Dont do that!

[Kiwi]

The security guard at work today took my photograph without asking me

he was talking to me and fiddling with his phone (and I was thinking jeez im not going to tell him not to take photos am I) I have to quite often insist people do not take their cameras into the gallery... even if theres no flash (I dont care bub just fork it over)

and then he points it wards me, says "SMILE" and clicks!!!!

WTF dude, do NOT take photos of me without asking first! What is wrong with you! That is beyond rude!

I know he didnt purposefully mean to upset me, and I dont know if im over reacting but I thought it was a real invasion of privacy....

seriously... I freaked out, told him to delete it straight away (I dont know for sure if he did) and informed him of our no photography policy (my employeers not mine)... and although thats technically for the gallery and not admissions.... which my co-irker so helpfully pointed out thanks T! I was seriously not impressed.

[RecoveringKinkoid]

Kind of creepy. I mean, maybe he was just fiddling with his camera and snapped an innocent photo. I wasn't there, I don't know. Maybe he's got a whole roll of pictures of girls.

There used to be a guy, worked security, too, used to take pictures of girls at the university I went to when they showed up for registration. No, it wasn't his job. His job was to see id's when people showed up. So he'd see your name and snap your picture. Without asking of course. THAT is creepy.

Also, the infamous Funkstain, who stars in many of my "sucky co-worker" stories would pull crap like this, too. And he was a bona fide, card carrying, 24 carat Creeptm. He did this one day when we had a studio full of kids, and I told my boss that Funkstain would be taking unsolicited pictures of kids over my cooling, bullethole-riddled corpse, and if he didn't want a fist fight, an ambulance, a firing, and a cop car to disrupt our shoot, he'd go in there and find Funkstain something to do other than be a creepy, smelly old pervert for an hour. I get pissed just thinking about it.

Unless you are friends with the person and know that they/their parents(if they are underage) wouldn't mind, you should always ask permission. Otherwise, it's just kind of creepy!

[Giggle Goose]

I don't think you were overreacting at all. Some superstitious people believe that having their picture taken 'steals their soul.' I can understand why.

[powerboy]

No you were not Rude. That Jerk was the Rude one.

[Becks]

I don't think you're overreacting at all.

Anyone who takes a picture of me without permission gets hurt.

[Rahmota]

Umm actually I want to point something out. If you are in a public place then legally a person does not have to have your permission to take a picture of you. All you can do is hold your hands up or a book in front of you or something. As in a public place you do not have the right to privacy the same as you would in a ,well, private place. Thats how reporters and paparazzi work. All perfectly legal.

From what the OP did though that was a deliberate taking of her picture. Not sure if it was illegal or not but it was definately rude.

I have had my picture taken and placed in the local newspaper last year during the little fourth of july street fair we have. Clearly visible is me and the wife and our son on my shoulders. Not happy about it but oh well nothing I could do about it.

Also I had a crazy lady get peeved with me at the Wright Pat air museum. They allow photos in there. I took a picture of one of the planes and this lady had walked around the corner of the plane just in time to have her picture taken with it as well. She demanded that I immediately delete the picture and proove it to her. Since she walked in front of the nose art and covered a part of it I had no problem doing so. Even held the camera around so she could see what I was doing. She still made such a fuss one of the volunteers came over and told her to chill or an AP would escort her out. And they aint kidding about that. (Remember folks it may be a museum but it is still part of an active military base and the guns the AP carry are not there for show) She chilled but still grumped off about people being able to take her picture. Geez I wonder if she has ever actually looked around at the amount of security and snooper cameras there are around.

[tollbaby]

hehe that makes me think of when my bf and I went through the National Art Gallery, happily snapping pics of the paintings and sculptures we liked, and then being told, in no uncertain terms, that it was prohibited.... there wasn't a single sign anywhere informing of that fact, and it was my FIRST time in an art gallery LOL I was very embarassed and immediately deleted all the photos from my digital camera *blush*