Photos of Children

The best thing to do is to know the security attitudes in the area where you might photograph children. Take note though, it is MUCH easier if you are a couple with a child, (not always possible), or a single parent with your child. Parents with a child or children will always have some kind of camera.
And as long as you are stalking their kids, you should be OK.

And if you like dressing like a Thug, change you "Appearance", nice knit or T with descent looking jeans at least, maybe a team ball cap. LOOK SAFE in other words.

Even in the USA, there are many attitudes about this, and each area in each town has it's own attitude (law or no law). Get to know the areas you like to visit, and pay attention to the parents who see others with cameras and no kids, and how they welcome or shun them.
 
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Sad to say, I generally avoid taking photos of children these days when out shooting street. But if I do get a good shot of a child I wouldn't hesitate to post it.
 
Sadly this sort of draconian measure finds fertile ground in the UK.
Photography ,other than the how drunk was I ...picture of your favorite aunt sort, is still considered a rather effete dillettante pastime.
I sometimes think that nothing has changed much since the mass observation project where photographers were required to conceal their cameras.
Comments like "wants that `round your neck you look a right.... " , "you must be short of something to do " or "street photography ...you some kind of perv" are all to common.
In mitigation I must add that I do reside in the north of the country ,can`t speak for the south :)
 
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Yes, this is depressing.

I have published candid photos of children on Flickr and on my web site. But I live where the laws are different than the UK. I also have insurance to defend against frivolous law suits.

Only you can decide what you are willing to risk to exercise right of expression as an artistic.
 
I don't post pictures of my own children, I wouldn't dream of posting pictures of other people's children. Only, and only if they are background fill, unidentifiable.
 
Political correctness has gone to excess where I live..California. I would never post them. I don't need the grief. Here in California we have become a land of artificial people, where everyone is afraid to be themselves and say what they think. We call it progressive.
 

Took a few Children shots as of late...No Problems yet but I can 'feel' the Gaze of Parents /guardians giving me a once over ...;)
 
I think the US has its share of overreaction even if it hasn't made its way into law (yet). All this talk reminds me of an experience I had last spring. I had just started shooting film again and doing my own development. I got in the habit of wandering the neighborhood some evenings with my M2 and a fast lens, and just shooting little suburban still lifes.

One fine evening I was doing this, and took quick shot of the corner of a house with a nearby fence and arbor that was lit, just so. Admittedly I walked about four steps up the driveway, but then quickly composed and took the shot and moved on.

I walked another block and became aware of a van slowly following me. Within a few seconds, it pulled up and stopped. It was full of women, and we had an exchange something like this:

Them: "What were you doing back there?".
Me: "Where?"
Them: "Back at that house on the corner."
Me: "Oh, taking a photo". "Why?"
Them: "A photo of what?"
Me: "The light on the fence, etc..."
Them: "Why are you taking photos like that?"
Me: "Because I'm a photographer. That's what we do."
Them: "Well, that's my friend's house, and behind that fence is a hot tub ... and ... there could be children".
Me: "What?!? I took a picture of a fence. I have no idea what's behind it."
Them: "Isn't it sort of dark to take photos?"
Me: "Not if you have a good camera."

yadda yadda yadda

Eventually, I calmed them by telling them where I live and that I'm married to someone from the neighborhood and gave them my wife's name. One of them recognized it, and they all finally laughed and pulled away.

Pure emotion. I'm afraid that's the way things are going...
 
DNG said:
change you "Appearance", nice knit or T with descent looking jeans at least, maybe a team ball cap. LOOK SAFE in other words.
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Looking shady wearing 'normal' plain clothes to make you fit in and a baseball cap over your eyes! NOT SAFE AT ALL! :D

I recently bought the book "Shojo-tachi no Okinawa" by Shinoyama Kishin. The book is brilliant in every way. I also think the book holds a special meaning because this was made in 1997, I just cannot imagine any similar body of work being done over the next many decades, if not ever again (in the western world at least).

The editor of B&W said it last year I think "people are not taking pictures of children anymore. Entire generations have been lost"
 
if I see a picture I like I just shoot it. Here's one shot with a 24mm lens so I was right on top of the subjects with a mom standing right next to me (her shadow appears in the right corner). No one said a word to me or gave me any funny looks.

5626751320_1f0ee680ab_o.jpg
 
I am not sure whether the climate of fear relating to paedophilia in the UK is really the government's fault, but perhaps more to do with hysterical newspapers like the Daily Mail, and conservative middle England. There are however many other freedom-related disgraces to be laid at the feet of government.

I stood and watched as an unknown stranger, elderly man, pretty much machine gunned photos of my daughter playing over a half hour period. I was offended not to have had some sort of eye contact for approval, but ultimately not bothered about the photos themselves. I'm only really concerned if the photo is then combined with something that can identify my kids. I'm probably more concerned about the use of photos for bullying than for paedophilia.

Anyway, in Larky's position, I guess I wouldn't post the images, but not for moral reasons particularly, just because I assume the majority of parents in this country would be up in arms. Perhaps that's a bad reason...
 
DNG said:
And if you like dressing like a Thug, change you "Appearance", nice knit or T with descent looking jeans at least, maybe a team ball cap. LOOK SAFE in other words.
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Yeah changing your appearance for the purpose of photographing children now thats not creepy at all :p
 
wray said:
... Here's one shot with a 24mm lens so I was right on top of the subjects with a mom standing right next to me (her shadow appears in the right corner). ...
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That shadow actually looks like the Alfred Hitchcock silhouette from the classic 1950s TV show.

Note: the pictures posted by you, Helen and Matthew are different than the one described by the OP.
 
jky said:
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Some will look at the photo & see children playing, enjoying their youth & others will see "tween-aged girls with their shirts off" (this isn't directed @ you btw, but rather a generalization).

Aren't we feeding into the paranoia when we refrain from posting these innocent moments of everyday life?

What's next? ...can't post photos of people wearing sandals because it'll be used by folks with severe foot fetishes...? :eek:
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No we are not feeding into paranoia. Fear of pedophiles has been around for a long time. We executed the guy who kidnapped, raped, tortured and killed Christie Fornoff in 1984, last week here in Arizona. That kind of stuff is what feeds the paranoia.

What we are doing is allowing kids to enjoy the innocent moments of their childhood when we refrain from photographing them surreptitiously and posting the photos on a popular, picture sharing website. What do the parents feel when they find those pictures on a grown man's site that they do not know? What do real pedophiles "use" the same pictures for?

Unless you are making an artistic statement, or doing a news story or have some other compelling reason to take - and make public - the pictures, then why not just let the kids enjoy their play and leave them alone?
 
Not the government? Who enacts the laws?

In the end...it is you and I who allow such harshness when it comes to laws that restrict photography. It is disturbing to me that this discussion even exists.:(
 
For the sake of clarity there is no law in the UK that ristricts who or what one may photograph in public. The police have no power to restrict photography, review ones photos or seize film and equipment unless they have a court order.

This is a photo of my daughter from years back, if anyone finds it offensive they should probably seek professional help ...

 
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