Seldom, like every couple of years or so, though rather than confront me they tend to call the cops. Since I'm always working on public property (never trespassing) the cops ask a couple questions and then I continue with my first amendment-protected activities.
People themselves are touchier and require greater delicacy. At the recent "Tax Day Tea Party" (see April 15 supplemental post)two different people (perhaps sensing I was not there exactly as a fellow traveler) demanded to know why I was taking pictures or who I represented. In each case I answered that I was shooting for myself, as a citizen of the United States: they looked dumbfounded.
It's interesting that people are more suspicious when I'm wandering around with a hand camera than when I work with a big view camera on a tripod, as in this set (http://www.carlweese.com/fp1.html). If you act nervous or hesitant or, worst of all, like you are "sneaking around," people seem to pick up on it right away, while if you just act like taking pictures is the most natural thing in the world and you can't imagine *not* doing what you're doing, you tend to be accepted. Working with an 8x10 view camera on a tripod actually seems to help with this.
Torrington, Connecticut
2 comments:
Just curious, and I may have asked this before, has anyone ever challenged you about shooting pictures of their property?
Seldom, like every couple of years or so, though rather than confront me they tend to call the cops. Since I'm always working on public property (never trespassing) the cops ask a couple questions and then I continue with my first amendment-protected activities.
People themselves are touchier and require greater delicacy. At the recent "Tax Day Tea Party" (see April 15 supplemental post)two different people (perhaps sensing I was not there exactly as a fellow traveler) demanded to know why I was taking pictures or who I represented. In each case I answered that I was shooting for myself, as a citizen of the United States: they looked dumbfounded.
It's interesting that people are more suspicious when I'm wandering around with a hand camera than when I work with a big view camera on a tripod, as in this set (http://www.carlweese.com/fp1.html). If you act nervous or hesitant or, worst of all, like you are "sneaking around," people seem to pick up on it right away, while if you just act like taking pictures is the most natural thing in the world and you can't imagine *not* doing what you're doing, you tend to be accepted. Working with an 8x10 view camera on a tripod actually seems to help with this.
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