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Disclaimer: I don't own -- nor do I wish to own -- a "smart" phone, and I am of the opinion that many/most owners/users are pathologically addicted to theirs. That said, am I overreacting? I've mentioned elsewhere my annoyance with fellow hikers who spend the entire hike staring at their phones and taking photos, particularly when they are unauthorized photos of ME, but I've noticed a huge increase in this activity nearly everywhere I go and in everything I do. Just this weekend, I find myself counting my lucky stars that I skipped two events for this reason after having seen the 20-50 pics (each) on FB, the first featuring middle-aged or older women in swimsuits. No thank you! The other involved a trip, and I don't necessarily want it publicized when I'm out of town. I get that many people today feel the need to document every moment of their (and their kids') lives for social media, and I figure that's their problem, but when I'm photographed without consent, then posted on a "public" status for all the world to see (not always in a flattering light) and often tagged as well, it feels very intrusive. I find myself hiding from these people who are always pointing a phone at someone instead of relaxing and enjoying the activity. I always have and still do happily pose for one group shot for posterity, but when I ask that it be limited to that, I'm the party-pooper. Is it just me?
No. It's considered rude to post a picture of someone without asking if it's OK or if they don't know it is going to be posted.
Usually these days if a group shot is taken, it is assumed somebody is going to post it. But random shots of someone, especially in a swimsuit or even any type of shot of a person? No, not without checking with them.
You're fine, it's everyone else that has seem to have swarmed to some collective hive of vanity and publicity. I've become a hermit because of it. Not interested in partaking. Sorry to be a downer. Maybe try to find one person to hike with, who doesn't feel the need to make a spectacle over it?
OP, maybe you could organize a "phone-free" hiking group. People would agree to either leave their phones in their car or at home, or at least keep theirs turned off during the hike. There might be interest in that.
Disclaimer: I don't own -- nor do I wish to own -- a "smart" phone,
and I am of the opinion that many/most owners/users are pathologically addicted to theirs.
That's a thread all it's own.
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That said, am I overreacting?
That too is another thread all it's own.
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I've mentioned elsewhere my annoyance with fellow hikers who spend the entire hike staring at their phones and taking photos,
particularly when they are unauthorized photos of ME ...
Stop hiking in those sexy clothes.
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...but I've noticed a huge increase in this activity nearly everywhere I go and in everything I do. Just this weekend, I find myself ...
I find myself hiding from these people who are always pointing a phone at someone instead of relaxing and enjoying the activity.
Is it just me?
No. But at least these aren't the flat affect earbud zombie sort.
Last edited by MrRational; 09-05-2023 at 04:00 AM..
1. Traditionally I've appreciated people who take photos that I wind up in. I don't mind that much having my pictures show up online and the thing is...I often am happy to have the photos, but I rarely can be arsed to take them. Bothering with a camera when I'm trying to enjoy myself, it takes me out of the moment and I don't like it. If I'm taking pictures, it's probably that I don't actually find the activity itself THAT stimulating, so I'm just doing it for something to do... Hiking, for me, can be one of those things, but I try to make sure I'm not getting strangers in my shots. Also, some hikes I go on, if it were just me, I'd be moving faster on the trail, but a companion is winded and I want to wait for them to catch up. So snapping photos of some flowers and clouds...it's like, well, I don't have to stand there bored and my friend doesn't feel bad for making me wait.
2. General complaint about the trickle, then the flood, of losing our privacy. I feel ya, OP. I am so, SO glad that people did not have cell phones equipped with cameras when I was a teenager. I can't even imagine. And in general I really do think that it is harming society that people engage with screens more than they engage with reality around them.
3. Consent culture. It really IS bad form to take a photo with someone in it without their consent, especially if it's close and clear enough to identify them (rather than, say, a big tourist landmark with a bunch of random pedestrians milling around near it, unavoidably being included)... And it's even worse to share it online without their consent. But mainstream society has only started talking about the concept of consent in my own living memory and I'm not that old. I'm not even sure it's a standard part of sex ed curriculum where it should be if it's not anywhere else, right? But to some extent it does depend on the circumstances. Like if I see a parent taking a video of their child, in a public space, then I feel like it's on me to stay out of the shot if I don't want to be in the shot. But I'd hope that they'd avoid photographing or recording me specifically on purpose. I don't know why anyone goes around taking pictures of strangers in public anyways, that's pretty weird and creepy behavior.
EDIT:
Here's one I took on a hike in Victor, CO while waiting for a friend to catch up with me. I do not regret fooling around with my phone to get this. I'm happy that I have some photos to remember my trip. /shrug. But note...no humans in the shot.
The laws are very clear on this. If you are in a public place, you can expect no right to privacy. That means you can be photographed without your consent. Simply being in a group does not change the law.
The OP appears to have asked if they were over-reacting. The answer is yes. If police can be photographed while making an arrest, if peeping Toms can be photographed in the act, if dashcams can record crashes and at fault drivers, being upset at being seen in a public place in any personally chosen attire, and then having that recorded, is most certainly over-reacting.
Unless the OP is part of a witness protection program, or does not want to be seen as affiliated with the group they are in, the motivation for the negative response to being photographed most often comes down to simple vanity.
