Any time I’m shooting stills out on the street just for fun, I’m very sensitive to trying to not be an annoying guy with a camera.

That’s not always possible in street photography, but just because I might have the law on my side, the law doesn’t dictate my morality.

For the most part, I try to not be annoying with my camera.

If I get fewer shots than someone who is more shameless, then I’m okay with that. I work in a job where I don’t have always have a choice.

Minding my own business isn’t always enough.

Sometimes it’s difficult even when I’m trying to not be confrontational. Some property owners and some people who work security have an animosity towards photographers that doesn’t seem quite rational.

Several friends and I were downtown over the weekend. We just wanted to take photos.

That didn’t seem like such a difficult proposition.

We had a pleasant experience nearly everywhere we went.  I made a few long exposure shots and I think we all were just happy to have gotten out of the house.

I want to mention that at 7th and Figueroa a security card came out and told us his bosses wanted us off their property while we took photos.

No argument. We moved two feet to the public side of the sidewalk.  Maybe I should qualify that and say, we had no pointless argument.

We weren’t going to convince the security guard to see our point of view and, heck, we were already done shooting from the spot he wanted us to vacate.

I wasn’t interested in persuing a confrontation simply on principle.

Maybe it’s worth it to go back someday and try to prove our point, but yesterday I intended to take pictures and the more time spent proving a point, means less time for photos.

The rest of the day seemed pretty mellow and for the most part without incident.

We wandered the streets of downtown for while. Took some shots and I think we all enjoyed talking camera gear with fellow photographers.

A production company happened to be driving around shooting a Lexus commercial. It didn’t hold much interest for me and I didn’t even try to shoot it as they drove past us several times.

Near the end of the day, we were at a corner to regroup and decided where we wanted to have a meal.

A guy from the Lexus commercial was blocking foot traffic and told us to not take pictures.

Yeah, the guy said, don’t take pictures of their cars.

Okay, the law can be complicated, but some parts of it are pretty simple. If you’re doing something outside in the public view, don’t expect privacy.  If I can see it, there are no laws that prevent me from photographing it.

I made sure I took a few shots.