Why might someone take a picture of you in public?

I love photography. There are moments I have seen I would love to take a photograph, candid, but my respect says, no. That is also me, though, I'm private in nature, so I extend that respect if I don't want mine taking without permission, I don't take of others.

You got me thinking of something that happened to me years ago. It's far off-topic in a certain kind of way yet on topic in another way. There I was when I was going through photography school and needing to capture photographs. You learn to look at scale, context, and more..... visually,

So there I was walking under a train bridge that fascinated me. I liked the rain from yesterday dripping down from the tracks above. To give (human) scale, I saw two women walking who had to be 200' away from me. So they were not a feature on my photograph, other than offering scale, and human context. I could see they were Muslim. I knew the Muslim custom, you don't photograph Muslim women, as a stranger.

I was surprised, as I thought myself clear of boundaries, being so far away (200+ feet)..... They were polite about it, asking me to delete the photograph. I would have, but it was a film camera. I remained silent about that part as I was not wanting to say I couldn't.

There could be many reasons why one might photograph you in public. But if they were this close to you when taking the photograph, they should have asked you for permission.

I have an interesting, but maybe not very funny story of a family friend, a very public figure, whose full page picture unknowingly turned up in one of those table-top picture books. It was a citywide merriment celebration and a professional photographer cruised the city taking pictures of the celebrating people and the crowds. Pictures that eventually became part of one of those 20X20 picture books that try to capture the essence of a celebration or event.

The proverbial sh-- hit the fan when a hometown local bought the book and was leafing through the pages and suddenly ... "Is that xxxxxx????" and the shockwave rolled through the community like a sonic boom. The pictured showed the respected person as a totally different character from who he was known to be and eventually led to life changing transitions for his future. The sock wave so severe that it caught national attention. Sorry, no further details in respect for our friend and his family who spent years escaping the situation. Just be aware that someone may take your picture, ready or not, and that picture may come back to haunt you.

This reminds me of a man who worked for the university in another department. Sometimes he would be asked to take photos of meetings when there were speakers at other departments and he would show up with his fancy camera. He was well known to take a lot of photos of young women in those meetings. Someone who worked in our department saw large piles of photos of colleges coeds he would see while waking around on campus. He had some kind of fetish I suppose. Was also known as a womanizer along with another man from his department. Students told me they’d be at basketball games etc female students one had hired for part time jobs

That’s a little strange in my opinion. There’s no purpose in taking a pic of someone like that.

Were you wearing anything revealing? My friend had a creepy guy at the pool taking pics of her in her bikini..

If not idk why he would be taking pictures of you.. maybe to show someone cause he has a huge crush on you or he is being a stalker.

Either way really weird.

Should have asked him if he liked what he saw

I was photographed for a magazine article about retail robberies. It happened to me and I was experienced enough to share my story. He interviewed me for a bit. That incident is still fresh in my mind. It was definitely an educational experience.

I sometimes have really colorful hair and things like that and I live in a town where that's not super common so it's kind of weird for them. They don't usually snap pics, but they have stopped me to ask about it before.

To find the true reason, you would have to ask him.

My hypothesis is that he wanted to have the photo to document his own history.

That sounds pretty creepy. Have you seen him around since then?

This happened a few months ago. They mistook me for Gabriel Iglesias and wanted an autograph.

That seems odd to me. I do not take pictures of strangers or acquaintances myself.

Good luck and stay safe.

He should have asked your permission before taking the picture, I think.

I’d of gone up and asked him..lol

May be he is your diehard fan lol 😜

Could be because your hot

Evidence

You mean like this? 😅