camera.bear
Well-known
Take a deep breath and get comfortable, this is a little long.....
Today I drove a friend to Walmart so that he could pick up his insuline perscription. I was sitting in my car waiting for him to finish. I was in parked in a handicaped space near the entrance. I decided to play with the 590 IS that rides in my CompuDaypack. I flipped it over to b/w and started to shoot away. Having worked for a magazine, I do not take pictures of people without asking first. So NO pics of the people in the parking lot. I was snapping away at fenders and lampposts and the inside of my car and myself. The next thing I know I am being confronted by the store security and they are telling me that I can't take pictures. Well, I got a bit put off because I wasn't hurting anyone. Then here comes the store manager telling me that their policy is that no one is allowed to take pictures on store premises as it is private property. I hadn't thought of it that way as it is public access, but he was correct. I apologized and while I was putting the camera away, he informed me that there had been complaints about what I was doing and that I would have to leave or they would call the police. I advised him that I would leave once my party returned to the car.
Thinking that the incident was over, I continued to wait for my friend, but now I had two security guards watching me. One was talking to a woman who pointed my way every now and then. I waited and they waited and it was sort of like a Mexican standoff. My friend came back to the car and we drove off into the sunset, literally, as this happened a little after 6pm.
What strikes me most about the incident is not what happened, but what percipitated it. It seems that some people are paranoid about cameras, whether they are pointed at them or not. And it is not like I was hiding what I was doing or that they where in a place where there would be an expectation of privacy. Or maybe it is that they are ashamed of shopping at Walmart and don't want their friends to know. Who can tell?
This incident has left me unsettled. As a photographer, I feel that I was impinged upon; however, I respected the stores policies once I was informed of them. I also respect the rights of other individuals as I took no pictures with people in them. I think the thing that bothered me the most was having someone think that I was doing something wrong or something that would hurt them. It also bothers me how readily a person with a camera can be singled out and threatened with punitive action for duing nothing more than taking a picture in public.
Today I drove a friend to Walmart so that he could pick up his insuline perscription. I was sitting in my car waiting for him to finish. I was in parked in a handicaped space near the entrance. I decided to play with the 590 IS that rides in my CompuDaypack. I flipped it over to b/w and started to shoot away. Having worked for a magazine, I do not take pictures of people without asking first. So NO pics of the people in the parking lot. I was snapping away at fenders and lampposts and the inside of my car and myself. The next thing I know I am being confronted by the store security and they are telling me that I can't take pictures. Well, I got a bit put off because I wasn't hurting anyone. Then here comes the store manager telling me that their policy is that no one is allowed to take pictures on store premises as it is private property. I hadn't thought of it that way as it is public access, but he was correct. I apologized and while I was putting the camera away, he informed me that there had been complaints about what I was doing and that I would have to leave or they would call the police. I advised him that I would leave once my party returned to the car.
Thinking that the incident was over, I continued to wait for my friend, but now I had two security guards watching me. One was talking to a woman who pointed my way every now and then. I waited and they waited and it was sort of like a Mexican standoff. My friend came back to the car and we drove off into the sunset, literally, as this happened a little after 6pm.
What strikes me most about the incident is not what happened, but what percipitated it. It seems that some people are paranoid about cameras, whether they are pointed at them or not. And it is not like I was hiding what I was doing or that they where in a place where there would be an expectation of privacy. Or maybe it is that they are ashamed of shopping at Walmart and don't want their friends to know. Who can tell?
This incident has left me unsettled. As a photographer, I feel that I was impinged upon; however, I respected the stores policies once I was informed of them. I also respect the rights of other individuals as I took no pictures with people in them. I think the thing that bothered me the most was having someone think that I was doing something wrong or something that would hurt them. It also bothers me how readily a person with a camera can be singled out and threatened with punitive action for duing nothing more than taking a picture in public.
