[DAZ]

I have been out and about taking pictures of people for ongoing of 3 decades now. In my experience there mostly 5 kinds of people in regards to having their picture taken in public.

1. Those who don’t care or generally don’t care because they realize being out in public they can have their picture taken at any time.
2. Those who are out in public and are acting in such a way as to expect that their picture will be taken. Public performers, people in parades, or just acting in a way that they could anticipate that their picture might be taken.
3. People that for some personal reason don’t want their picture taken in public and mistakenly believe that they have a right to not have their picture taken in public.
4. General nut jobs that have some weird barely comprehensible idea in their head about photos, what you are doing, how the world works, what your motives are, etc. etc.
5. People who seriously don’t want their picture taken mostly because they are misbehaving (illegally for example) or are going to misbehave.

I will go with this from the reverse order of likelihood mostly because it’s the most serious even though unlikely and incidentally more interesting.

For number 5. Mostly these people won’t bother you if they haven’t already misbehaved because they don’t want to attract attention to themselves. At least not yet anyway. But if they did misbehave and they believe that you have caught a picture of this you now have a serious problem. Essentially no amount of talking is going to get you out of this. Nor will deleting the photo after the fact help you even if you are willing to offer such. You have become a witness (with or without the photo) and they are now going to treat you in one of 2 possible ways. The 1st would be to run away and hope that they will not be identified. The 2nd is they are going to take your camera (they wouldn’t believe that the photo was deleted anyway) and in the process are most likely going to at a minimum beat the holy’s snot out of you. That would be the lucky outcome. The unlucky outcome would be that you are dead and/or permanently maimed. So your options at this point are run and if that doesn’t/isn’t going to work defending your life. So if you are going to an event, where there is a likelihood of this happening and this is not part of your profession, seriously take this into account.

Number 4. I was in California with a friend of mine taking some photos at a cliffside beach. I was using a super zoom lens at the time which is not a particularly long lens but it is a very large looking lens. I call it a cliffside beach because this is precisely what it was. A cliff, which about 200 feet below it was a small strip of beach. To get down to the beach you had to take a winding trail. It was at the head of this trail that is the only place you could see that there is a beach down below. I and my friend were standing at the very top of the cliff. From there off in the distance, you could see the surfers but no part of the beach at all without seriously risking falling onto the beach. Mostly what I was taking pictures of were the seagulls that were catching the lift off the cliff and were only about 10 to 20 feet away. While I was doing this a man approached us and accused me of taking pictures of some woman which I at 1st presumed was his wife down on the beach in her bathing suit. As this guy was ranting and raving about supposedly violating her privacy we started to understand that this woman was not his wife. In fact, he did not even know this woman. He did not even have any particular woman in mind. It The fact that I had not been taking a picture of this imaginary woman nor could not have taken a picture of her even if she not been imaginary really did not matter to him. It occurred to both myself and my friend almost simultaneously that I was being accused of an imaginary crime to which there was not even an imaginary defense. At this point, the only real option was to smile politely, apologize, and move on. So if you run across a nut your best option is to just extricate yourself as quickly and painlessly as possible.

Number 3. These are people who have an almost pathological irrational fear of photos and photographers. The fact that you are taking these pictures in public and thus they have no legal right to complain doesn’t really come into their worldview. Sometimes it might be an extremely insecure woman in which case my answer is usually “sorry ma’am I did not take your photo but if that bothers you so much I will of course gladly take a photo of you and send it to you”. This usually confuses them and they will usually respond with “no I’m trying to say I did not want my photo taken” and I will respond with that I am so sorry I will then move along. This usually satisfies them that they have vented their spleen and accomplish their goal. The next is those that have a totally irrational fear of having their children’s photos taken. To them, I will say that I am sorry but their children are in a public space and if they believe a crime is been committed they are free to call the police and I will stay and personally talk to the police. If they threatened to get violent then I will offer to call the police myself. Many may disagree with this point of view as they believe that there are “children involved” and that this somehow makes it different. In reality, it does not, they are still behaving irrationally. This can be shown that these people are in fact irrational (and the rarity) that I have been taking photos for over 30 years in all kinds of situations and nobody has yet called the police on me. If you go to just about any public park in America there are people with children and people with cameras wandering all over the place. People with cameras in the parks are not the people that have children need to worry about. The police are well aware of this. The people they have to worry about are usually the people without cameras, like their coaches, teachers, babysitters, daycare workers, or other people that they would entrust their children with. And although this is a rarity that those people are a risk to their children that is the primary risk to their children. By the way, I’ve even been approached by people in the park and they have asked me to take photos of their children. There is a small subgroup of people who do have some personal and rational reason for not having their picture taken. Some religious belief for example. If this is the case they are bothered by your picture taking they will usually approach you and politely ask you to not take their picture and give you that rational reason. The polite thing, of course, at that time is to say “I understand, thank you very much for informing me of this” and point your camera in some other direction.

