I do not like people taking pictures of me. So if they ask I said OK but prefer that they don't. If they take the pictures anyway I don't do anything. I may or may not ask the people I want to take pictures of but if I detect the slightest disagreement I would not take the pictures.
Some people just don't like their pictures taken without permission. I'm one of those people....
I should add: If I'm just one of many in a crowd then shoot away. But me alone or with one or a few other people such that I or we become the main subject(s)... no.
+1
As a photographer, of course I think it's fine to photograph people in public. But, as the subject of an unknown photographer, I think people people should have the right to refused to be photographed, especially in close quarters/proximity - as ONF points out, and as the article suggested (guy across from the couple on the subway). Just because
you know that your intentions are good, no one else knows that.
One of the differences between a photographer like HCB and one shooting today is, I have to say, the Internet and photoshop, and combined with a lack of integrity by a certain number of people. In the end, you have no idea where or how your photo will end up. Women I've worked with have ended up on porn and other questionable sites, even though the images in question (taken in public, by strangers) were not suggestive in any way. As such, they (and I) have become much more suspicious of strangers taking pictures (w/o showing good intent or asking permission).
Even here in Japan, in some popular tourist areas, school children are taught to put their heads down
en masse the second any one of them sees a camera pointed at them. And I pity the poor
maiko and
geiko who are trying to go about their business here in Kyoto - the paparazzi tourist hoards that descend on them for a snapshot is so off-putting it makes me embarrassed to be a photographer. It'd be nice if people would remember that that's a real person, and not some tourist attraction at the zoo. (I know these are slightly different examples to what's been discussed above, but really the issue is where do you draw the line between what photographing whatever you want, and thinking about, and respecting, what your subject wants. I know it's not always easy to determine that difference.)