Have you ever had the cops called on you for having an SLR Camera?

[William Kahn]

<p>I've live and shot in rural areas for the past 14 years, and only encountered hostility once. Most of the time, when people stop to talk to me while I'm shooting, we have very pleasant conversations and I learn something about the history of the barn or old house I'm photographing.</p>

<p>Oh, and Damon, nice try, but dispatchers don't get to make that decision. His watch commander, maybe, but not him.</p>

<p>We just got a tornado warning, so I'm out of here for a while...</p>

[sjmurray]

<p>About 30 years ago I was photographing the water tower in my neighborhood with my 4x5 (the photo is in my folder here) and I was metering the tower with my 1 degree Pentax spot meter, which does look somewhat pistol-like. A local resident driving by stopped and was having a fit, yelling and such, because he apparently thought I was taking pot shots at the water tower with a pistol. I yelled back that I was taking pictures and pointed at the large, obvious camera on a tripod next to me. I don't know that he believed me, but no cops showed up! He was just doing his civic duty, I guess, trying to prevent someone from shooting bullets at the water tower.</p>

[paul_wheatland]

<p>all my life I,ve been careful and courteous when photographing in public. I generally avoid in recent years to photograph strangers ie. people of both genders and all ages. We live in a "road rage" age and I frankly avoid confrontations. Some years ago I was into taking pictures of vintage cars, trucks and tractors accumulating a sizeable collection of pictures. I always sought out the owner to ask permission and in some cases sent copy of photo to them as a gift. A friend used to bring his camera into a restaurant and take pictures of the waitstaff without asking permission. I found this to be uncomfortable for me(and maybe them) and asked him to refrain from this annoying activity. Payback was when he left the camera in the booth and after some weeks passed, actually retrieved it from the honest waitress who placed in the lost and found at the eatery.</p>

[Two23]

<p>I like to photo trains, and also like to photo at night. I've had some memorable "incidents" over the years. Once, near Boone Iowa (of all places!) I had a wacko security guard threaten me with an automatic rifle for taking photos from a public gravel road. I called the sherriff to sort it out. A few years ago I went toe to toe with a Chicago Transit cop who was probably a lineman for the Chicago Bears as his day job. He said I couldn't take photos of the Loop trains, I showed him a print out of the CTA website saying I could if not using tripod or flash. Ended up I had him call his supervisor in, who confirmed what I was saying.<br /> All of this was really small change compared to what I got into a few months ago. I take photos of small towns at night as well as trains. In one remote town in South Dakota, I set up a tripod and took a photo of a bar. I was wearing my blaze yellow safety vest and on a public street. Out came three big drunks, demanding I hand over my camera. I refused, and suggested they just call the sherriff. They stood there ranting at me; it was 18 below zero and the north wind was just a killer. I knew time was on my side as I was wearing heavy expedition clothing and they only had light jackets. I also had a Ruger Mini-14 automatic carbine with 400 rounds of ammo 10 ft. away in my car, if worse came to worse. They stood there growling at me, slowly freezing death. I suggested they just call the deputy out and we'd let him decide. So, that's what we did. One by one they went inside--the last guy had already developed frostbite. I just stood out there the entire 20 minutes it took for the deputy to show up, just to show them I didn't care about the cold. Deputy came and calmed them all down, and I simply left without raising either my voice or my rifle.</p>

<p>There was another incident a month later when I was out on a frozen river in the middle of nowhere about 2am, taking photos of trains. A train crew thought I was up in the bridge superstructure somewhere, and called the local sherriff's dept. I go on my RR radio and set them straight, that I was about 50 yards away out on the ice, nowhere near the bridge. I have a bunch more stories, but they would take up a lot more space.</p>

<p>I will add one more thing. I almost always have either my automatic rifle with 100 rd drum magazines or a loaded 12 ga. magnum shotgun. Sometimes I have a Ruger revolver stuck in my coat pocket if I'm in mountain lion country. The funny thing is no one out here seems bothered by seeing a guy with a rifle standing around, but a guy with a camera on a tripod seems to really catch their interest. Go figure. I mostly do my night photography in winter. Over the years I've figured out that my main protection comes not from my firepower, but from the intense cold. Virtually no one wants to come out and give me a bunch of crap when it's 25 below zero.</p>

<p>Kent in SD</p><div></div>

[scooter0071]

