Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/05/23
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]>A picture of me minding my own business in a Montreal park has nothing to do with photojournalism. Sure, it does dan, if the photographer is illustrating a piece on Montreal parks for example, or any of many story angles that involve showing people outdoors in public. <You want to publish it? Unless I'm carrying a bomb or standing next to a WMO (sp?) demonstration or running for Mayor, ask me first.> That's the polite thing to do, not necessarily legally required, but we all want to be nice whenever possible, right? And if we really want to capture an unposed image, we shoot first, and ask permission after. Usually that approach works well. Unless the subject appears to be a cantankerous crank. Then you tell him that in most cases he has no legal right to object to a photograph of himself taken in a public place, and that MOST people are flattered when photographed being themselves in public (you then think, maybe this guy is a photographer himself, lots of photographers irrationally object to having their own photograph made).No you will not give him the roll of film you just shot, but say that you are baffled at why he is so upset. He then grudgingly explains that the other person in the photo is someone who's husband will probably shoot him if they are seen together in a photograph. You can tell that he's now telling the truth, because he spends a lot of time looking at his shoes as he speaks, and his cheeks are decidedly red. You also wonder how anyone could be so stupid as to do something like that in public. Forget the old guy who raises Cain because you didn't ask first, what's the proper end to this real life situation? Scott Stewart