a nice morning ruined

[bumper]

I decided to take the new camera out today on my morning ride. The other week I'd noted the location of a derelict house that I wanted to take a shot of, so off I headed this morning before sunrise.

The house is in the countryside on a dead end road. As I was setting the camera up on the tripod a van pulled in front of me ( the road is singletrack), I was standing on the grass verge with my bike dumped in the hedges. Down came the window, in a rather aggressive tone
"What are you playing at"
Points at camera, "what does it look like?"
"pack your stuff up and get off"
"No"
"you are"
"I'm on a public highway, you can't move me on, you can't stop me from taking a photo of anything here"
"I'm calling the police"
"fine, I'll wait for them to arrive"
"this isn't a road, it's a footpath"
"it's a road, the footpath starts after the gate, check on an OS map"
"if its afootpath, why are you in a van?"

this went back and forth, then he got nasty and got out of the van. I dropped my stuff and kicked my shoes off, ready for a rumble. when he walked around the van he headed for my tripod and bike so I stood right in his face and told him don't think of touching anything. I think he saw the veins popping out of my head and he backed down, I then shadowed him to his van door because I didn't trust the twat.

Out came the phone again, "I'm calling the police", me "call them or fuck off"

I pretended to photograph his number plate of his shitter van. "if you dont fuck off and stop harassing me, I'll call the police"

He then took a photo of me and drove off. Hope his photo turns out well, I'm waving at him and smiling.

Thanks for ruining my morning you fucking country bumpkin, inbred cunt.

[rogerzilla]

SOP among some traveller types.  Camera == paedo or cop, obviously.  I was harangued at Avebury years ago by a traveller woman who accused me of trying to photograph her "arse" although the back of a tugboat would have been more photogenic.

[bumper]

  should've told her they don't do a lens that wide

I've calmed down a wee bit since the weekend but it did piss me off. I never get bothered when in a town or city and certainly never get a second look with an iphone. A nice rural setting and it all kicked off.

We shouldn't expect joe public to know the laws on where you can and cant take photos, especially when some of the police aren't any wiser.

I would have been more polite if he hadn't been so aggressive with his opening line. One of the last confrontations I had was also a farmer because I took a photo of him in his tractor. I was on a public highway, he was in a field. It ended in a nice way and I emailed him the photo. I would have done the same to mr. shouty if hadn't been an arsehole.

[Charlotte]

Cameras *are* threatening to most people, though.  It's commonplace to see something that isn't a phone or small point-and-shoot being used and to assume malicious intent.  Much of this is to do with terroristypaedogeddon but I still think that a lot of photographers could handle situations better.

On the occasions I've been challenged about what I'm doing, I tend to become massively polite and hugely cheerful.  Lots of smiles, lots of good body language and lots of respect for the person who I'm talking to - even if they are behaving like a tosser right from the word go.  I find that this sort of behaviour tends to put people off their guard a lot more quickly and establishing a genuinely friendly rapport with someone makes it harder for them to get arsey with me.

'Course, this doesn't always pay off, but then if you have to change tactic, at least they're unprepared when you get medieval on their ass with a couple of kilos of Gitzo...

[Kim]

IME the trick to being completely ignored while taking photographs with a posh camera in a public place is to be photographing something that looks exactly like a surface-to-air missile.  Disappointingly, the effect continues even if a member of the structures team digs out a laptop, taps away at some cryptic looking software for a bit, mutters something about the flight sequencer glitching and then you all start backing away nervously.

(Admittedly this was pre-9/11, and nobody had thought to bring a digital clock.)