Street photography and your safety

[rexload]

Is anyone into street photography?

How do you make sure you don't accidentally take a picture of the "wrong" person so you don't get killed?

Today I took a picture of a guy sitting at a table outside by a restaurant and he was rather angry and punched our car.

I am neither big nor a strong guy so when I fight I have to use weapons that could potentially get me locked up for a long time.. so I just let this one go even though it was hard to just drive away.

Any stories? Thoughts on this?

[Ralphie]

I don't have tons of experience with this but I have done some street photography in NYC.

If you want some good tips you should check out POTN and look up the NYC photogs and inquire because some of them get up in mofo's faces like it ain't shit.


From my small exp, I try not to appear to be taking pictures of them necessarily.

Basically there are three types.

A) A major zoom guy, someone with an L quality Zoom that doesn't need to be up in someones space.

B) The Bold fuck you im shooting what I want guys

C) The sneaky guys that can be within 10 feet and get the composition without even appearing to take a picture.


Some people shoot from their hip too.

If your going for a certain look this might not work obv....

but basically you open the aperture wide open and just hold it down and snap away and then fix it up in PP.


Lots of techniques....just got to find the one that works for you.


Usually, USUALLY, you can just be cool with people and they won't have a problem(after the fact obv) but the nature of the beast is that some people don't like it and will flip their shit when confronted with it.....either because they are very insecure or because they don't quite know how to react to that situation so they lash out.

I would NEVER flip my shit unless I KNEW I was dealing with a perv and kids(my own or close friends)

My picture I could care less what you do with lol.

[Tnwagn]

I took photos while in college for 4 years on a daily basis, plenty of "street" photography. The best method I found was to approach the person and ask if they would mind if you snapped a photo. Don't feel like you have to give a huge description of what you're shooting or why.

To those that tell you people will front for the camera, that's true. But honestly, most people don't give two shits about having their photo taken. You can still get great emotion from people you have talked to, even total strangers on the street.

[J-specCb4]

i do my share of street photography and i guess my best advice is to pick your battles... most people wont get mad but u will get better at reading people beforehand.

these videos have LOTS of street photography in them and are just all around awesome..

http://www.youtube.com/user/DigitalRevCom?feature=watch

[MikeW]

I get nervous just taking pictures of random cars in parking lots. People...Not so much. But then again, I've never done "busy" street photography. I like what chris said; pick your battles. Get better at reading people, too.

[keepinitclean]

I am going off topic.

STRENGTHEN YO PIMP HAND!

[Honda_Lady]

I have done a little street photography on a Gator football game day. i went with a group of photographers. I am part of a photography group and it was a meet to get together. I got plenty of pictures of people walking around on the street (as did the other people i was with) and no one got hassled for it but like was said above, you will run into people that don't like a random person taking their picture. One of the pictures i got, one of the guys walking towards me actually waved at me but my camera was too slow HAHA Also here is a helpful link about Photography and your rights under the law: Your Digital Camera and The Law and The Photographers Rights (the second one is a PDF file you can download and print out to keep in your camera bag or wallet)