So, I have been shooting the streets of Los angeles for a while now and today for the first time I had my first confrontation with two young men who didn't like the fact that I took a picture of them.
I purposefully made myself visible before shooting because I wanted to see some kind of reaction which actually happened by having both of them protruding their arms and hands toward me in some kind of defensive/offensive mode.
It was a great picture and I clicked the shutter.
The aftermath was that one of the fellas grasped my Nikon F by the lens and tried to yank it out of my hand unsuccessfully.
It was then that I raised my voice and I let him know that there would be consequences if he didn't release my dear camera.
So he asked me if I took a picture of him and I said "yes".
He flipped the phone and told me he was going to call the cops and that he was going to gloat seeing me in the police car.
I told him "go ahead, but this piece of paper is going to save us time to me and troubles to you since you have tried to yank my camera off my hands"
I handed him a copy of "the photogrpaher's rights guidelines that I always carry with me.
http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm
It was a thing of beauty. He closed the phone, read the first lines, dropped the paper on the pavement with anger and left with his calmer friend.
Moral of the story, I recommend you to make a couple of copies and leave them permanently in your camera bag because if you shoot outside one time or another it is bound to be useful.
Good luck to all of us and let's keep having fun in what we love to do.
