Finally: My First Bad Experience As A Photographer

It was ninety eight degrees farenheit and I was sweating.  The final leg of my hike that afternoon felt like a relief.  I belly-dance-strode across the green field, feeling invigorated by my photo shoot.

The field I belly-dance-pranced across was a humid stretch;  the large frames of the jumps for the horse shows cast no shadows in the hot sun.  It was time for lunch and quest of inspiration was sated.

As I paced myself, I saw an SUV, of all strange things, bouncing across the field in a rush.  I was surprised at the speed the SUV moved, and I thought about the grass I was walking on.  I wished I had sunglasses and shadowed my eyes with my hands. 

It was a police officer and he was headed straight for me!  I had a feeling that I might be Alice In Wonderland;  in the peace of my mid-morning photo-shoot, I was not prepared to see an officer in a brown hat pull up to me and say, "Have you been taking photographs of small children?"

I felt suddenly very confused, as if I had just stepped out of some reality I had no idea existed.  "Small children?" I asked, confused and slightly amused.  "Yes, we have a report of a woman who said you spoke to her about her child and taking the child's photograph."

Here is what happened:

I had parked my vehicle up by The Inn that day,  had pushed through some of the wooded areas (shooting in macro), and ended up in front of The Longfellow's Wayside Grist Mill.  All around the grist mill there are beautifully renovated and perfectly maintained streams which all contribute to the tiny ecosystem which lives there.  All the stonework, even in the streaming brook, has been reproduced--it is a historically preserved site.

I don't know if I had to explain this to YOU.

There were three mothers with three muddy children, and as I moved to take a  photograph of the lovely reflections in the brook and all that great stonework, two of the children ran in front of my camera.  I was sort of irked until I saw how wonderful the image came out.  

I was going to move on and keep shooting, but I felt that I should be SURE to speak to the mothers--as a mother I would like the option of knowing whether a photograph my child was in might show up someplace!  

I approached the three mothers, and they did not understand me very well.  I suggested they speak en espanol, I might understand them better (we could try this both ways?).  Two of the mothers LOVED the photograph I showed them, and wanted my phone number and a card (which I was getting ready to give them) but the third mother freaked--sort of.

She said, "NOBODY take no picture my child, NO."  I felt her.  I then told the other two mothers that because ONE of the children in the photograph could not be used I could not use the photograph at all.  I then deleted the photograph from my camera IN FRONT of the mothers and said goodbye.

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"Oh!" I said to the officer with the brown hat and the SUV.  I told him what happened and showed him every single photograph on my digital camera and he told me he would notify the woman and assure her that I had no images of any children at ALL. 

I suggested he address to her that her children should not have been swimming in a historical preserve. In a public place (if she did not want people photographing her child).  I did not illegally take ANYBODY'S photograph.

I find that photography full time is an interesting endeavor.  I learn more and more every day!

....all on one very humid indian summer day when the foliage was blazing at the wayside inn in sudbury, mass...

I also got in trouble a bit today, but I will tell that story the next time...yikes!