I’m riding my bike in one of my favorite Delaware Bay towns.
I pass by a nicely decorated home and yard. Oh what pretty birdhouses.
I’ll write a birdhouse-themed blog post I decide. I focus my camera and click.
A man is suddenly peering over my shoulder at my camera screen.
The situation feels menacing, an utter stranger standing way too close.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
“Making sure you’re not part of the riff-raff around here,” he answers.
“Do I look like riff-raff?” I ask.
He mutters something more about watching out for neighbors and walks away.
I am over sixty, I look sixty. I am average height, average weight for my age. I was wearing a hat, sunglasses and had reading glasses on a string around my neck. The man, in my opinion, purposely tried to intimidate me for taking photographs. I was in the street, I was not on private property. We live in an age of people indulging in bad and rude behavior if they feel their cause is good. I, for one, am SICK of it all.
Here’s the law about photographs for anyone who takes photos to use on your blog, You can take any photographs you want if you are on a public street or public property. If you step on private property to take a photograph you are breaking the law and can be prosecuted. You can find an informative article here: When photos break the law, and an updated, but harder to understand article here: Photography and the Law.
