Photography Etiquette

[genker]

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[Browncoat]

Presumptuous topics like this irritate me. In not so many words, they try to convey the often invalid point that the rest of us are doing it wrong by putting "etiquette" in the title. Here are a few facts of photography etiquette (in the United States):

1. Anyone in a public place can take pictures of anything they want. This includes parks, streets and sidewalks, and other public property.

2. People (including celebrities) on public property can be photographed without their permission, given that they have not tried to seclude themselves to perform a private act. IE: A man walking into a bank is fair game. The same man with his back turned at the ATM machine is not.

3. The above includes children, who can also be photographed in public without parental consent.

4. You can also freely photograph certain material that is usually deemed to be a bit more sensitive:

• Crime scenes and accident scenes
• Road side memorials
• Bridges and other infrastructure

The vast majority of photographers who take pictures on the streets are looking for candid shots, which are impartial and not posed. Making a preemptive strike by asking for permission ruins the spirit of the shot.

Some may quote privacy laws. We are not infringing on anyone's rights by taking pictures in a public place. Knowingly or not, you give up your right to privacy the second you step onto public property. Taking pictures into someone's home through their front window is a violation of privacy...not while they are walking down the street.

It's no different than if you go to the park and find a man and his kids flying an R/C airplane. It's loud, it's annoying, and it's interrupting your quiet time. You have no right to tell him to put the plane away or go somewhere else. He has just as much right to be there as you do, and if you don't like it, you can go somewhere else.

 

[Garbz]

Photographers with etiquette miss the shot.

Yeah they irritate everyone, and give us a bad name. But quite frankly the photographer who pushes little kids out of the way to get to the fence at the zoo is the one who will take the photo of the dolphin doing something cool. The rest of us will take a photo of the backs of people's heads.


The same thing applies to candid shots.
Scenario a: A young girl holds her hand with some feed to a bird. The bird jumps on her head. First thing I do is take a photo. Then I tell the parent who approached me to go forth and multiply.

Scenario B: Bird lands on girls head I go over to said girl and ask if I can take a photo, bird flies away, girl cries, I get punched by daddy.


Etiquette belongs at the dinner table, and when a girl is walking through a door.