So I walked outside this afternoon to find a lovely blue sky filled with puffy cumulus clouds. Nice cool breeze, temperature in the 70s, my car just happens to be loaded up with all my large format camera gear. So I decide to pull off on a country road and take some snappies of the pretty landscape. Nothing's better than a nice leisurely setup on a deserted road. So I got one shot of a field and sky, then took some inexplicable shot of chairs in the middle of the road which I had in my car, and then I moved my tripod to the other side of the road to take another simple landscape scene.
Whilst under the darkcloth I hear a motor and something pull up next to me. A man in a golf cart is there. Here's the conversation that followed to the best of my recollection:
"Howdy!" I say
"Is everything OK?" he says
"Yeah, I'm just taking some pictures."
"Of what?"
"Oh, just some landscapes."
"Landscapes?"
"Yeah, like you know the sky, the field and whatnot. I'm a photographer."
"So what are you gonna do with it?"
"I dunno, it's just for fun, it's my hobby. I'll probably put them on Flickr or something"
"So you could sell them?"
"Maybe, but it's unlikely that I'd sell any."
"Well, you can't do that, that's illegal! You can't just go and take pictures of people's land!"
"It's not at all illegal, I'm on public property."
"Well my daughter is a police officer, I'll just have to see about that!"
"I'm not doing anything illegal, I'm on a public street photographing a field. Is that your property? (points towards corn field)"
"Yes"
"And do you have a problem with me taking a picture of it?"
"Yes I do."
"Okay fine, then I'll leave."
He turned his golf cart around and left. I wanted to take two more shots, but I just packed up my gear and left. It really pissed me off that people have gotta be jerks for no good reason. The vibe I got from this guy was that somehow my picture of his cornfield was going to make me rich and somehow he was going to be "screwed". Perhaps my "professional" equipment spooked him and he thought I was some big shot or something.
The funny thing is that years before I had less trouble from a POLICE OFFICER for doing the exact same thing on the side of the road. I was shooting a picture of a tree in a field and a squad car pulled up next to me. The cop asked if everything was OK and I said, "Yep, just taking some pictures." He said, "All right then!" and drove off. It was all of about 15 seconds of interaction.
What I can't convey in the cornfield story is the strong hostile vibe and body language\tone of voice I was getting from this man. He
hated the idea of me being there, he thought I was exploiting him somehow. But who can say for sure? Maybe he's normally a kindly old man and harassing a photographer is just a nice way to spice up an otherwise lazy Sunday afternoon.
Of course I now intend to publish the
holy living hell out of this photograph, make eighty bazillion prints and become richer than Bill Gates! MUWHAHAHA!!! Take THAT, golf cart man!
3. PRIVATE PROPERTY. Photographers may not take photographs
from private property without permission, but under most
circumstances can photograph private property plainly visible from
public property, such as a street or sidewalk, or from other private
property with permission. It is not proper to use cameras to peer
into places where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy,
no matter where the cameras are based. It is permissible, albeit not
always advisable, to photograph people in their cars.
http://www.wisfoic.org/Photog_Bill_of_Rights.pdf
