In the above video SurveillentCameraMan makes a couple of good points. He asks “well you’re not doing anything wrong are you?” and that doesn’t seem to matter to the woman. She says she’d had a “rotten day”, even though that would be caught, maybe tracked, by security cameras. Clearly, personalization of the camera makes it seem more leery.

The other point, made without tact, may resonate with street photographers, or anyone who photographs in public. The first man says: “did you know it’s illegal to come up and photograph people that don’t want to be photographed?”

In most places, it isn’t illegal to take pictures in public without permission. But that doesn’t mean people aren’t suspicious of it. There are hundreds of stories online about how public photography is being seen as a heinous act. There’s a collective fear that those with cameras could be paedophiles, perverts and terrorists – although you could be all those things sans camera.

Moral of the story: Knowing when to keep still and to keep your mouth shut and chosing to do so does not make a person weak or powerless. It does not mean someone else will automatically take the power from you. It just means you have priorities.