Have you ever had issues in photographing residential property?

[Ian Grant]

But Ian, what complaint would there be against him? He had done nothing illegal. What about the Google Street View cars?

Well there were a spate of incidents where it was obvious people had recced the street in daylight, then broken in to gardens etc at night. Also a series of catalytic converter thefts where specific makes models were targeted.

Google Street View does not show everything, reporting possible suspicious activity to Neighbourhood Watch is not the same as calling the police, but it may help if there is a subsequent incident.

On the other hand, I deliberately photographed a house around the corner from me around 7 years ago when a builder's Eastern European labourers grubbed up a neighbour's hedge, at his brother's request, and stole 4ft of her garden. I made sure they knew I was taking photographs. I was called as a witness in an ensuing court case, but the builder had after 2 or 3 years re-instated the correct boundary after an independent surveyors report, It was a damages case and he admitted fault. Ironically, Google Street View showed he'd stolen land from another house as well.

I had one incident over 50 years ago while shooting housing, and amenities in Birmingham (UK), for a fellow University student for his architecture project on local housing. He asked me to photograph a Mitchel's & Butler public house, no problem, except there was a top of the range Jaguar car outside, and it was a rough area. Camera on a tripod and a very irate man comes out with a much younger woman, he went ballistic, luckily there were two of us naive 18/19-year-old's, we had no idea he'd just picked up a woman of the night, well it was lunchtime.

Ian

 

[xkaes]

"discretion is the better part of valor"

 

[xkaes]

I had one incident over 50 years ago while shooting housing, and amenities in Birmingham (UK), for a fellow University student for his architecture project on local housing. He asked me to photograph a Mitchel's & Butler public house, no problem, except there was a top of the range Jaguar car outside, and it was a rough area. Camera on a tripod and a very irate man comes out with a much younger woman, he went ballistic, luckily there were two of us naive 18/19-year-old's, we had no idea he'd just picked up a woman of the night, well it was lunchtime.

Reminds me of the interesting, photographically-related crime movie, BLOW-UP. Then there is REAR WINDOW, but who would ever notice what camera Jimmy Stewart is using -- with Grace Kelley constantly seducing the poor fella?

 

[DREW WILEY]

Sometimes people have good reasons for being suspicious. For example, numerous urban neighborhoods are frequently cased by burglar rings. Out around ranches, troublesome trespassers, illegal hunters, and even livestock rustlers sometimes come around. I came from a ranching area and know what to expect, and why. If they come up to you, smile, then compliment their horse, ATV, or pasture practices. Usually, that will garner an invitation to photograph all you want. But if they happens to be claiming squatter's rights to what is really Federal land, time to move on fast. Never argue with them, in either kind of instance. I've seen how that turns out.

 

[xkaes]

Especially if you are in the middle of nowhere.

 

[logan2z]

Don't take a selfie beside a bison bull. Don't walk up to a grizzly bear and her cubs. And don't take chances with hostile or unpredictable drugged people.

Wait, I thought the rules were:

You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim

 

[DREW WILEY]

Superman is fictitious. Spitting into the wind does have a predictable result. But the Lone Ranger is also fictitious, and I don't know who "Jim" is. Bison bulls, however, toss or gore a number of foolhardy photographers every year, grizzly bears have a limited sense or humor too, and druggies murder people every day right around here in the Bay Area. And if we don't have any grizzlies any more, there are a lot of pit bulldogs running around (actually, the most dangerous dog breed is the Pekinese - seven toddlers were killed in just one year in the Bay Area alone). But I mostly warn out-of-towners about the carnivorous deer and giant centipedes in the woods around Pt Reyes - As a good citizen, I want to do my part keeping that area relatively uncrowded and pristine.

 

[MattKing]

and I don't know who "Jim" is.

Tsk, Tsk:

 

[BrianShaw]

Drew Wiley is fictitious. LOL

 

[MattKing]

I shall not comment. I shall not comment..........