Number 2. This group is the ones you are most likely going to take a picture of. If you have a large DSLR they will sometimes approach you and ask you if you are a professional. Most often this is because they wish to separate you from a possible amateur. If you are professional they may want money for a signed photo release. They could also possibly want free photos for publicity. If you are possibly a photojournalist they are most likely interested in the publication so they can post in their social media network that they have been published. When they find out that you are just an amateur the mostly just relax and have fun with it. Getting attention out in the public is after all why they are doing this in the public in the 1st place. This group is the ones that are most likely to approach you and also less likely to have a problem with you.

Group number 1. This is the most boring group of all. They are for the most part just part of the background and as such won’t bother you or approach you. Not much to be said unless you need a photo release from any of them in which case you most likely have to make this just journalistic B footage of the background. And by the way chasing after somebody to get their “permission with all the associated information required” for a photo is more likely to be perceived as the weird guy with the camera than just letting them go. Unless you really “need” a photo release as part of the job it is usually not practical nor necessarily even desirable to chase after these people. This group, by the way, is the ones that most often approach me. They see my big camera and lens and assume that I know how to take good photos. I know this is kind of silly but that’s their perception. So more often than not they are asking me to take their camera to take a photo of them. I always politely agree and try to take the best photo I can.

A lot of people have made an issue out of taking photos of people in public. Truthfully this is rarely an issue. In 30 years I can barely count on both hands the number of times I’ve been approached by somebody that had an issue. In most of the time when I was approached it was just a friendly conversation about photography in general or because they did want me to take their picture and somehow get it to them later.

I’ve used most of the techniques described in this thread. Sometimes I’ve tried to have smaller wide-angle lenses with unobtrusive cameras. This usually does mean that you do have to get in their face. It is usually very difficult to get candid photos this way because of the observer effect. I’ve also used very long lenses. You can sometimes get very good candid portrait type photos that are isolated from the background this way. But my favorite technique is to use a medium length zoom lens and hang around the edges of the event. If you hang around long enough almost everybody starts to perceive you as just part of the background. This allows you to keep your head up, on a swivel, and your situational awareness at its maximum. You’re much more likely to see any trouble coming this way and simultaneously see a photo opportunity developing. You can take test photos to get your exposure, framing, and your focusing correct before the photo that you are anticipating. This allows you to get the snap photo much quicker and more assuredly. You can also usually get much more pleasing perspectives and perspective distortions.

If anybody does have a problem (which in my experience is extremely rare) then just point them to your very plain and benign Flickr site. This is one of the reasons I have a Flickr account. If someone wants the photo I just promised to put them up on Flickr and let them go get it. If someone needs to know what I do for my hobby I show them the Flickr account. This at the very least will usually bore them into a coma and people in a coma are usually harmless.

DAZ

[victormeldrew]

On the other hand, if they come to the public park and walk away with nothing but pictures of ducks, dogs and squirrels, they are owed an apology.

While I would agree that, in the current climate, taking photos of children other than your own, in public or otherwise, is likely to result in some form of violence, regardless of your motives, and is therefore not recommended...I am saddened by the modern assumption that doing so must imply some nefarious (probably sexual) ulterior motive. Probably half of HCB's portfolio would have been lost if he'd lived in today's super-paranoid climate - in fact so many of his images involve children he'd probably be dead before long.

The law is the same regardless, in public they may be photographed - indeed they ARE being recorded everywhere they go by CCTV of both private and government ownership, by dashcams, helmet cams, drones, Google, tourists, press. The idea that someone somewhere may find the image of a fully clothed child interesting for the wrong reasons, shouldn't mean that all children must be a no go area for every photographer.

[englishphotographer]

I've made a video guide exactly about the best approach to street photography -

You Tube

You Tube

Hope it helps!

[johnmflores]

I've attended dozens of political rallies and marches this year. My main lens is a 24-70 equivalent zoom. Nobody minds having their photos taken at these types of events and will even pose and smile with their signs and costumes. Don't worry about taking their photos. Smile, enjoy the crowd, and snap when you see something interesting. Everyone else is with their phones and cameras anyways.

If you want to see photos taken by others at these types of events, check out The New Resistance | Flickr

[pres589]

I want to thank everyone that's responded. There's some really good information and examples here. I'm feeling less concerned about bringing the camera and will plan on having cards printed and ready to hand out then. Wondering about renting a DA21 for this as it seems ideal.