It's not limited to just hiking, which was the point of my post, as I've already complained about the hikers (who, while staring at their phones, are also wont to follow Alltrails onto wrong trails instead of following the actual leader). It has now pervaded literally every activity I pursue. Even practice sessions, spontaneous meetings, or lunch out with friends (I do this only rarely for myriad reasons; this is yet another) end up on the world wide web within the hour with multiple pics (no one seems to edit down to just the best, but simply snap compulsively and then photo dump online) of not just the food and the obligatory group shot, but candid shots of people talking and EATING. I can be seen, or rather not seen, as a blur running away from the group that's trying to talk on a hike or a partial body hiding behind another's at dinner if I happen to observe the sniper in time, but since the phone is constantly in their hands regardless, it's hard to tell. At least in the old days, you had a pretty good idea you were being photographed when an actual camera was pointed at you. Please just put the phone down -- but they can't or won't. And if and when I run away, I'm a Debbie Downer and ruining all the fun, while everyone else seems to regard it as normal. Hence, I wonder if I'm the "weird" one, but I honestly think I'm just the non-addict seeing - and suffering from - their addiction.
No. It's considered rude to post a picture of someone without asking if it's OK or if they don't know it is going to be posted.
Usually these days if a group shot is taken, it is assumed somebody is going to post it. But random shots of someone, especially in a swimsuit or even any type of shot of a person? No, not without checking with them.
But legal.
Out in the public, one has no expectacy of privacy and a photographer doesn't need the subject's consent to post that picture. Consider Stanley Roberts when he was on KRON 4 News of "People Behaving Badly" and all those people telling him "No, I don't want to be photographed".....and they had no legal leg to stand on.
And good thing, too! Otherwise, as a Festival "Spanish Paparazzi", like at TX Renaissance Festival, I could be in trouble with the thousands of pictures I take. But there, other festivals, can be a grand example. If you are there, you do consent, like it or not, to end up in someone's lens.
Now, as stated there, there can be limitations, such as getting compensation for the photo of subject without their consent. There is a section about if the photo is posted in such a way to degrade the subject (or something like that). There is that Texas law in the above article of perhaps similar nature.
But out in the open? One is generally fair game and they have no expectation of privacy.
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Originally Posted by otterhere
It's not limited to just hiking, which was the point of my post, as I've already complained about the hikers (who, while staring at their phones, are also wont to follow Alltrails onto wrong trails instead of following the actual leader). It has now pervaded literally every activity I pursue. Even practice sessions, spontaneous meetings, or lunch out with friends (I do this only rarely for myriad reasons; this is yet another) end up on the world wide web within the hour with multiple pics (no one seems to edit down to just the best, but simply snap compulsively and then photo dump online) of not just the food and the obligatory group shot, but candid shots of people talking and EATING. I can be seen, or rather not seen, as a blur running away from the group that's trying to talk on a hike or a partial body hiding behind another's at dinner if I happen to observe the sniper in time, but since the phone is constantly in their hands regardless, it's hard to tell. At least in the old days, you had a pretty good idea you were being photographed when an actual camera was pointed at you. Please just put the phone down -- but they can't or won't. And if and when I run away, I'm a Debbie Downer and ruining all the fun, while everyone else seems to regard it as normal. Hence, I wonder if I'm the "weird" one, but I honestly think I'm just the non-addict seeing - and suffering from - their addiction.
Curious we are in this thread.....because with my DSLR and its telephoto, I take pictures like a SWAT sniper (or a Cobra with TOW). Pop up, snap, pop down.
Since you did bring it to the table, a few things that can go on inside the head of a photographer, so you might understand better.
But, there are other things to my style of photography. Such as my non thinking ability to figure out on the move my course to my subject's course to arrive at the intercept point to get their picture. Or "The Catalog" where I am attempting to repeat a type of shot I made before and it all starts when my instincts alert me that such a picture may be forming and I move on it. Such as Twig (personalty) "window shopping" at kiosks. There is a picture like that of her, don't think I took it, but that is the theme that forms the entry in "The Catalog" and it is a shot I move to capture when I detect its possibility.
Finally, if someone is an interesting personalty, I may be shooting just to gather "tracking" information on them for future photo taking. Now the good thing about that is........such shots are rarely worthy of being posted. A shot might just be her backside and elbow, what I could get in the passing, for instance. They are for me to form that database in my head about them, like trace identification to alert me when they are around, for future photo ops. It is, however, rather against my codes to photograph while they are eating.
Now, on a different note or two to things. Note all my shots are fantastic, some might be shaken or slightly blurred. My basic is to post them anyhow because for the subject in the photo.......that might be the only shot of them that day, let them have some trophy of their day. Further on that note, there is the point of is it about them.....or me? I tend to lean to it is about them.
The personalities who know me, if they ask for me to take down a picture, I will. If my camera is pointed toward someone and I see them uncomfortable about such, I will abort the shot.
The psychology of a "Spanish Paparazzi"! Who would have thought!
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 09-05-2023 at 12:31 PM..
EDIT:
Here's one I took on a hike in Victor, CO while waiting for a friend to catch up with me. I do not regret fooling around with my phone to get this. I'm happy that I have some photos to remember my trip. /shrug. But note...no humans in the shot.
I love taking photos but am overly obsessed with not having anyone in the picture if at all possible. My family gets mad that I don't take "people" (as in picture of me) while on vacation. I know what I look like, they know what I look like I don't need photos of me but I do like photos like the one you took. In fact, I have two framed ones in my dining area of Venice, Italy.
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