As of lately, especially in public places, I find more and more people complaining that their picture is being made without consulting them. A few days ago I was shooting at a local park and all of a sudden a woman began to shout at me saying that I had photographed her child without her permission. My explanations about shooting in a public place plus my explanations that I was not shooting persons or children (shooting children without parent's consent is a felony in Dade County) did not convince her agitated attitude. She threatened me with a call to the police. I showed her the picture in question, taken with a wide angle and her child was not visible but I deleted the shot in front of her. That did not make her any happier but she did not call the police.

I like to go to local parks and photograph the scenery, not the persons there but this incident has been kind of traumatic to me since I treated the young lady with respect but she did not act the same way with me. Had she call the police it would have been hard for me to explain my rights and I know it is illegal to photograph children without parent's consent. I think I acted as a decent human being but I do not want this to happen to me again.

So, which are my rights?

William, when confronted with situations like this, I simply explain that there is no expectation of privacy in a public area. Secondly, if someone wants to call the police, let 'em. I'll continue to go about my photographing until they get there.

Now, there was one individual who insisted that they were going to have me arrested. I told them to go ahead and call the police. However, think about this before you start insisting that someone is arrested. If the officer sees that I'm not doing anything illegal, guess who gets taken to jail. After a brief moment of thought, the person stomped away and I continued to take the photographs I wanted.
--Bob

You have no rights. Get used to it. You're lucky that she didn't pull out a handgun and shoot you - Florida and their "stand your ground" B.S. makes that entirely possible.

The best approach is to be humble, apologize profusely, and if you are successful at de-escalating the situation, provide her with your card, and offer her a free print, or do as you did - delete the image in front of her, apologizing all the way.

Confrontation and trying to explain why you are right (and presumably she is wrong) is NOT a good approach, and will only serve to further agitate the mom. There are numerous reasons why someone would not want to be photographed, or have their family members photographed - witness protection and orders of protection in custody battles. You will never win, and you will risk escalating to the point of creating a scene and possibly getting arrested. It's just not worth it.

A better approach, if the situation lends itself to it, would be to inform parents watching their kids that you are working on a project that involves kids at play, offer then your business card, and would they object to having their children (and themselves) photographed. have model releases ready just in case. If they object, just move on. In this case it IS better to ask permission than to beg forgiveness.

While it is perfectly legal to take these pictures, and the parent has no legal footing with which to object, do you really want to defend your right to take these pics in a court of law? That can get expensive really fast. Common sense needs to prevail. However, if you are in Georgia, in 2010 it became illegal to anyone other than a parent to photograph children. Similar legislation was attempted in New Jersey in 2011, but failed to pass.

Remember, you have no rights. Repeat, you have no rights. Of course you have rights, but in such a contest, you will lose the first battle. And someone being photographed has every right to ask you to not photograph them or their family members. The law may be on your side, but common sense dictates that confrontation and escalation is not a good option.

Doubt it.

What you are failing to see is that a person can be arrested, and possibly convicted, for "taking photographs of a police officer". You have an apparent shallow view of the situation. I specifically wrote that one can be arrested "for taking photographs", which is quite possible. What may be more difficult is convicting a person for taking photographs. Examples of such can be found easily.

What may not be so easy to fight in court is obstruction, interference, resusing to obey a lawful request, etc.
--Bob

I wish a lawyer would chime in here. I have a friend that was a deputy sheriff and he was taking pictures at the beach. Even though he is very attracted to the young beautiful girls that run around in skimpy swimsuits, he doesn't usually take pictures of them. But one time while he was taking pictures he pointed his camera in the general direction of some 15 or 16 year old girls and they started yelling to their guardian, (I assume parent) that "that man just took our picture". My friend denied it and the people fetched a cop on duty and brought him over to investigate. My friend was very embarrassed by the yelling and screaming parent that accused him publicly of being a pervert for taking pictures of her kids that were wearing skimpy swim gear. The bottom line is that the cop looked at the pictures my friend took and didn't find any of girls in swim gear. But we still don't really know what might have happened if there were some on his camera. They aren't nude, there is no expectation of privacy on a public beach, my friend is a cop and not a convicted child molestor etc., so what gives? Here in California, police agencies don't seem to care about courtesy to other agencies. So if a cop from one jurisdiction is accused of something in another jurisdiction, they are treated like anyone else. Not like the old days where they got a pass.

What is legal and what is practical may differ.

Two weeks ago I was physically attacked by about a dozen Nigerian women within a block of my home in Philadelphia.

I had taken a picture of the costumed group from what I thought was a respectable distance. One of them saw me and quickly the entire group set upon me, dragging me down and trying to pull my camera off of my neck. They wanted me to delete the photograph which I couldn't do against their assault. I wanted to protect my camera which they would have broken if they had grabbed it. Eventually, I was able to stand and delete the photograph, after which they insisted that I spool through the rest of my pictures to assure themselves that I had no other images of them.

My only possible defenses would have been to start punching them (but they were overpowering me) or defending myself with my flick knife (which would have ended badly).

First time I was attacked for shooting a picture.

They missed this one which I accidentally took as they were swarming over me.