 

[131802]

I lived for about twenty years in a house that had been in a movie, so we had a small but steady stream of people taking our house’s picture. Nobody ever asked permission, unless I happened to be outside. Never had any problems.

Recently we were visiting Philadelphia and took some photographs of row houses. An owner walked by and politely waited out of frame while I took my picture, saying he didn’t want to spoil it. I explained that I was fully capable of spoiling my own photographs.

 

[GRHazelton]

Reminds me of the interesting, photographically-related crime movie, BLOW-UP. Then there is REAR WINDOW, but who would ever notice what camera Jimmy Stewart is using -- with Grace Kelley constantly seducing the poor fella?

If memory serves Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window was using a classic Exakta. In Blow Up David Hemmings uses a Hasselblad and, I think, a Nikon F.

 

[RalphLambrecht]

Easier said than done if one is retired. I suppose that I could go back to work, teaching or some such thing, if my new hosts thought me up to the task.

I did just that;leftNW Florida and went to Germany; no guns, no problems!

 

[snusmumriken]

Well there were a spate of incidents where it was obvious people had recced the street in daylight, then broken in to gardens etc at night. Also a series of catalytic converter thefts where specific makes models were targeted.

Google Street View does not show everything, reporting possible suspicious activity to Neighbourhood Watch is not the same as calling the police, but it may help if there is a subsequent incident.

On the other hand, I deliberately photographed a house around the corner from me around 7 years ago when a builder's Eastern European labourers grubbed up a neighbour's hedge, at his brother's request, and stole 4ft of her garden. I made sure they knew I was taking photographs. I was called as a witness in an ensuing court case, but the builder had after 2 or 3 years re-instated the correct boundary after an independent surveyors report, It was a damages case and he admitted fault. Ironically, Google Street View showed he'd stolen land from another house as well.

I had one incident over 50 years ago while shooting housing, and amenities in Birmingham (UK), for a fellow University student for his architecture project on local housing. He asked me to photograph a Mitchel's & Butler public house, no problem, except there was a top of the range Jaguar car outside, and it was a rough area. Camera on a tripod and a very irate man comes out with a much younger woman, he went ballistic, luckily there were two of us naive 18/19-year-old's, we had no idea he'd just picked up a woman of the night, well it was lunchtime.

Ian

I appreciate that it is possible to misuse photographs of/around residential buildings, and that photographs could be embarrassing or incriminating even if not misused. My point about Google Street View was that everyone seems to accept it even though it already has those potentials.

A well-intentioned photographer has nothing to hide and should have nothing to fear. It’s only common sense to have evidence of your intentions that you can produce if confronted. I admit that I have no experience of being challenged over photographing buildings specifically, but in other contexts using a film camera seems to be reassuring evidence of harmless lunacy, and having a website clinches it. I would personally not be convinced by a business card alone.

For me, any confrontation causes a lasting bad taste, even when it’s resolved cheerfully. It seems wise to signal your honesty openly and as early as possible. In a suspicious community, that probably means knocking on doors, even though it’s not required by law.

 

[Vetus]

You must have looked like hippies.

But seriously, I’m feeling very glad that I live in rural England. Here you are more likely to have someone come out and tell you the history of the place, even offer you tea.

Not always the case, I was taking a few snaps of a dead tree with my 35mm camera at Market Stainton Hall Lincolnshire, UK. The owner of the hall came out of his residence to berate me for straying 20 yards from the public footpath. I just walked back to the path thinking, what would have disturbed him more, me knocking on his door and asking his butler for an appointment to speak to the owner or me just taking 2 mins to take a couple of snaps. There are plenty of privileged "knobheads" in the UK that are quick to tell you to "get off my land".

 

[TJones]

You for

You forgot "And Sisterly Affection" but I'm sure the ladies forgive you. Nowhere I'd rather live, or photograph. It's a great city.

Great place to photograph architecture. I go once or twice a year to wander around and to receive my annual harassment from the Comcast security guards.

 

[xkaes]

If memory serves Jimmy Stewart in Rear Window was using a classic Exakta.

