I headed out on my first day of holidays with a shopping list of sunny pictures but my spirits were temporary dampened by one 'bully boy' driver who went to great lengths to inform me that I was illegally taking pictures of him and his vehicle on what he described as being private property. Unfortunately he met his match and this posting is not targetted at the drivers on this forum or 99.99% of all other drivers, but the photographers who may not be aware of what they can or can't do with a camera on a public right of way. After todays encounter I would imagine that most photographers would put the camera back into the bag and call it a day. So here it goes, no names and no locations but it was well witnessed by all including his work colleagues.
# Vehicle pulls up to a T junction, awaiting the right of way to turn right and I am positioned in a pedestrian precinct opposite the vehicle. # I compose the picture and note that the driver is waggling his finger and I await the finger to stop waggling before I take the picture. # The driver steps out of his vehicle, causing a traffic jam behind him, walks across the road and into the precinct and tells me to stop taking pictures of him. I tell him that I am not taking pictures of him but of his vehicle. He tells me that I am illegally taking pictures of him and I tell him that I am legally entitiled to take pictures of him, which I wasn't, in a public right of way. He tells me that I am illegally taking pictures of him in private property. Enough is enough..... # I tell him that I am a UK citizen (jargon for stop and account) and I am exercising my rights to take pictures in a public right of way, namely a pedestrian precinct and that I am not doing anything unlawful. I suggest that he is welcome to carry out a citizens arrest and call the police or his manager if he thinks I am committing an unlawful offence but he runs the risk of a counter claim for unlawful arrest if the police deem the citizens arrest as being unlawful. The driver then says that he does not want me to take pictures of him driving, so I side step him, take the picture at my leisure and he walks back to his vehicle and drives off. Apologies to anyone who thinks I'm a trouble maker, I'm not but I don't want any other photographer to be bullied or intimdated whilst using a camera, its been my hobby for fifty years and I've never encountered a problem like this before. I am not prepared to forward pictures of this event to anyone else. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Welsh Bus Photographs" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/welsh-bus-photographs?hl=en.
