Taking photos of strangers

[shootingstar]

http://www.thestar.com/travel/article/636379

During your travels anywhere, do you occasionally chose to take photos of a stranger, just because they looked interesting to you, etc.?

I tend to take photos where stranger(s) are part of an event, a whole picture composition (to give it a human dimension/comparison against a natural or man-made landscape) or the 'stranger' is clearly a performer or worker (ie. in a shop) doing something.

Have not yet asked any stranger because they looked 'interesting' to pose for a photo shot.

Maybe I just have a different focus around me in my travels and want to remember trips differently. 'Course maybe I haven't travelled broadly enough and haven't seen "exotic" enough looking people?

[Kalidurga]

Check out the 100 Strangers project. I've been lazy and only shot 2 strangers so far, but that would be a great excuse to take stranger photos when traveling.

[Zen]

Sometimes I shoot from the hip.
I took this photo without aiming

After, he said "did you just take my picture?"
I played stupid and said "I'm not sure" like I didn't know how to work the camera.
He continued on his way, probably cursing tourists.

He was just too interesting to let get away.

[Zen]

Oh my! How could I forget this one?

Although I didn't ask permission, they knew I was taking their photograph.

[sfa]

My niece was recently the subject of unwanted photos taken by strangers, and lots of them. She's four, and blonde and adorable, and busloads of tourists started making her the focus of their photos while she was in transit between Tromso and Oslo. They thought that she looked like a typical Norwegian girl, and there she was in Bergen looking all local colorish, so they gathered around taking her picture, and when she retreated to her pile of luggage with her blanket to try to get a break, they thought this was even cuter and really closed in. My sister tried to protect her as best she could, but there's only so much you can do when you're faced with the tourist paparazzi. Not one person thought to ask if it was o.k. to take her picture, and they didn't speak any of the same languages that my sister speaks, so getting them to back off was next to impossible.

The joke of all of this, of course, is that my niece doesn't have a drop of Norwegian blood in her. She was born and raised in Virginia and is of Scotch-Irish ancestry, so these tourists are all going to go home with bunches of pictures of an American tourist.

At any rate, from the way my sister described it, it was invasive for the whole family and scary for my niece.

Sarah

[PamNY]

Zen, you got a live action shot of a hipster! I'll bet he has a fixie at home.

Pam

[Zen]

In my mind he's an Amish hipster

Taking photos of a child who is not yours without permission is just wrong verging on creepy.