Reactions from Bystanders When Taking Photos of Signals/Signs

[Ian]

Hey all,

I really wasn't sure where to put this, but has anyone ever gotten strange reactions from bystanders when taking a photo of a road sign along the highway? I know I have. My worst was when I was taking a photo of an old US 98 shield in West Palm Beach, FL this past spring and someone honked and hollered at me. Not only did it embarrass me, but it also scared me half to death!

Anyone else?
-Ian

[corco]

I generally take pictures from inside the car while moving, and I'll do my absolute best to make sure there aren't people in the picture, but it does happen occasionally. Ive gotten funny looks, but no honking or hollering.

I'm working on a project now for my job for a city government where I'm photographing every house within city limits while collecting a GPS point, requiring me to drive around, stop in front of people's houses, photo, and drive to the next house- on that job I'll usually get 3 or 4 people an hour come out and ask what I'm doing/holler at me (I'm in an unmarked white 1994 Mercury Sable with no hubcaps and a broken windshield, so I couldn't possibly look any sketchier), so I'm becoming fairly desensitized to people questioning me taking pictures. In this case, the police department is fully aware I'm doing this (they're among the agencies that can use the data!), so I have absolutely nothing to worry about.

On a quasi-related note, if I'm roadgeeking and a police car pulls up behind me, I'll stop photographing road signs- I'll usually turn onto a side street or into a parking lot until they move away so I don't miss any signs. I don't know what their reaction would be and I don't want to find out

[Alex]

Hey all,

I really wasn't sure where to put this, but has anyone ever gotten strange reactions from bystanders when taking a photo of a road sign along the highway? I know I have. My worst was when I was taking a photo of an old US 98 shield in West Palm Beach, FL this past spring and someone honked and hollered at me. Not only did it embarrass me, but it also scared me half to death!

Anyone else?
-Ian

I do a pretty good job at ignoring passers by. Occasionally I will hear someone holler or a car horn, but I usually tune it out or if it pisses me off, mouth something to myself. Otherwise, I tend to not let it bother me. More recently I have taken to wearing an orange vest while standing on the side of a road for a photograph. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much it deflects the miffed reactions from drivers and the assumed legitimacy it brings.

When on foot, say walking around taking photos of signs, sometimes I will be dissuaded. Other times however, I just figure, they'll be puzzled, and a few minutes later, not think anything of it. That was the case when I photographed this assembly in 2000: www.aaroads.com/shields/show.php?image=NY19700622&search=104 There were a few people sitting on a front porch, and I thought, when will I get to see a US 104 shield again? Back then I only had a film camera, so it was "now or never", and I chose to ignore them, get my photo, and move on.

To Corco, when I worked in mapping, one of my jobs as a researcher was to drive around and collect data/observations for our map updates. Occasionally I would get tailgated or cut off for not going fast enough, or better yet, hear yelling because I drove down a road that one of the residents considered "private". I just learned to tune incidents out, or to let my reactionary frustration out in spurts to keep it from building up, and moved on...

[agentsteel53]

the only people that I have any reason to respond to are the police, and in my experience, 100% of the time they will accept you as being "strange, but generally harmless". 

Hell, I've been pulled over for speeding, and upon the usual "what are you doing all the way out here" I showed the officer photos of old green signs and identified them as "these date back to 1967 when the intersection was built - you're looking at a piece of history right here!" ... and gotten away with a warning 

[Ian]

I've actually had police cars pass me when taking closeups of old signs, and they didn't even bother to stop and ask questions. I am surprised that they have only passed because its usually the ones who are around my age that like to steal things like road signs.

[Roadgeek Adam]

For me, I will lower the camera when I see a cop facing the direction of traffic I am in. If not I go on as usual. For someone who is photographing on public property with train stations, I am usually fine and dandy unless there's a train coming, in which I will move to the opposite platform, where the conductors won't see me. (I am legally allowed to do this, but some conductors lack knowledge of the rules)

[Chris]

I try not to show my camera when there's a car directly next to me on a multi-lane highway. I've gotten some weird looks when I'm making a highway video, especially on roads with traffic lights or pedestrians, but have never been pulled over though. The police doesn't patrol as much in Europe as the do in the United States. You can drive hundreds of miles on major highways without ever seeing a cop.

[US71]

I had a Sheriff Deputy question me briefly in Missouri last year, but when I told him I was taking pictures of the old bridge, he told me there were quite a few in the area, then left me alone.

Signals & signs I try not to do when there are lots of people around, but generally, then ignore me.

I got chased away from a gas station in Baton Rouge, also Atoka, OK.

