Today… I went to photograph and event at a local, and favourite cemetery here in Liverpool. However, an incident was to happen, which really put my back up…lol.

As many who know me and visit my blog regularly know, I lecture in a local vocational college, and as an avid hobbyist photographer for 40+ years… lecture, both occasionally to photography students, as well as photographic club and society’s further afield… to this end, I always encourage up and coming young photographers (and older) to know their rights in law, when taking photographs in public places… see my page on ‘Photographers Rights‘.

However in short…

An individual, cannot expect privacy, in a public place… No one has the right to restrict, confiscate equipment or delete images taken by a photographer, in that public place.

So you can imagine my annoyance to arrive at the venue and pass by a school choir, who were to perform at the event, only to see a teacher taking photos of the choir… then my going further out to frame, compose and take a picture of the whole chapel, with those in attendance in the frame as well… to then have a parent, approach me and instruct me to delete the image, because of ‘safe guarding‘ issues… I was tempted to say “Are you having a laugh“… but contained myself.

I asked the parent to identify the lad in question to me… and she pointed him out… So I told her that I would blur out his face, when I came to edit the image, however, this did not seem to go down well… and she once again insisted that I delete the entire image…even though her son would have appeared as a tiny dot in the crowd…

It beggars, belief, that a parent whose son was in a school choir, performing at a public event, which was attended by the Deputy Lord Mayor of Liverpool, inter-denominational dignitaries and guests, would object to any pictures taken, which included the performing school choir, which her son was amongst…. totally bizarre…. I nearly left… but I’m glad I didn’t… I just made sure he wasn’t in any of the images… in order to keep the peace… but SO wrong !!!

RANT OVER…. lol.