I have a camera in my hands. I should be able to step around the velvet rope, poke my head into private property --- just gettin a better snap. Ooops. Now I've been asked to follow the rules. It feels like I'm being punished; yelled at, when all I did was... break the rules. But for photography. Yeah. Well, because I'm special...
And the ground swell that follows in the conversation: Me too! I've been violated, emotionally, just for trying to get a better photo! Oh yeah? Well, I have every right to push my camera inches from a stranger's face, you know, to get a better photograph, but they yelled at me!!! Don't they know who I am?
Ah...the generation raised with more privilege than any other generation in history gets their nose out of joint when... they violate the social contract. When they trespass. When they demand special privileges. Because....photographer!!!
Just because you can physically do something doesn't mean you should. Nor does it always mean you have the right to. And does the comfort and perceived security of a subject fall short in value compared to the whims of an amateur photographer's demand for access? Not thinking that to be the case...
We used to live in a free society. We're quickly becoming residents of a police state. Any wonder normal people are getting less comfortable being photographed just so someone can get "likes" on IG?
Stings a bit but I'm as guilty as the next pompous, entitled photographer waving a copy of the law around in my hands while I make a binary decision about someone else's privacy. Or someone else's expectation of privacy as it applies to their own private property. Sometimes that horse gets so high I'm actually afraid of falling off.
Life doesn't need to be "us versus them" on every encounter we have with our cameras and the rest of the world. Common courtesy would be nice --- if we could just get the people with grand senses of entitlement to believe the need for common courtesy applies to them as well. Just sayin'
I guess courtesy is not so common after all...
Progress on the shoulder: Better every hour. Two weeks should fly by.
To keep myself from being bored I thought I'd drive my car through the fence at the airport and tryout my new lens by standing at the end of the runway photographing airplanes as they land.
I know there is a sign that says, "No Trespassing" but I'm sure that message is
meant for people who aren't as important as I am. Right?
I mean, I pay taxes, I must be entitled.
And in case you didn't get it, that last bit about the airplanes was supposed to be
pure sarcasm.
Here's my less than informed view of the theft of access to visual space. Years ago in a silly moment, I placed some photos on some micro-stock sites. They were real picky about trademarked images like the Ford emblem on a parked car or a trademarked logo on a building in a cityscape. What irked me was that a company had taken a little bit away from me by putting their logo at the top of the building but they had never compensated me for that. I get it that they don't want their logo reproduced without permission, but it seemed to me that they should pay something to the rest of us for that privilege. Am I out to lunch on this?
ReplyDeleteIf the logo is on their private property.....I don't think you are having lunch at home...
DeleteI initially skipped that particular blog post you referenced, but went back a day later (this morning) because curiosity got the better of me. Reading it and the comments that were up as of that time, my reaction was similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteIf a photographer is resorting to pulling out some sort of "photographers' rights" nonsense to stick in people's faces because they object to being photographed without permission, imho that photographer has already lost the argument, at least the moral argument, and should just shut up and go away... Anyways, that's my two cents' worth, for what little it is worth.
In any case, good to read that you're feeling better and recovering from surgery!
Ken
Everybody is being photographed all the time these days. If not by the cellphone snappers, then by the ubiquitous security, traffic monitoring, and doorbell cams. The shooter with a “real” camera may be particularly noticeable, but we’re the metaphorical tip of the proverbial iceberg. My policy is “when in doubt, ask.” Offhand, I can’t recall ever being turned down. Alternative strategy, useful in the presence of guys twice my size with ominous tattoos: put on the lens cap and take the picture with my phone.
ReplyDelete