I got questioned by a station owner in Meridian, MS who calmed down after I explained what I was doing.


Kat from tiedyetravels takes food pictures for her blog and occasionally gets questioned by people in the restaurant, but otherwise leave her alone.

[Truvelo]

Occasionally I will hear someone holler or a car horn, but I usually tune it out or if it pisses me off, mouth something to myself. Otherwise, I tend to not let it bother me. More recently I have taken to wearing an orange vest while standing on the side of a road for a photograph. I have been pleasantly surprised at how much it deflects the miffed reactions from drivers and the assumed legitimacy it brings.

I used to have that problem as well. Since I started wearing a fluorescent vest I've had no one blow their horn. It's amazing how official it makes you look.

I try not to show my camera when there's a car directly next to me on a multi-lane highway. I've gotten some weird looks when I'm making a highway video, especially on roads with traffic lights or pedestrians, but have never been pulled over though.

I also put the camera lower down when a car is beside me. This is annoying when there's something you want to get a picture of at the moment there's a car beside me. A way around the problem is to look at the traffic approaching from behind and predicting when it will pass you then alter your speed to ensure there's nothing beside you at the location of a potential photograph. If that fails and/or the photo is blurred I will turn round and try again.

Another thing that pisses me off is when there's a tractor trailer or semi in front. I've had many pictures ruined by the ass end of such vehicles being in the way. I've sometimes pulled on the shoulder and waited until there's no trucks in the approaching traffic before setting off. Renting an SUV helps in getting a better view over the traffic.

[agentsteel53]

heh, I don't care if there is anyone beside me, but if there are cars in front of me, I curse the fates at how much Photoshop I'm going to have to do.  The whole point of me going out into the middle of nowhere is to get away from all the hosers - if I wanted to see other people, I'd go to work or something!

[US71]

I used to have that problem as well. Since I started wearing a fluorescent vest I've had no one blow their horn. It's amazing how official it makes you look.

Can they be customized? Usually when I'm working, I'm wearing one of my Cafe Press shirts.  

[corco]

I've never been particularly with non-police when taking pictures while driving. I try really hard not to modify my driving behavior while I'm photographing (except maybe some lane positioning where I'll hold off on passing another car to get a picture of a sign on the right side), so I figure as long as I'm not driving like an asshat to get a picture I may get some funny looks but there is nothing they can or will do. I have yet to be honked at or anything like that while taking a picture and driving.

[J N Winkler]

I have had to explain myself to police officers several times.  However, by far the worst incident was in south London (Elephant and Castle?) when I decided to photograph an old internally illuminated overhead direction sign.  I had to stand in a particular spot in order to avoid getting streetlighting columns in shot, and I could not shoot and go because the sign was occluded part of the time (I forget why, but suspect it was partly cloudy that day).  Some idiot passerby saw me with my camera, patiently waiting for my shot, and thought it would be really amusing to harass me by talking at me, waving his hands around me, dancing a jig etc.

[oscar]

I've been hassled while taking road photos:

-- when taking photos near the entrance to a military base (not a good idea, the military is allergic to photography of their facilities, and they have a Federal law authorizing their photography restrictions);

-- when a passing driver thought my parking in a pullout to snap sign photos was a safety hazard (I disagreed, but moved along); and

-- when I took a photo of a car passing through a one-lane bottleneck to illustrate how narrow it was, and the driver didn't like him or his car being photographed (I explained what I was up to, and in particular that I wasn't photographing everybody passing by or trying to get people's faces; now I try to take such photos only as the vehicle is moving away from me).

[agentsteel53]

-- when taking photos near the entrance to a military base (not a good idea, the military is allergic to photography of their facilities, and they have a Federal law authorizing their photography restrictions);

indeed.  also the US border patrol seems to not like photos.  Whenever I enter the country from Canada or Mexico, their first comment tends to be "no photos, please.  all right, let's see your passport".  Not that I particularly want photos of their crummy border patrol facilities - the only time I've been tempted to take a photo is at the US-201 international boundary in Maine, where the dedication plaque on the side of the building has a date of July, 2009 - with the president being identified as George W. Bush.  Talk about being in denial!

[Chris]

Oh that remembers me, I once had to take pictures of a local road for work (for inventory reasons), and this guy stopped, and was quite mad I took a picture of his car (regular street scene) (not intended of course, you can't wait for an empty street on an 8,000 AADT road). He wanted to call the police. Well, I said; "go ahead, I don't care the slightest." I had a clearly marked company van parked on the curb by the way. He finally backed off and drove away, probably because I wasn't impressed at all when he said he'd call the cops on me. (it was perfectly legal what I was doing and I could've explained it to the police without any problems).

