Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/09/20
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]At 07:45 AM 9/20/99 +0200, Anthony Atkielski wrote: >In situations like this, it is often more productive to ask forgiveness >than to >ask permission. That is exactly right. Nobody has the right to tell you you can't take pictures in a public place, but they do anyway. Be better than them. Be polite, and if the picture isn't critical, say "Okay, no problem, it wasn't that important." If it IS important, then ignore them or say politely something like, "If you don't want to be in the picture, move, I'll wait." The worst thing to do is deliberately provoke them. And please don't say it's reportage smugly and act like you are entitled to photograph them no matter what. If it's news, fine. Just don't say anything and go on. We photojournalist already have enough problems being accused of being arrogant. And the fact that some are doesn't help. But people must take people's feelings into consideration and weigh their right to privacy against the reasons they are taking the picture. I had to cover an accident several weeks ago where a boy was riding his bike down a steep hill with another kid on his handle bars. He ran a stop sign at the bottom of the hill and ran smack dab into the fender of a pickup. He looked pretty much like he was going to die. No response from him, his hand was limp when the paramedic raised and dropped it. As I was taking pictures of the paramedics working on him, his mother stepped in front of me and said "I don't want a picture of him in the paper." She was obviously in distress, and not thinking clearly for any reason. I don't blame her for that. So I don't get all hot to trot and say "Just get out of my way, I'm doing my job." I dropped my camera and said, "I'm sorry ma'am. I'm just doing my job." I indicated that if he wasn't all right in the end, we wouldn't run the photo anyway, though in the heat of the moment I could have worded it better. She tried to stay in my way, so I put my cameras down and went over to the other side. She didn't follow. I got some more pictures, but the best ones were before she confronted me. So no big deal. I didn't need to harass her to prove I could. But we didn't run the photo anyway - he didn't die. I found a better photo. The driver was staying around to talk to the police after things calmed down. He was sitting in the grass in front of his truck. I got a picture of him with his head in his hands next to his dented pickup, obviously in distress because of the accident. You could not see his face, or identify him, unless you knew him or his pickup. The picture became a more universal warning to look out for kids on bikes, and for kids on bikes to remember they will meet with disaster if they don't watch what they're doing. That no matter what, all parties are hurt by carelessness. (Oh, by the way, the kid riding on his handlebars was unhurt. I guess he dove off before they crashed). Eric Welch St. Joseph, MO http://www.ponyexpress.net/~ewelch Today's subliminal thought is...