Not a big fan of Grace Kelly?

 

[warden]

Great place to photograph architecture. I go once or twice a year to wander around and to receive my annual harassment from the Comcast security guards.

yeah they sure take their jobs seriously! Here's one from last night, just because I was out walking. It was a breezy seventy degrees and clear skies. (Delta3200)

 

[TomR55]

I did just that;leftNW Florida and went to Germany; no guns, no problems!

Excellent! I have a niece who is living in Germany and will likely marry a German who she’s been dating for …. seems like years now. Because this is a Photo forum…, I “lent” this same niece my old Leica M2 with a 50mm Summicron lens years ago (she had just graduated from a film/arts school in the LA area, and does show signs in interest and talent). Strangely enough … I hope that the keeps that camera (which was truly one of my faves), but am curious to see whether she actually does something with photography.

 

[VinceInMT]

In January of 2023 I started a project where my goal is to run every street of my city, Billings, MT. I asked the city public works how many miles there are and they didn’t know but I was guessing somewhere between 600-800 miles. Since then I have gone out on 176 mapped runs that have totaled over 950 miles with lots of out-and-backs, dead ends, etc. Every run gets a write up in my blog and I am hoping to finish the project up in a month or so. I run with my phone and take a dozen or so photos along the way to illustrate the city, document run run, and to capture images of interesting sights. I especially like yard art. I am thinking that the project will produce a nice tour of the city when its done.

That said, like many places, we have some “sketchy” areas of town and I do run them. I have encountered no problems except once. I was running down a dead end street and wanted to take a photo of the field at the end with the sugar beet factory across from it. As I got to the end I slowed down and noticed a house (trailer) with a massive pile of trash next to it and, holding my phone low and along my side, snapped a photo. One person’s yard art is another person’s trash pile. I didn’t notice that there was someone in the car next to the trash pile but she launched out of the car screaming at me about why I was taking a picture of her car. I told her I wasn’t but was taking a photo of the field. She got herself pretty wound up and I told her I was on a public street and therefore could take a photo of anything. This got her even more angry and she turned around and headed into the trailer. I didn’t know what she went in there for but figured it was some kind of backup (big boyfriend, weapons, whatever) so I used my running skills to vacate the area. I did look over my shoulder with great frequency. The photo:

 

[Arthurwg]

The Photo: Yes, that's a lot of trash. But you've got to remember that this is America, where people tend not to like each other. I'm still waiting for the Melting Pot to melt.

 

[BrianShaw]

She had good reason to be concerned; that isn’t yard art, it’s trash and probably harboring vermin. The last thing she needs is a city official interfering with her right to be a trash hoarder.

You did the right thing by running. Hope you ran fast!

 

[Don_ih]

@warden -- nice photo!

 

[MattKing]

As dangerous to @VinceInMT as that experience may have been, I can only think about how tragic that woman's existence must be, to live amongst that.
Of course, it could be even worse than that - if the person choosing to live amongst the squalor was a parent or other loved one.
I don't really care whether it might be anyone's "fault".
But saying that, I can also understand how mortifying it might be to have one's circumstances (or one's loved one's circumstances) photographed when they are that soul destroying.
It may be possible to photograph a situation like that in a supportive or constructive way, and I applaud anyone who tries to do that.
But without intending to assign blame to Vince or anyone else, I don't know whether the sort of "drive-by" (or in this case "run-by") approach to photographing the situation will be likely to help anyone.

 

[Don_ih]

But without intending to assign blame to Vince or anyone else, I don't know whether the sort of "drive-by" (or in this case "run-by") approach to photographing the situation will be likely to help anyone.

It helps no one. But keep in mind, there may have been no help required. Often, when a person is evicted from a house or apartment, their junk is tossed outside. That can happen when someone leaves of their own volition and doesn't clean out their stockpile of garbage. That pile of trash may just be waiting for a known friend with a pickup truck to haul it to the dump.

Assuming anything is normally a bad idea. That's just a pile of stuff.