Why are people so oblivious to photogs?

You walk around a park, wait for the sun to be reflecting just right off the water ... and ... someone parks right in your shot and starts a picnic.

You're shooting a running or cycling race with your 300mm f2.8 pointing right at the course and someone will walk right up and stand in front of you. ARE YOU BLIND? If this was a bazooka, would you stand in front of it?

You're standing on a small wall across the street from a stage during a major event. People are everywhere - watching, what else, the stage. So a family with three kids, all with balloons come along and park right in front of you! "Excuse me, can you hold down your balloons???" "Oh, are they in your way?"

Grrrrrrr .....

I shoot in the streets a lot and I get many mixed signals. I think the majority of the people that get in your shot are just naturally oblivious to us. They don't do what we do, they don't understand what we do, so I think they just don't consider our shot in their way of life... we're just another person to them.

In my own experience, and perhaps it's just the city I live in, but many of the scoffs and quiet comments I hear when I walk the streets are mixed with many being negative. I'm kinda a hippie in the sense that I want photographers and the rest of life to get along.

I guess you learn to get used to it.

Because they have as much right as you do, to be in and use a public place.

Mark

If you're trying to read a building directory to find out what office to go to, I don't walk in front of you, I go around. If you were peering through a telescope trying to read the very same sign, I certainly wouldn't walk in front of you, regardless if that very same space is public or not!

Many people are oblivious to just about everything that's going on around them....not just photographers. You're living in their world.

Veemac wrote in post #10603064
You're living in their world.

Good point...

Wear a vest, put your ball cap on backwards and use a white lens with lenshood on....
John

If you're on the same side of the barricades as the rest of the crowd, then you're just another body.

Bring a 2' step stool or find a way to be inside the barricades.

Veemac wrote in post #10603064
Many people are oblivious to just about everything that's going on around them....not just photographers. You're living in their world.

^^^^+1,000,000,000

welcome to the western world!

I was shooting a model yesterday on a set of wooden stairs that goes from a street down to a little beach (the sun was harsh and it's the only shade I could find), people were very friendly and did not want to get in the way. I had to tell them to go ahead and pass through as they didn't want to interrupt us one old lady saw us from the bottom of the stairs and quickly took another direction .

Depends where you are. Lots of places people are nice and say they are sorry or run across once they realize they are in your way.

Biffbradford wrote in post #10602713
You walk around a park, wait for the sun to be reflecting just right off the water ... and ... someone parks right in your shot and starts a picnic.

Someone actually had the nerve to have a picnic in a park as the sun was setting? When A photographer is walking around in the same park? When the light was best??? Oh, the humanity!

I think sometime we need to look at how much of the prime real estate at a given setting we as photographers want exclusively to ourselves. We only want the best view exclusively ours when that view looks the very best. Do you think that perhaps they want that same view too?

Veemac wrote in post #10603064
Many people are oblivious to just about everything that's going on around them....not just photographers. You're living in their world.

You meant this about the OP right?

Why do people try to go through the express line with more than 10 items?
Why do masons have to camp out and guard fresh cement until it dries?
Why do people spray graffiti on fresh big flat surfaces before the construction is even completed?
Why do people cut me in line at the gas tank when it was obvious I was waiting for the spot?


etc...

The thing that really irks me is when another photographer sees me framing up a shot, looks to see what I'm aiming at, and then steps in my way to get that shot himself. This happens to me every now and then at highly touristic sites, and it drives me nuts.

CyberDyneSystems wrote in post #10604265
Why do people try to go through the express line with more than 10 items?
Why do masons have to camp out and guard fresh cement until it dries?
Why do people spray graffiti on fresh big flat surfaces before the construction is even completed?
Why do people cut me in line at the gas tank when it was obvious I was waiting for the spot?


etc...

You forgot:
Why do people post in the wrong section in POTN?