Is a camera a nuisance?

[eldarhau]

In my experience it used to be worse in the good old, pre digital, film days, where the only option for indoors photography was with a flash. My old Canon NewF1, especially with the winder (before I could afford the motor drive), sounded like somewhere between a gun shot and a car refusing to start and the large Metz flash went off like an explosion. Not easy to be anonymous then.

Today everyone is taking pictures with their smart phones, with simulated SLR shutter noise and very often also a flash. If the photographer behave polite and avoid the chair standing and other scene dominating activities, I seldom sense any negative waves. But there are times when you just don´t push the shutter and definitely not fire off a flash, unless you have prior approval from the people you photograph. This includes events like the "I do" in weddings, the baptism ceremony, music events (e.g. solo piano) etc. The improved high ISO performance on the newer SLRs helps a lot and I also find the silent mode on the 5DIII very helpful.

Personally I find spontaneous street photography of strangers in certain situations to be difficult. Like a homeless I photographed in New York, going through a trash bin, where I felt I took advantage of his vulnerability and was trespassing on his privacy. He did not react, but I still felt uncomfortable doing it. And I suspect that quite a few of you would share that feeling. But it is probably more in our heads than anything else.

Where ever I go with my camera and there are people involved, I try to be as invisible and anonymous as possible, work on my positioning, be alert and get the right shot when it´s there.

[Dr Croubie]

Reminds me of when I was living in The Hague, there was a "writer's week" or something, and my missus being a writer wanted to go to some things. There was a live radio-broadcast happening from the back room of a restaurant so we went to that. Right up the back, 10m or so from the presenters.
And, as my missus is doing a PhD in writing, she started taking notes on the people and situation and all that. But she didn't have a pen and paper, so she was taking notes using her phone. Not one of those idiots who leaves the 'beep' on when you press a keypad, otherwise silent. But this lady next to her got annoyed, *from the sound of the tactile keys being pressed*. OK, it wasn't a fancy touchscreen, it was a cheap nokia, but it wasn't making that much noise. This lady proceeded to swear and tell her off in dutch (which i could understand but my missus had no idea at the time), all in a lot louder voice than the keys were making, I even noticed an annoyed look from the radio-presenters up the front of the room (at the lady, not us).
Sometimes you just can't win with anybody.

I've never had a problem with photography though, either at gigs or restaurants, from me or others taking photos. It's more the results of those photos, like people posting endless shots on their FB of what they had for dinner last night. I can understand if you made it yourself and you're rather proud of it (hell, i've even done that), but just a bowl of faceless noodles is pointless.

Actually, the only problem i've ever had with my camera was last weekend, I got a photo of a 4wd parked across 2 parking spaces, as they tend to do around here because 4wd owners just don't know how to drive. I had my eos 3 and 40mm in the car, so i got a shot of it. I put it back in my car, then went off shopping. Got 5m down the road and some guy started yelling at me "did you get a good shot of my car?". He had two young boys and was carrying a case of wine, so I just yelled back "no, my car" and made a slightly quick getaway. Don't know why I should feel guilty, he was the dick who was illegally and shoddily parked. Normally I'd just develop the film and scan it and be done with it, but because he was so rude I might just post a copy to the cops for fun...

[Steve U]

While I have taken the 5D to restaurants, I now prefer to take the Sony with me as the image quality is acceptable and it is less imposing.

It's funny that you can tend to raise peoples eyebrows if you shoot with something other than a phone.

In the long run, I have more often regretted not having enough kit with me(eg.speedlight, reflector) than having too much. I tend to have a Pelican case stashed in the car, with flash and tripod, all the time and the Sony in the wife's handbag.

A rule of thumb for me is; quiet dinner in a restaurant, at least have my phone for a snap. A group of 4 or more in the restaurant have the Sony, any more than that, have access to the DSLR.

And as a sidebar to this topic, 2 years ago when we were having our catstrophic floods and people were dying and thousands were forced out of their homes, the media, the police, the councils all were telling us to stay away from troubled areas. They didn't want rubberenckers coming and clogging access points and especially told would be pro and amateur photogs to stay away. So I did.

12 months later they(Council) had a large public exhibition and called for members of the public to submit their images from the floods, even run a competition for the best images, showing devestation and heartache. This peed me off a lot.

So now I say, to heck with the annoying glances, I'm going to try and get the shot if I want to, but stay safe and not endanger myself or others. And like in my work, I'll have the best tool for the job with me.

[Busted Knuckles]

My question is more like - I am out with friends celebrating, etc, etc and I take out a camera and happen to take pic of the food? Or some particularly tasty dish at the celebration....

Drawing the line is going to be difficult and easily crossed - I prefer no lines

[Steve U]

Tasty dish...))

[Dr Croubie]

If i try to take a picture of a tasty dish at a celebration then my missus gets all jealous...

[Dr Croubie]

Meanwhile, here is a response to the original article...