Abusive comments when taking a shot

[jnanian]

yes, by security guards, regular people and night owls.
i've been threatened and harassed both when doing freelance work ( newspaper )
and doing personal projects. i could go into details, but would rather not.

[BrianShaw]

I got harrassed by a Town Crier in a small village in the UK. He kept following me telling me that I had to pay to take his picture. He was an old foul-mouthed man, especially after I told him that he wasn't interesting enough for me to take a photograph... which I never did.

[rthomas]

Had a few, most aren't worth retelling. My favorite was getting called something very foul while shooting posed group shots of the wedding party (!) at a wedding I was being paid to photograph (the last wedding I ever did, by the way). I let that go because the offender was *clearly* drunk. Still don't do weddings, though.

One time, a woman passing by on the street accused me of being a peeping tom, in broad daylight, while taking a photograph of a flower, under a window, from a sidewalk. At that moment, I was shooting digital. I showed her the picture, made a snarky comment about paranoia blinding her eyes to the beauty of the world around her, and invited her to call the police if she wished to do so. I also handed her my business card. Then I went inside the house where this flower was planted - it was, in fact, the inn where I was staying with my wife. Practically put me off my breakfast, but the police did not arrive.

[GRHazelton]

While shooting my grandchildren at a nearby shopping mall with my big, black, obviously "professional" Pentax K10 a security guard told me that photography was forbidden. This while all about me folks blasted away with point and shoot crapsters and cellphone cams! I ducked into a camera shop within the mall and asked the staff and yes, there was indeed a notice, rather small, at the entry stating that photography was forbidden without express, written permission of the management. The camera shop staff said that it was a real inconvenience since customers liked to try out prospective purchases, understandably, and were often rousted by the officious rent-a-cops. Since then I've shot there and in other malls without problems. "And so it goes" to quote Kurt Vonnegut.

[theoria]

I do a lot of street shooting, so that is not uncommon for me. I have even been chased by a gang that was scavenging scrap metal from buildings to be demolished. I discovered that developing strategies aimed at defusing confrontational situations is a key part when doing street shooting, as it contributes a lot to what one can or can't do. Many times I simply refrain from taking the photo just because if things go badly wrong, I won't have a viable exit strategy.
Most of the time I go unnoticed, as I don't do Gilden-style street shooting, but I have friends who do, and they get themselves pretty soon into tense situations.

[Laurent]

The worst for me was the time when I wanted to photograph a machine (something like a high pressure pump) somebody was using to clean the pavement at La Défense. The worker came to me, told me he didn't want "any photographs" and tried to put his dirty and wet hand on my Rolleiflex (I have a lot of respect for workers, and especially those doing a "real" job like this man, but that was too much).

I tried to argue I only wanted a detail of his f**** machine, but I was unable to get the shot and I finally left.

[benjiboy]

You can photograph children if you are a woman, that's the rule.
If you are a man, some ass cavity will think you are a paedophile.

I actually routinely take pictures of play areas (which are normally very colourful) and merry-go-round (again) with all the children seasoning. Nobody raised questions (so far).

Don't the people who make the rules know there are such things as female paedophiles ?

[BMbikerider]

Ben.

I am afraid there are too many people out there who hear things and take them to be the Gospel truth. I personally have never been verbally abused except when I was at work taking a series of pictures of a crime scene inside a house. The owners resented the fact that we were their in the 1st place, but there again I had plenty of back-up.

[pdeeh]

what "they" signally fail to recognise (or perhaps refuse to recognise) is that the place that children are mostly subjected to abuse is within the family.

[BMbikerider]

what "they" signally fail to recognise (or perhaps refuse to recognise) is that the place that children are mostly subjected to abuse is within the family.

ABSOLUTELY!