The Thing of the Moment's Guide to Photographing People

My friend CNeves and I had JUST walked out of Logan Airport after sending Mean Don off to war and we were waiting for the bus and I'm taking picturesof trash cans and taxi signs when I see this couple sort of standing around like us when the girl jumps up and kisses the guy. I said to CNeves, "I think I just GOT that." So we checked and sure enough, we had the following 3 images.

...Which I wasn't totally happy with. So I went up to them and said "Excuse me, would you mind jumping and kissing him again and (to the guy) you sort of lean back and (to the girl) you sort of hug his neck a little more...

Hee...and they did without even asking who I was, what I was doing, or what I was going to do with the photo. I didn't offer them the image, there was no exchange of email addresses. They just did it and that was it. I have no idea who they are and never saw them again.

It's like that a surprising amount of the time.

I have found that people will happily let you photograph them if they are doing something which MAKES sense to photograph. From The Carnies, to The People at Work Series, to people butchering a whale washed up on the shore, if it makes sense as to WHY you might want the photo, most of the time people will let you have it.

Most of the time I ask after having already taken one, like the above shoot. And a few times I've asked and been told no, and A COUPLE OF TIMES the reaction was one that made me think I was lucky to get away with my camera and life. But after you get a couple of those, everything else is easy.

Gentle Viewer Speak Coffee (I love that name) writes in the comments section: "So if kissing is one of the things it makes sense to take a picture of, what are things that don't make sense? or result in threats?"

I actually have an ANSWER for that. People smoking in a huddle outside of a red neck bar don't like it. A lunatic railyard worker who works on Labor Day and does NOT want his photo taken lest he end up on ANOTHER Internet database, he will not like it. People who had a reasonable expectation of privacy may not like it. People fighting (even in public) tend to unite against you so they don't like it. Someone who has just done something to look stupid won't like it. And photographers...photographers hate it.