My youngest son plays under 9s soccer in the UK, I was going to take a few photographs of him playing. So I asked the coach if he had any objections, he said he hadn't but I had better clear it with all the coaching staff and all the parents of both teams. In the end I did not bother it was just too much hassel. Its been my first season as a junior soccer spectator I did not see any parents with a camera of any kind take a photograph at any of the 24 games I watched. Do you think that people are worried that they will be accussed of being a paedophile if they photograph children? Are you free to take photographs of children participating in team sports in your part of the world and would you feel comfortable as the photographer?
Political correctness run amok. I doubt any child pornographers get off on kids playing soccer, but it's an easy excuse for those who want to cover their asses. Having said that, I know some amateur sports organizations have rules about this sort of thing. You should be able to get the go-ahead from whoever is organizing the event. If you get that, I don't see why you would have to get the permission of every single person involved, assuming you are not taking photos for professional purposes. And as far as I know (in Canada) you don't need anyone's permission to take shots of your own kid.
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Quote:
True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country. - Vonnegut
It's getting increasingly more difficult to photograph on the street these days. I used to enjoy candid photography but to be honest I don't want someone tapping me on the shoulder asking me if I'm photographic kids so I have given it up. Ditto I am very careful when photographing at the seaside. Mind you, a Linhof monorail isn't quite what the well equipped pervert is using these days.
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[COLOR=Navy]Golf is not a game of perfect [/COLOR]
Adrian Twiss
I'm not a parent, and perhaps can't imagine their anxiety.
But aren't we spoiling our daily life?
From what I learned at Apug it seems over here still different than overseas. But I'm not that naive; when coming across a child who has hurt itself, I'm thinking whether to bother with it and be insulted or worse...
I would be glad, if I had an answer to it. But perhaps it is ourself. Perhaps it is ourself with that self-censoring in our minds which is worsening the situation.
As the mother of two boys, I take the camera to their sporting events and practices a lot, and, knock wood, no one has been bothered by my picture making. There's a soccer practice in my gallery, and more recently, I made some photographs during some swim lessons my kids had.
Granted, if I were a total stranger, it might give some parents pause, but I think if you have kids playing a sport... no one should say you can't photograph them.
<Granted, if I were a total stranger, it might give some parents pause,>
Or if you were male, perhaps.
Maybe, but a father should be able to photograph their own kids playing soccer. And, from time to time the local paper will send a photographer to a kids sporting event, and they are often male. No one really bats an eye if you have a reason to be there with a camera.
Maybe, but a father should be able to photograph their own kids playing soccer. And, from time to time the local paper will send a photographer to a kids sporting event, and they are often male. No one really bats an eye if you have a reason to be there with a camera.
suzanne,
as someone who used to photograph baseball games for "the league"
parents do bat an eye when there is a male with a camera,
and this was 15 years ago before d*** ... even more recently
when i worked for a weekly, and i was shooting with a D**,
at first they don't mind because they think they might
be "famous" ( ˇˇˇ HAHAHA !!!) but people always mind if they or their
kids are in some "man's camera" ... as a parent of 3 kids,
if i see a stranger taking their photographs, i approach them,
and at my kids' schools teachers, and parents have approached me ...
unfortunately, men always get scrutinized about this sort of thing more than
their female counterparts.
In our community the various neighborhood pools have a recreational swimming league during the summer months. I was the "official team photographer" with the assignment of creating a slide show (told you it was a long time ago) at the season ending team banquet. The age groups were 5 and under to 15-18 years old, both boys and girls. I had a great deal of fun doing this. With all the attention paid to child predators and other unsavory folk, I don't think they take pictures of the swim meets anymore. Too bad, lots of childhood memories lost to PC.
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"Omnia Lumen Decem Partes Divisa Est"
Stop by the newly designed website have fun with the photographic critique generator. 04/23/2008
No one really bats an eye if you have a reason to be there with a camera.
Yes, but those reasons have become very narrowly and strictly bounded and you'd better be prepared to wear them on your sleeve if you want to avoid being challenged.
I've been doing a mini project on photographing garage sales and have twice now been given permission to take shots so long as I don't get the kids of the house in-frame. Fine with me, but the one time in particular when a little girl was told to hide behind a tree, I was really struck by i how out of control things have gotten. It's become ridiculous.
Children at sports events 
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