we'll charge you with failure to obey an officer" but they just can't do it.

I once was paid to shoot swimsuit models at a local state park. The client was a bit short on time so they hired 3 photographers to shoot seven models in a few suits each. We had 3 'sets' going and attracted quite a crowd. A local cop came up and threatned to arrest us for shooting at a state park. As we were packing up the ranger in charge of the park came and explained to the cop we were allowed to shoot (with-in certain rules) at any state park in Fl. without a permit. Seems someone in the crowd had went to the main gate and explained we were being harrased

Only at the King Tut Exhibit in Philly, yet they didnt stop every knucklehead with a P&S... and the tour conveniently ends in the gift shop....

Once, at a Stanford woman's gymnastics meet against UCLA. I was personally invited by one of the coaches but I wasn't "approved" by the university. Like the other stories above, fans in the stands with P+S could snap all they wanted but people like me with a dSLR had to put them away.

When explained that it had a lot to do with the comfort and safety of the athletes, I was okay with it.

I wasn't told to put the camera away but was queried by security
at Sydney's Olympic Park if the shots were for commercial use or not.

I got surrounded by ~10 police officers and a police dog and was made to delete photos a few weeks ago at a concert in Sydney. I wasn't in the mood to argue They were.. very.. assertive. Not to the point of shouting at me but it was a close thing.

I was taking photos of the crowds (40,000 people) all trying to cram into the gates of a big venue for a world-class band and the photos included some of the police with a sniffer dog moving through the crowds - they came at me quick smart when they saw that they would have been in the shot... "No photos of dogs at work"!

Jim G wrote in post #4747985
I got surrounded by ~10 police officers and a police dog and was made to delete photos a few weeks ago at a concert in Sydney. I wasn't in the mood to argue They were.. very.. assertive. Not to the point of shouting at me but it was a close thing.

I was taking photos of the crowds (40,000 people) all trying to cram into the gates of a big venue for a world-class band and the photos included some of the police with a sniffer dog moving through the crowds - they came at me quick smart when they saw that they would have been in the shot... "No photos of dogs at work"!

Of course an 'out' for many of these is that if they make you delete the images you can always recover those images later if you don't shoot any more on that card. So you can show them that you hit the delete all, and show them that the camera then says 'no images' after the delete. Then simply put the card away, load a fresh new one, then when you get home run a recovery program on the card you 'deleted' and you will be able to get all the pictures back. Most average joe-shmoe does not know this.

Some of the stories here reminds me of another time where I had to adhere to a different set of rules than all the other shutterbugs...

I shoot a lot of theater with my oldest daughter being in a pretty high end ballet company for pre-professional dancers, high school age, but a private company. They use my images for advertising, etc. I sell images to parents, etc. as well. Anyway, my younger daughter is in a dance class in high school and the school's dance classes were putting on a show. So the day of the show they had a dress rehearsal for the show that was to happen later that night. I obtained permission from the school to come and shoot as I just wanted to create images that they could use in the year book, no charge. Good practice for me. So I get there and am promptly told that I am not to use flash (I never do anyway for theater) and am only allowed to shoot images of my daughter. OK. So be it. No big deal. I understand the paranoid attitude, nothing new to me. I was fine with it until I came back later that night to see the show. For the actual show I left the camera at home, but many other parents brought cameras, about half the audience in fact. So the same lady who earlier told me I could only shoot my daughter gets up before the show and announces that flash photography is prohibited, but otherwise photography and video is fine. That's it. No special instructions to only shoot their child. So what's the difference? Many of them had DSLRs. I don't get it, either there is a hard fast rule or there is not.

In Northern Laos on the Chinese border in 2004..There was a fork in the road the right led to China the left was where we were going..On the right fork was the Lao side of the border crossing,,China about 5 kilometers up the road..It was isolated, roads were unealed but the scenery magic..There was a boom gate, a small village just beyond the boom gate and the road winding its way towards the karst mountains of Yunnan Province China..Very picturesque..

Sitting beside a small shack were two Lao border guards playing checkers..I asked our driver Mr *** (won't mention any names) to stop the 4WD..I jumps out with my Nikon plus 70-200 zoom, levels it to my eye and cracks off a few exposures..One of the guards sees me, grabs his AK-47 and starts walking towards me slowly raising his AK-47..When he stops he is about 15 meters from me with the AK-47 pointing at my chest..I was about to go to jelly..

I could hear my wife yelling " Mr*** back the truck up"..Our driver backs the truck up so it is right behind me so the guard could see the logos on the door indicating we weren't tourists..People have been known to disappear in these parts a few years before..The guard grunts something at me in Lao, lowers the AK, turns and walks away..

I gets back into the truck, Mr*** floors it and wife reads me the riot act..Believe me,,,having an AK-47 pointed at you will definitely stop you taking photographs..

Jurgen
Laos