Asking Permission to Take a Photograph

The only difficulty I had with the shoot at Donegal Crafts village (see above) was turning up and asking if I could take photographs there. And, once the question was asked, I could not have wished for more helpful and considerate people.

In one case, (artist Johnny McCabe) I went into the gallery and talked around the subject for 5 minutes ("yeah, I was just photographing Brendon...artists make really good subjects for travel photographers...this is a really photogenic studio...etc, ad naseum) before he said - probably in a fit of desperation -"so, do you want to photograph me then?"

I'm not sure what it is about me that makes me so nervous about asking people if I can take their picture. I sometimes joke that I was disbarred from the ranks of the paparazzi for being too polite. It's bad enough that I don't ask often enough - but the thought of just sticking up my camera and shooting away at a complete stranger without their permission sends me into paroxysms of anguish!

Don't get me wrong, I do ask people if I can photograph them, and I ask a lot of people (it's certainly increasing as I get older and my opportunities for photographing become increasingly finite.) I just don't think I like asking - maybe in case they say the dreaded N word.

I should be pachydermous really, like the elephant. A bit more thick-skinned. But not too much - or I'd turn into a dreadful Pap!!