<p>Kent,<br>

I am now in the Omaha area but grew up in Springfield, South Dakota which is close to Yankton. I am curious where you are from. <br>

I have my CCW and carry a concealed 9mm most often when I go out taking photos. In occasions like the one I originally posted I knew I was going to a park and there is posted no concealed weapons allowed so I leave it at home. But if I am just walking the neighborhood or going into Omaha I do tend to carry. </p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<p>Kent, those are great stories. I have a penchant for pushing the envelope myself which gets me into antsy situations now and again.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[Landrum Kelly]

<blockquote>

<p>He was just doing his civic duty, I guess, trying to prevent someone from shooting bullets at the water tower.</p>

 

</blockquote>

<p>Now that's funny, Steve!</p>

<p>You never know what you are going to run into.</p>

<p>--Lannie</p>

[joe_willmore]

<p>I've had police or security approach me plenty of times and I've had police come to my home. In most cases, it was about citizens saying "there's a suspicious man over there with a camera." It's not that the cops or security are paranoid (sometimes they are) but when people complain, unless they're very busy at the moment, the best way to CYA and get a complainer off your back is to say that you responded to the complaint. I've done ride-alongs and several times the cops I was with got calls about complaints, rolled their eyes, and then responded (once was even for someone taking pictures).<br>

One recent example...I was taking pictures of the shadows cast by ladders on oil refinery tanks. I was on public land (actually on a sidewalk), no tripod, ambient light only. Someone in the refinery got my license number and called it in to both the County and City police (got visited by two separate officers who were both apologetic but said they had to check it off the list).</p>

 

[railphotog]

<p>I'm a model railroader and like to make models of old and decrepit buildings, usually using photos of real ones as inspiration. Many years ago I came upon an old farm house close to the road, so I got out to take a few photos. One part of the house had already collapsed, and the weathered wood siding was a potential great reference in my modeling.<br>

<br />I just got out of the car with my camera when an old lady came out of a mobile home next to the farm house. She hollered at me they didn't want photos taken of the house. I replied I was just taking them for my own use, but she persisted. I just kept on walking a few steps and took my photos, then got back into the car.</p>

<p>I was organising my camera back into its bag when I noticed a car with a young fellow in it pull up behind me. I thought the lady had called a relative who was there to confront me. I didn't have the key in the ignition, but scrambled to get it there when the fellow stuck his head up to my open window. Thought I was in for it!<br>

<br />He asked me for directions to a particular place, and I told him I didn't know the place. Then I returned to breathing! That's the closest I've come to being bothered for taking photos on a public highway.</p>

<p> </p>

[Robin Smith]

<p>Got agree with the others, the cop was only doing what he was required to do. Sounds actually rather civilized. The issue is suspicious neighbours. In a residential neighbourhood (surburban, not urban) people are suspicious of others who wander about apparently uninteresting streets taking shots of all and sundry. Can't say I blame them, and I'm a photographer. Most residents have a reasonable expectation of privacy and find a guy with a lens obtrusive, so perhaps you shouldn't have been surprised. Once you are in a city environment then things are very different. No harm done. I have certainly been asked what I'm doing on a few occasions, particularly out West. The general rule is the fewer strangers they see, the more likely they are to be suspicious - it's human nature.</p>

[wogears]

<p>I got grabbed and wrestled, very briefly, with a guy on Sunday. I took a wide snap of the street with his kids walking toward me. They told him, and I guess he thought I was a perv or something. Won't go into details, but it was a nasty experience all round. I thought about calling a cop, since most of them know me, but since the other guys didn't, I decided not to.</p>

<p>I have been thinking of getting a concealed-carry permit. I am also Blurb-ing a couple books to show people, and getting some shirts made that say, "I'm a photographer, not a criminal."</p>

[Norma Desmond]

<p>Took this photo years ago, having come across Barbie abandoned on a fountain ledge in a local park. Security guard came up to me and loudly told me I was a pervert for taking a picture of a naked doll. I told him I didn't think of pieces of plastic as naked, but was glad to know he did. I also told him I at least knew I was a pervert but if I'd wanted to act on my perversions it wouldn't be with Barbie. The people around, who seemed as stunned by his accusations as me, laughed. </p>

<p>Been shooting in the big city streets and walking those same streets since I was a kid. Late nights, bad neighborhoods, seedy characters, surprisingly friendly characters, people protective of their kids, some people wanting their kids photographed. Never needed or considered a gun. My big lens is secondary phallus enough for me.</p><div></div>

