Taking photo's in a public place and an unhappy Mother!

[nessiemac]

Evening gents,

Hope you can give me a bit of guidance with a situation that has arisen earlier.

A few may have seen my mountain bike photo's that i like to take when i'm not riding myself. I usually take photo's of everyone riding at a particular MTB venue and have just started to stick them on Facebook because of the interest i have been getting.

Anyhow,

I was at a venue in Hampshire on Sunday which is a public forestry commision area but it is run by a Downhill MTB club. I was there with the clubs photographer to capture pics of everyone riding and putting them on the clubs Facebook page for them with their permission.

As it turned out i posted 110 photo's of riders on the clubs site and mine and everyone is very happy with them and the club are happy with some good photo's.

I have just received a message via FB from a mother of one the riders saying..

"i need to be careful taking pictures of riders without their prior permission. I need permission from the site owners and absolutely cannot take pictures of minors without parental permission and not to leave myself wide open if i don't. My son is 13 and you have published pictures of him on a public site"

Now this was a quite friendly message but i am unsure as to how to respond to it. Everyone including the club knew i was there to take pics and everyone was asking where they can see the pics so would like some advice really as where i stand?

Hmmm?

[Wacky Racer]

The world's gone mad.

[XG332]

If it was me i would pass her to the club and let them sort it out. (tell her to GTFO)




PH response:




Your not in the wrong and she is just concerned.

Edited by XG332 on Wednesday 22 February 22:38

[stevensdrs]

You always get one don't you. Remove the picture of her son from the Facebook page and tell her you have done so, thank her for her concern and then forget about it. You have done nothing wrong but it just isn't worth the bother trying to reason with these people.

[Efbe]

stevensdrs said:

You always get one don't you. Remove the picture of her son from the Facebook page and tell her you have done so, thank her for her concern and then forget about it. You have done nothing wrong but it just isn't worth the bother trying to reason with these people.

this

[monkey gland]

If it was in a public place then you don't need permission to photograph people, and children are not treated any differently to adults in this regard. Something along the lines of there being no presumption of privacy in a public place.

[russ_a]

I have no issues with this but over the last few years the amount of people with large cameras taking photos none stop of everything is starting to drive me mad.

When I take my son out to a park or such like I don't want my picture taken 1500 times by a stranger pointing a camera in my face.

[ChunkyloverSV]

nessiemac said:

Evening gents,

Hope you can give me a bit of guidance with a situation that has arisen earlier.

A few may have seen my mountain bike photo's that i like to take when i'm not riding myself. I usually take photo's of everyone riding at a particular MTB venue and have just started to stick them on Facebook because of the interest i have been getting.

Anyhow,

I was at a venue in Hampshire on Sunday which is a public forestry commision area but it is run by a Downhill MTB club. I was there with the clubs photographer to capture pics of everyone riding and putting them on the clubs Facebook page for them with their permission.

As it turned out i posted 110 photo's of riders on the clubs site and mine and everyone is very happy with them and the club are happy with some good photo's.

I have just received a message via FB from a mother of one the riders saying..

"i need to be careful taking pictures of riders without their prior permission. I need permission from the site owners and absolutely cannot take pictures of minors without parental permission and not to leave myself wide open if i don't. My son is 13 and you have published pictures of him on a public site"

Now this was a quite friendly message but i am unsure as to how to respond to it. Everyone including the club knew i was there to take pics and everyone was asking where they can see the pics so would like some advice really as where i stand?

Hmmm?

Find the pics of her son, black him out in the shots with some paint skills. Then when her son wonders why get him to ask his mum.

[nessiemac]

stevensdrs said:

You always get one don't you. Remove the picture of her son from the Facebook page and tell her you have done so, thank her for her concern and then forget about it. You have done nothing wrong but it just isn't worth the bother trying to reason with these people.

That's what i plan on doing tommorow when i'm home from work. She was very polite about it and i will ask her which photo and remove it but isn't it just a bit hysterical of the mother? Very obvious as to why i have taken a photo of her son on a bike,at a bike venue and posted it on the venue's website!!

[monkey gland]

ChunkyloverSV said:

Find the pics of her son, black him out in the shots with some paint skills. Then when her son wonders why get him to ask his mum.

Put some text on the photo saying "Removed due to request from the mother". Sure fire way to cause her son to give her grief!!!

[nessiemac]

russ_a said:

When I take my son out to a park or such like I don't want my picture taken 1500 times by a stranger pointing a camera in my face.

There is a huge difference between that situation and the situation i am describing don't you think? I wouldn't go to a public park and take pics of kids riding round the park!!

[oldcynic]

What if the mother has good reason for wanting her son's picture removed, or given the wording she knows of good reason why another child's picture should be removed?

I would suggest a polite reply asking if she wants the picture taken down and polite compliance if she says yes. Anyone with good reason for wanting photos removed (child or otherwise) is unlikely to want to publish that reason.

OTOH she may just be a finickity old wotsit. That's for her to know and you to ignore.

[0000]

russ_a said:

I have no issues with this but over the last few years the amount of people with large cameras taking photos none stop of everything is starting to drive me mad.

When I take my son out to a park or such like I don't want my picture taken 1500 times by a stranger pointing a camera in my face.

Either you frequent different parks than I do, or I should be offended that no one's taking my picture when I go to the park.

[nessiemac]

oldcynic said:

What if the mother has good reason for wanting her son's picture removed, or given the wording she knows of good reason why another child's picture should be removed?

I would suggest a polite reply asking if she wants the picture taken down and polite compliance if she says yes. Anyone with good reason for wanting photos removed (child or otherwise) is unlikely to want to publish that reason.

OTOH she may just be a finickity old wotsit. That's for her to know and you to ignore.

As mentioned i shall contact her in the morning to ask which photo and i shall remove but i bet he already has it as his facebook profile pic!!!

[davepoth]

A black rectangle across the child's eyes on the photos in a Reader's Wives-style is plenty enough to anonymise them whilst also pissing off the mother far more, if that's what you want to do. HTH.

[Rude-boy]

nessiemac said:

stevensdrs said:

You always get one don't you. Remove the picture of her son from the Facebook page and tell her you have done so, thank her for her concern and then forget about it. You have done nothing wrong but it just isn't worth the bother trying to reason with these people.

That's what i plan on doing tommorow when i'm home from work. She was very polite about it and i will ask her which photo and remove it but isn't it just a bit hysterical of the mother? Very obvious as to why i have taken a photo of her son on a bike,at a bike venue and posted it on the venue's website!!

It is very ott but people have their views and I feel that appeasement is often the easiest solution. Of course if they chose to become militant about it the hassle will be massive even if you are in the right.

You might want to avoid warning her of the 10's of other images of her son being created every day in the background and foreground of others photographs.

[oldcynic]

nessiemac said:

As mentioned i shall contact her in the morning to ask which photo and i shall remove but i bet he already has it as his facebook profile pic!!!

Can't say fairer than that.

If he does have his own photo on facebook then that's for his mother to sort out (although it's beyond me why anyone in the world publishes their own photo along with their real name on the internet.) This gem would also help to identify her as a finickity old wotsit.

[RobDickinson]

Make sure you tell her she has no right to demand this but you are doing it because your nice...

[Burrito]

davepoth said:

A black rectangle across the child's eyes on the photos in a Reader's Wives-style is plenty enough to anonymise them whilst also pissing off the mother far more, if that's what you want to do. HTH.

This. But make sure you tag the photo with his name!

[MOTORVATOR]

We should have a photoshop comp with it here first.