Perverts Are Ruining My Job (?)

Besides shooting pretty girls for a living, another area of photography I'm interested in is street photography. Generally, though, I refrain from engaging in this art form for one particular reason: Pervs.

I stumbled across an article, written by Salt Lake Tribune photographer, Trent Nelson, while following some links in my "Came From" stats on statsounter.com. Nelson's article, one he wanted to title Perverts Are Ruining My Job. (He didn't title it that way, although he wrote that he wanted to.) Anyway, Nelson's article pretty much covers the reasons I refrain from doing something I'd really like to do, i.e., shooting street photography.

Why?

Let's say I go down to the strand at Venice Beach to shoot some pics of... well, of just about anything that strikes my fancy. And let's also say that some of my images are snaps that include a few of the many interesting-looking visitors to Venice Beach. Then, all of a sudden, someone decides I'm perving on them with my camera and finds a cop who comes over to question me. The cop takes a look at my images and, although he can't find anything pervy about them, takes down my name and other info. Fast forward a bit and, somehow, someone gets hold of the info the cop recorded, coupled with the accusation, and does a bit of internet research and discovers I shoot naked women for a living. You see where all this is going?

We live in hyper-paranoid times. For many people, photographers are especially suspicious and on so many levels. Is he working for terrorists? Is he a perv? What is he doing with those images?

Although I think I have a pretty good eye for street photography, I refrain because of the above reasons. Maybe I'm just as hyper-paranoid as the people who are hyper-paranoid of me? I don't know. Maybe. But something tells me to resist the urge to go out and shoot strangers. Leastwise, until someone gives me some press credentials. Since that isn't likely to happen, I guess I'll never have the opportunity to discover if my photographic "eye" is made of any of the same stuff as Henri Cartier-Bresson's was.

The pretty girl at the top is Monique from last week. I shot Monique in mid-afternoon, full daylight, with the sun slightly behind her. I used a strobe, modified with a medium-sized umbrella, to deal with the bright ambient, letting El Sol back light the model. Canon 5D, 28-135 IS USM, ISO 100, f/11 @ 125th.