[jim_service]

<p>In response to Bill's original scenario, I think the police acted in an appropriate manner. A cop came, checked out the situation, acted with courtesy and left. He accomplished two things: he responded to a complaint, and, because creeps DO exist, he would have shown that their actions are being noted. Could the guy be on probation with a court order to stay away from places where children gather? Also, they probably made a note of who complained. This could be another fact that labels the guy as a nut case.<br>

When I'm in the area, I like to shoot in the Arcata Bottoms. There may be a joke here.. something about rubber boots, but whatever. I was shooting a barn, outbuildings and farmhouse from about a quarter mile away on a public road when a sheriff deputy rolled up. The people in the house had gotten nervous about the unusual activity and attention. The deputy was very polite, checked out the situation and left.<br>

I believe the occupants of the house are completely entitled to whatever degree of concern they happen to feel. That is to say, while I would never give up my right to shoot what I will from a public place, I would never belittle their concerns.</p>

<p> </p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>Given the extremes between the situations described by Bill and Kent, I'd rather take Bill's scenario. Dealing with a cop who's just doing his or her job in a civil manner to investigate a complaint is no big deal, just an inconvenience. Beats worrying about some drunk yahoos.</p>

<p>The cop didn't actually forbid you to take photos. That's happened to me once that I can remember, in downtown Savannah during the week of the June 2004 G8 Summit on Sea Island. Downtown Savannah and Sea Island were many miles apart, but lacking any coherent guidance other than "Be paranoid", the same cop who told me I couldn't photograph a building with my SLR was a few minutes later posing for tourist photos with an elderly couple using a P&S. I'd already photographed part of that same building a week earlier, before the summit, without interference. Sometimes they just do the best they can with the illogical instructions they get.</p>

[pmind]

<p>I've lost count of how many times this has happened to me, but never had anything serious come of it.</p>

[fredscal]

<p>I have. Though my camera was not exactly an SLR... Here's the thing :</p>

<p>In front of the Pentagon, Washington DC, there is a rather graphic tunnel passing below the highway between the Pentagon's parking lot and the district known as Pentagon City. I went there twice, several years appart. The first time, I noticed the tunnel and the second time, I went back with a tripod-mounted 6x12 camera. Yes, I know: not the most inconspicuous equipment, but there were no 36MPix DSLRs at the time and I thought the scene absolutely needed the best possible definition (this was in 2010).</p>

<p>Technically, to take that shot I needed to stand right *outside* the ground-marked "no photo" zone (though only a few feet away from it), and shoot 180-degree *away* from the Pentagon building. Since I knew this was still asking for trouble, I contacted my embassy in DC (I'm Belgian) six months prior so they could help me get an authorization. They kindly put me in contact with some chief of Pentagon security, but after a few email exchanges, that line went dead, and I didn't get any answer.</p>

<p>So there I went anyway, at night of course, because that's the light I wanted to capture. My teenage brother and sister came along, for the opportunity of a nightly trip away from their parents in a legendary foreign city.</p>

<p>So of course, while I was painstakingly setting everything up and measuring the light and calculating exposure time, a cop (or some sort of armed public servant in uniform) came to ask what I was doing. When I explained it, he laughed and said something like he found the idea quite lovely too ! He was about to leave me alone, but then, in fear of being chewed-up I suppose, he asked his superior over the radio. The superior wasn't there, so he couldn't see me with my innocent tourist family, and, alone in his office, was in no position to find anything lovely: all he heard was the words "people taking photos on the parking lot" so of course he said "No way !". So the nice cop asked me to leave, after he took our passports to record our identities, soon joined by a colleague, saying something like: "this is to ensure you don't come back. Once is okay, but please do not push it any further, you'd get into grave trouble" (I think I would push it further anyway, since I now have a 36MPix DSLR with which I can take a shot in 2 secs and then run away before anybody asks me anything...!)</p>

<p>While he was scribbling our identities down, I was ordered to pack everything. So I took the shot while pretending to pack (counting 30secs in my head while fussing around, and hoping that timing was right), and... it's a great shot !!! Except the composition would have been a little better had I had more time.</p>

<p>My brother and sister were very impressed by that US cop (ours don't look that cinematic) and now have a great near-death experience to tell their friends... As for me, all I can say about it is: it's frustrating.</p>