to wonder wtf she was thinking?

[Louellah]

Sat on the train at a table seat next to another woman. I've had my head in my book so not noticed what she's been doing. I looked up for a split second and saw that she had just taken a photo of me on her forward facing camera on what I can only assume is snapchat (never used it). It looked like an app she was using and not her normal camera. She immediately saw that I had noticed and before I had time to say anything she had stood up and moved to a different carriage. AIBU to think that a) this is incredibly rude and to also wonder b) why on earth would she take a photo of ME? Do I look rough/good today? It's creeped me out a little and I'm annoyed I didn't grab her and ask her to remove it. I blame baby brain and my zombified/tired state!

It’s really rude! I wouldn’t like it.

Actively taking a picture of someone without telling them or asking them is very different to passively being recorded on cctv. Also there are multiple signs alerting you to cctv. If you think it is ok to just take pictures of individuals without communication you need to consider your poor interpersonaĺ skills and improve them.

I had to do a photography training for work once - basically they were trying to save money by having us take photos at various events but wanted to make sure they were usable so we went on a one-day course.

As part of it, the guy had us go out in central London for a couple of hours taking photos of people on the street. A few of us were quite uncomfortable about it, but he was adamant that legally you can take photos of whoever you want in public. So we had a list of things to find - eg, men in suits talking, woman on mobile phone - and to try and take decent compositions of.

I know a few amateur photographers who do it, and I've worked a lot in developing countries where it actually makes me very uncomfortable - essentially, 'here is a photo of a woman working in a field, isn't it interesting?' when actually you wouldn't take a photo of a woman working in Tesco on your holiday. But I don't imagine the train woman meant anything wrong by it. I have once considered taking a sneaky photo of someone who looked really like one of my friends, but I think asking them would be even more awkward - if someone went up to me and said 'oh you look just like my friend Mary can I take a picture?' I'd say no, but I probably wouldn't care if they'd taken one without me knowing. She should have been more discrete tbh.

I dont understand how you could see her phone screen if she was taking a photo of you?

But there are so many non-weird/non-creepy/non-malicious reasons for this and chances are you are never going to see that photo

No, there aren't. I wouldn't DREAM of taking a photo of anyone and sharing it on social media. Who does that?? None of my friends do. Maybe because we're not 12.

Doesn't matter if we see the photo or not. It's out there.

It's a dick move.

Saying that it seems weirdly common on trains. No idea why anyone would want a photo of a stranger.

MrsLupo Unlike the lady mentioned in the OP, I am discrete.

Waggingmyginger Nobody has mentioned CCTV (except for the poster who got the wrong end of the stick).

elephantscanring Yes, there are many non malicious reasons for this. Perhaps you should RTFT for a myriad of examples, or you know, just use your common sense.

“It’s out there”? Really? Please enlighten me, where exactly is “out there”?

HansSoloTraveller1 No idea? RTFT.

There's a huge difference between being captured on CCTV/in the background of someone's photo and being singled out to have a covert photo taken without your consent. Ok, perhaps there is no nefarious intent behind some instances, but would anyone here be OK with people taking secret photos of their kids?

Because I fucking wouldn't. And I think most people accept that taking secret snaps of kids they don't know, is not the way to carry on.

Why are there different rules for grown ups?

There is a whole genre of street photography, and it is totally legal. However, it raises some interesting ethical issues.

For example, Haley Morris-Cafiero takes pictures of people's reaction to her weight - exposing their judgemental attitude towards her body. They're quite powerful images, and they do a job of exposing prejudice. Are they ethical? I don't know. Are they art? Definitely.

Philip diCorcia famously got sued by a man whose image he took on the street (in the States) - the suit failed because the court felt that artistic expression was privileged.

I think that if you're out in public, you're basically on camera all the time. There are cameras everywhere. I think it's very difficult to build a coherent case against street photography when we have such an entrenched culture of surveillance. Our image is definitely not our own in public space - being looked at is part of the experience of being in a shared place, being photographer is as well.

@WhatToDoAbout - you are the only poster on this thread who thinks that it's OK to take pics of strangers.

Everyone else thinks it's rude, weird, creepy and wrong to take photos of strangers without asking.

I have RTFT and none of the examples you give are aceptable, IMO.

But you carry on thinking you're right...

elephantscanring Well no, I’m not, because a poster on the first page also said she’s done it, and there are at least twenty posts on this thread where posters have not said they think it’s rude/creepy/odd etc and rather provided reasonable explanations.

It’s not a matter of right or wrong; it’s simply opinion. My opinion is that it is fine, it isn’t harming anyone and I will continue to do it. As will many, many other people.

Maybe you are the double of someone she knows. I was recently on a dinner cruise and the waitress looked so like my friend's DD that I became determined to get a picture of her to send to my friend. In the end I told her and asked for a picture with her.

whattodo i have read all the ops updates. Im still not sure how she saw what camera was being used and who was on the screen. Do these new phones now have a screen on both sides? Or would op have had to go over and look around the phone to see a photo of herself?

HansSoloTraveller1 The majority of (if not all) smartphones have both forward and backward facing cameras, allowing you to take selfies.

So if the woman was using the front facing camera and OP was being nosy near enough, she would be able to see what was on the screen.

Thanks for explaining. I wasnt being arsey was just curious as to how that worked as ive not seen any obvious difference in cameras. Is one to watch out for.

HansSoloTraveller1 No worries We’re not talking about cameras but rather smartphones with inbuilt cameras, of which the majority have a front and a backward facing one.

In fact I would be very surprised if there was a smartphone out there that didn’t have a forward facing camera.

Do you not own a smartphone then?

(And does anyone except photographers carry round a camera these days? My phone camera is a lot better than what I could get in a non-extortionate non-specific photography one, and it means less to lug around too.)

I have an old phone because they are cheap so if i want a selfie its mirror time lol i knew that phones had front cameras for selfies i just didnt realise it was obvious. My thought is if she used front camera to photo op could she have done it to pretend the op was herself if you see what i mean? Like catfishing.

HansSoloTraveller1 It doesn’t have to be obvious, really. I’m always discrete when snapping photos of others, but not so much if I’m taking a selfie.

Nobody knows the reason why, because none of us (presumably) are the woman in the OP (however I would say that’s doubtful and rather dramatic).

If she was sat next to her on the train the only way to get a photo without being explicitly obvious would be to use the front facing camera. I’ve done that to get people next to or behind me.

I felt like taking a photo of the hundreds of people down the isles...

Were you on a train or a boat?