Should photographing children in public be illegal?

[Derrel]

I took it a while back with my iPhone using the low-rez backward-facing "selfie camera"...by the time I could find it in my 16,000 + iPhone snaps, you'd already bombarded the thread with even MORE-incredible banana pics!!!

 

[ShooterJ]

To give you the foundation of this poll...

This weekend I was at a block party at a Catholic church fundraiser. Was shooting candids. Some of them were kids, some not. The organizers hassled me lightly in the afternoon. Nothing concrete, just what is your name, what are you doing, where are you from, what do you do with the photos? Stayed a short time in the afternoon and left. Was just testing out a Widelux film cam...14 exposures was all I shot, maybe there 15 minutes.

Night time I go back with digital. Got off around 3 shots. Was there maybe 5 minutes or less. They came up to me and told me to leave or they will call the police. They said many parents complained about me earlier that afternoon. (Who is the pervert with the camera?) Since it was private property, I left.

That is the life of the photog that shoots kids nowadays.

You asked if photographing children in public should be illegal as a result of an experience you had on private property.

I'm quite surprised they didn't ask you to leave when it first bothered them.

As for taking photos in public, no I don't believe it should be illegal. I personally don't have an interest in it. I have lots of kid pictures.. as a result of being asked to take them.

Don't really have an urge to go out and take photos of random kids.

That being said, as was stated in the previous disaster of a thread, a little bit of common courtesy will go a long way. Take that barrier out that prevents you from simply talking to people and putting them at ease about what you're doing.

Is it really difficult to approach a parent, show them what you have, tell them why and offer to give them some copies?

You could do this either before or after taking a shot... worst case scenario, they're not comfortable and you politely move on. But if more photographers would just ASK, I think they'd find a lot less suspiscion and objection to it.

#1 Problem I see in my line of work ... people SUCK at communicating .. yes, that includes photographers photographing strange people in public.

 

[manaheim]

I took it a while back with my iPhone using the low-rez backward-facing "selfie camera"...by the time I could find it in my 16,000 + iPhone snaps, you'd already bombarded the thread with even MORE-incredible banana pics!!!

hahaha... that's so awesome. It's like FATE brought us together in our potassium-enriched wonder!!!

 

[manaheim]

Damnit.

I need more bananas.

Or maybe more monkeys.

I LIKE monkeys.




The pet store was selling them for five cents a piece. I thought this was odd since they were normally a couple thousand dollars. I decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth so I bought 200 of them. I like monkeys.
I took my 200 monkeys home. I have a big car. I let one of them drive. His name was Sigmund. He was retarded. In fact, none of them were really bright. They kept punching themselves in the genitals. I laughed. They punched me in the genitals. I stopped laughing.
I herded them into my room. They didn't adapt very well to their new environment. They would screech and hurl themselves off the couch at high speeds and slam into the wall. Although humorous at first, the spectacle lost its novelty halfway into it's third hour.
Two hours later I found out why all the monkeys were so inexpensive; they all died. No apparent reason. They all just sort of dropped dead. Kinda like when you buy a goldfish and it dies five hours later. God damn cheap monkeys.
I didn't know what to do. There were 200 dead monkeys lying all over my room; on the bed, in the dresser, hanging from my bookcase. It looked like I had 200 throw rugs. I tried to flush one down the toilet. It didn't work. It got stuck. Then I had one dead, wet monkey and one hundred ninety-nine dead, dry monkeys.
I tried to pretend that they were just stuffed animals. That worked for awhile, that is until they began to decompose. It started to smell real bad.
I had to pee but there was a dead monkey in my toilet and I didn't want to call a plumber. I was embarrassed.
I tried to slow down the decomposition by freezing them. Unfortunately there was only enough room for two at a time, so I had to change them every 30 seconds.
I also had to eat all the food in the freezer so it didn't go bad.
I tried to burn them, but little did I know that my bed was flammable. I had to extinguish the fire.
Then I had one dead, wet monkey in my toilet, two dead, frozen monkeys in my freezer, and one hundred ninety-seven dead, charred monkeys in a pile on my bed. The odour wasn't improving.
I became agitated at my inability to dispose of the dead monkeys and I really had to use the bathroom. So I went and severely beat one of the monkeys. I felt better.
I tried throwing them away but the garbage man said the city was not allowed to dispose of charred primates. I told him I had a wet one. He couldn't take it either. I didn't bother asking about the frozen ones.
I finally arrived at a solution. I gave them out as Christmas gifts. My friends didn't quite know what to say. They pretended to like them, but I could tell they were lying. Ingrates. So I punched them in the genitals. I like monkeys.

 

[amolitor]

Suddenly, I am very excited to read manaheim's book.

 

[ShooterJ]

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

OK... nobody else should post... the monkey story wins the day.

 

[Derrel]

WOW--that monkey story was so amazing, I feel like I need a.....



...Bud Light...

 

[manaheim]

Suddenly, I am very excited to read manaheim's book.

HAHAHAHAHAH....

:lmao: :lmao: :lmao: :lmao:

OK... nobody else should post... the monkey story wins the day.

YESSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

WOW--that monkey story was so amazing, I feel like I need a.....



View attachment 50043 ...Bud Light...

Oh hey....!!!

 

[manaheim]

 

[manaheim]

You know, it's astonishing the crap you can find on the web...

 

[manaheim]

 

[manaheim]

 

[ShooterJ]

You should put small children to bed with that story. :lmao:

 

[manaheim]

 

[manaheim]

You should put small children to bed with that story. :lmao:

Trust me, I've read that story to my kids many times. Last time it was me chasing them around the house reading it aloud while they screamed and did everything possible to stay away from me.

That's me, folks. Raising tomorrows leadership... today.