Dealing with your own ethical mistakes.

[seall]

Made for the job, just add batteries!

http://www.movingsoundtech.com/mosquito-faq

 

[logan2z]

Perhaps my choice of equipment is the reason I have never had a problem photographing in a playground...Contax or Leica rf with 50 mm lens. No long lens or gigantic zoom. .

Doesn't seem to work for me when I shoot on the street. I use a Leica RF with either a 35mm or 50mm lens and it seems like every time I raise it to my eye someone notices. Maybe the fact that I'm 6'4" tall has something to do with it...

 

[removed account4]

Maybe in your country, it would. But seriously, I would only photograph playgrounds when no one was there.

+1
words of wisdom !

 

[MattKing]

But seriously, I would only photograph playgrounds when no one was there.

I've photographed around playgrounds from time to time with people around, but not with children around.
I've usually had a bigger camera, I've used a tripod, and I've carried a camera bag that looks like there may be extra equipment in it.
It has also usually been at a time of day and/or a time of year when it isn't surprising that there are no children around.

 

[guangong]

Doesn't seem to work for me when I shoot on the street. I use a Leica RF with either a 35mm or 50mm lens and it seems like every time I raise it to my eye someone notices. Maybe the fact that I'm 6'4" tall has something to do with it...

I don't believe the inch and a half difference in our height makes any difference, though I do believe that short people do have the advantage in being inconspicuous. With a 35mm or 28mm you can develop the ability to shoot without looking through viewfinder. I've taken many pics in confined situations by pretending to be fussing with my quiet rf camera. Try it!

 

[guangong]

A playground without children is a dreary place indeed. Sadder than an abandoned ceremony.​

 

[BrianShaw]

A playground without children is a dreary place indeed. Sadder than an abandoned ceremony.​

Cemetery?

But you could have meant exact what you wrote. I once went to a wedding where the groom didn't show up... In the very last minutes he decided he wasn’t in love enough for a whole lifetime. It was very sad.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

If you need to photograph equipment on playground, it is usually kind of assignments. With some proof and release forms.
If it is your own need, came early. Parks are usually open well before kids and parents are coming.
Time has changed, unfortunately, so parents and law enforcement people have valid point.

 

[beemermark]

I avoid photographing children when out with my camera because the world has gone paedophile mad.

Unfortunately it's been this way in the US for quite some time, even before digital. You want to careful to not even appear to be photographing children.

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

Unfortunately it's been this way in the US for quite some time, even before digital. You want to careful to not even appear to be photographing children.

Scare tactics by the media.
here's this screenshot I took from a TED talk a while ago- outlining parents fears for their children vs. the actual biggest dangers to them (though I'm not saying the fears are completely unfounded)

 

[guangong]

Cemetery?

But you could have meant exact what you wrote. I once went to a wedding where the groom didn't show up... In the very last minutes he decided he wasn’t in love enough for a whole lifetime. It was very sad.

Again, the iPad spell corrector screwing up...did mean cemetery. On the other hand, a lot of despair could be avoided if some folks gave some thought before walking down the aisle.i was lucky, 50'years with a smart, pretty and kind woman. Smartest thing I ever did.

 

[CMoore]

I was walking my dog and burning up some film in a P&S my Sis In-Law gave me.
I took a picture of another dog that we walked passed and the lady wanted to know..... "Why did you take a picture of my dog.?"
(So i can frame him for a liquor store robbery i committed)......... just using up some old film, i told her

 

[Vaughn]

Photographers have been tossed into fountains for photographing people in public since it was possible to do so. It's hard to fight tradition when fighting is involved..

 

[Vaughn]

We are an island in the storm...very smokey, but safe -- our coastal area has become an area of refuge for the county.

 

[Louis Nargi]

WE have lost many freedoms as photographers. In the 1980s Could spend hours in the railroad yard in the city I lived in and nobody ask what we were doing now there all with home land security and everything is on camera. A few months ago I was at a chemical plant to buy some sodium thiosulfate when leaving I saw a picture to photograph in a minute I had security around me asking me all kind of questions. 2 weals later I had the FBI at my door asking me more questions.

 

[CMoore]

WE have lost many freedoms as photographers. In the 1980s Could spend hours in the railroad yard in the city I lived in and nobody ask what we were doing now there all with home land security and everything is on camera. A few months ago I was at a chemical plant to buy some sodium thiosulfate when leaving I saw a picture to photograph in a minute I had security around me asking me all kind of questions. 2 weals later I had the FBI at my door asking me more questions.

You had TWO FBI Agents come to your house, unannounced.
What did they ask you.?

 

[TheGreatGasMaskMan]

WE have lost many freedoms as photographers. In the 1980s Could spend hours in the railroad yard in the city I lived in and nobody ask what we were doing now there all with home land security and everything is on camera. A few months ago I was at a chemical plant to buy some sodium thiosulfate when leaving I saw a picture to photograph in a minute I had security around me asking me all kind of questions. 2 weals later I had the FBI at my door asking me more questions.

I got too close to a major power plant this past winter, and was only kindly asked to leave.

 

[Vaughn]

A fellow I knew took a street photo in Oakland and ended up in jail. He had a weak, but strong enough connection with the mayor that he just lost his film and was released. The innocent image of a police officer talking with another gentleman was actually a pimp paying off the cop. I am not sure of the year, probably very early 50s. Care has always been needed. Photographing during WWII must have been interesting, too...forget coastal images and industrial images!

 

[BrianShaw]

Gee... Three crimes by Oakland PD in one incident. I sure hope they got their corruption under control!

 

[Kodachromeguy]

Care has always been needed. Photographing during WWII must have been interesting, too...forget coastal images and industrial images!

This security theatre crap has always gone on. My dad was a hydraulic engineer (and worked for the US Gov.). He told me he once went to a dam and powerhouse in WWII. He tried to take a picture and a guard said no. Then in the visitor center, he saw postcards for sale of exactly the same scene.

 

[GRHazelton]

Bert Krages, an attorney and photographer in Portland Oregon has a useful guide to our rights as photographers - http://www.krages.com/phoright.htm I keep a copy of his Rights in each of my camera bags. So far I've had no need to refer to them in the field, but.....
I remember visiting Lennox Mall in the Atlanta area with my Wife, Flora, her Daughter Gynnis, and Granddaughter Sofia, then perhaps three. We and other parents and kids were enjoying a kids' play area. Other parents were shooting with cell phones, I was using my Pentax K 10 with battery grip - a big, black, obviously "Pro" camera. A mall security minion wheels up on a SegWay and informs me that photography is NOT allowed. She said nothing to the other shooters I didn't push the issue.
The folks at the Wolf Camera at Lennox said that the security minions were a nuisance; customers evaluating a camera would try a shot in front of the store and the minions would hassle them. Leaving Lennox Mall I did note a bronze plaque, not large at all, noting the construction dates, etc. IRRC it did note that photography was by permit only. Perhaps using a cell phone isn't really photography??

 

[Louis Nargi]

You had TWO FBI Agents come to your house, unannounced.
What did they ask you.?

They ask what I took a picture of, why I took it then they said my story matched what I told the security guards and left

 

[Vaughn]

Gee... Three crimes by Oakland PD in one incident. I sure hope they got their corruption under control!

As if it is unlike any other big city in the USA...

Back in the early 90s I took a couple different images with the 5x7 of some nuke power plant somewhere next to nowhere in Arizona. Halfway expected to get checked-out, but never did.