[Duke87]

My summer intern job with the City of Stamford sometimes entailed going out to take pictures of things. I would often get people asking me questions, naturally. Although, most of the time it wasn't directly related to what I was doing, but rather because they saw my badge and/or the city car and decided that since I was a city employee, I was someone to file their complaints with. So, I would get asked by people when their street was going to get paved, why the cops weren't nabbing the people that kept running the stop sign at the end of the block, why the branches that were too close to the power lines hadn't been trimmed, etc.

I've yet to get bothered when photographing things recreationally, though.

[J N Winkler]

indeed.  also the US border patrol seems to not like photos.  Whenever I enter the country from Canada or Mexico, their first comment tends to be "no photos, please.  all right, let's see your passport".  Not that I particularly want photos of their crummy border patrol facilities - the only time I've been tempted to take a photo is at the US-201 international boundary in Maine, where the dedication plaque on the side of the building has a date of July, 2009 - with the president being identified as George W. Bush.  Talk about being in denial!

They didn't bother me when I visited Lukeville, Arizona, walked up to the Mexican border (not setting foot across the boundary line), and took pictures of the signs leading into the vehicular inspection lanes.  It is true that areas where passports are checked--not just at border stations, but also within international airports and the like--tend to have photography bans, not just in the US but also in foreign countries.

BTW, because I had walked past the frontier controls, I had to stand in queue and show my passport despite never actually having been in Mexico.

Lukeville is actually rather boring.  The border facility I would really have liked to photograph is Mariposa (Arizona SR 289 crossing).  It is quite interesting because it is oriented toward handling truck traffic, with bilingual signs not just for border-related formalities but also for commercial motor vehicle inspection.  Moreover, the complementary facilities in Mexico are not actually at the border--when you cross into Mexico at Mariposa, you are immediately in a fenced-off corredor fiscal (essentially a freeway without intermediate interchanges) which ends at the actual border inspection station about five miles south of the border itself.

But CBP and their partners (both public and private, I think) working in the vicinity make it very difficult to photograph Mariposa.  For starters, all of the roads within a mile or so of the crossing have "no parking" restrictions.  Private lots are signed "unauthorized vehicles will be towed."  There are no sidewalks within the POE itself, and there are lots of roving officers around to ask pedestrians what they are doing near vehicles.  I didn't want to talk with any of these people, so I just left.

[J N Winkler]

He wanted to call the police. Well, I said; "go ahead, I don't care the slightest." I had a clearly marked company van parked on the curb by the way. He finally backed off and drove away, probably because I wasn't impressed at all when he said he'd call the cops on me.

I am sure he did not intend to call the cops at all.  He felt you were harassing him by taking pictures of his car and he wanted you to know that he could bite back.  In this situation an explanation of what you were doing (photographic survey for possible future highway improvements) would probably have defused the situation.

[hbelkins]

I've had people blow horns before, and also had a few ladies yell or whistle at me. LOL

And I've actually had a few people stop and say, "take my picture!"

[US71]

I've had people blow horns before, and also had a few ladies yell or whistle at me. LOL

And I've actually had a few people stop and say, "take my picture!"

I did that when I was in Rapid City, SD last year. I was taking photos of the US President statues and a guy in a wheelchair wanted his picture taken, so I did.

[agentsteel53]

And I've actually had a few people stop and say, "take my picture!"

what's the point of that?  now you've got a picture of some random person that you'll never see again.  great?

[froggie]

what's the point of that?  now you've got a picture of some random person that you'll never see again.  great?

Not an issue when the picture is taken with the photo-requester's camera.  Which is something I've been asked from time to time.

[agentsteel53]

Not an issue when the picture is taken with the photo-requester's camera.  Which is something I've been asked from time to time.

oh okay.  didn't think of that.  I'd figure if someone already had a camera the first person they'd ask isn't the one who is occupied with taking a picture of a boring old sign.

[BigMattFromTexas]

In Mexico I had some people down there looking at me weird when I was taking These pictures. I didn't really think much of it though. I can't really tell if someone looks at me funny when their going 70 down the highway. So I figure most places I take pictures the odds of me seeing them again aren't very good...

With the Police officers, I don't see why they would stop you (unless it's a sheriff). Cause it's not like you're waiving a handgun at the sign . I just kinda shrug if there's someone next to me.

In San Antonio I didn't have much choice but to take pictures behind the vehicles in front of us, as we were following them going to a state volleyball tourney .
BigMatt

fixed borked URL