tominrm

@kja; there has been so many responses here so obviously you forgot what I wrote when you said, "but(especially a child) without appropriate permission strikes me as intrusive and disrespectable". The girl whose father was was upset was not a performer that night. So she was not dressed as a dancer. She was surrounded by many dancers, and I thought she was jealous of her friends who were in fancy flamenco dress. She came to me and said, "how about me?". I had no intention of taking her picture but did not disappoint her further by refusing to take a picture. My mistake was not deleting in her presence. If I deleted picture then, the girl probably did not know what I was doing, and probably her father did not know I deleted the picture either and behaved the same way. I made a mistake of not refusing the little girls request.

kja

Tominrm -- no, I was <b>not</b> blaming <b>you</b>! I spoke to grey areas -- and that would, I believe, include the ambiguous circumstances involved when a child <b>asks</b> to be photographed, as in your case. In fact, I pointed to that very extenuating circumstance above in response to another poster, and have offered my compliments to you for initiating this important discussion.

newtome

I have to admit I'm really shocked by the responses on this thread. Partly I don't take many photos when traveling – I learned my lesson years ago that seeing other places through the lens of a camera or in these days a smart phone makes for poorer memories and if I just experienced the trip on my own. I have to say even with all my years of traveling around the world, if I had been in the OP situation, taking pictures of a dance concert in the park, and a young child wanted her picture taken as well I would not have thought twice. pedophiles who want pictures of young children have plenty of ways to get them, my think this dad was way out of line in the way he responded.

Sassafrass

Tominrm, I want to say that, even though I firmly believe in getting permission first, I don't think you actually did anything wrong. You were not aware of current thinking and the issues involved. I used to do it all the time (take kid's pictures when they asked me) and never thought anything about it. Now, I would not do it. We are all more aware now of many things that once seemed OK, and now may be offensive or hurtful, or considered invasive. It was good for you to bring up the subject.

nukesafe

I don't see why some of the posters are surprised that people value their privacy and object to having their pictures taken. Do you not remember when Google first started taking their "street view" photos? When they first started appearing one could clearly see the faces of the people on the pavement staring at the strange camera passing by. Almost immediately there was a international roar of protest from people who did not want their photos on line for all to see, for many reasons. If you now look at a Google street scene you will see each and every face blurred out.

cheska15

Ok so can everyone please move out of my camera shot.
In Australia Privacy legislation comes into play when you are taking photos. And don't ever take photos of policemen.

menachem

@whathello, it is a sad fact that over 90% of child sexual abuse cases happen by perpetrators the child know intimately, most often a parent or a sibling.

ribeirasacra

strange as this is not the first post on this subject. Here is one from an expat's forum.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/spain...-spain-881303/
However this is not censored.
http://www.ilovebenidorm.net/WEBCAMS...9#topgooglepub
or these
http://www.insecam.org/en/view/327381/
http://www.insecam.org/en/view/309670/

Cathinjoetown

A friend had a similar experience in a small village in France, she was photographing the chateau and there was a man in the foreground with his back to her. She was actually trying to keep him out of the frame.

He caught sight of her, really chewed her out for not asking permission, she apologized but he kept ranting--she showed him the photo and finally he was mollified.

St. Cirq, thanks for the list.

Whathello

If you photograph us, our soul goes into the picture.
Bad magic.
So nono. Don't do that over here.

Just for the fun, I asked several people around me and they all reacted like 'of course the father did bloody well, who in his right mind would take pics of kids ?'. Or something close.

And yes, it is considered impolite in most of Europe to take pics of strangers, so we try to avoid. We see it as ? Lurking ? 'voyeurism' ?

Hey, tourists, leave us kids alone...
We don't need your photographs,
(get another brick in the face).

artsnletters

My photos are pretty much devoid of people short of people incidentally in the background, and I try mightily not to get any of those either. When photographing people, I prefer candid shots to anything posed, and I'm too shy to ask for permission and that would destroy the candid nature anyway. So I just don't photograph people except friends, upon request. I can sympathize, as I don't like my photo taken either - there would be no photos of me in the past few years in existence except for a coworker who records every staff event, however small.