In a world where your online activities are monitored, what you buy, who you see and what you believe are constantly questioned by authorities using back door mechanisms... Well, let's just say I'm not worried about randoms taking my picture in a crowd these days as much as some government workers going over my personal affairs.
As a photographer, I do not put my lens solely focused on one person in a public space purposely unless that's what I'm being paid to do for a fashion shoot. I'm looking at the general look of the street, the foreground of the bike-racks or something else. People captured in the frame are generally part of a wide shot and I've frequently been approached about what I'm taking photos of. Only once, upon explanation of what I was doing, did they insist on looking and deleting things off my camera (I don't let others touch my cameras). I will delete a picture if someone's belligerent.
As much as it may seem to be pointed directly at you, generally you're not the biggest part of the photo. If the lens looks short on the camera, your face will be smaller in the final product. If you're in the public world, the expectation is that people will see you. People are already recording you without your consent automatically on the street.
Lodgey said:
I personally don't understand the issue. The test that I would apply is that of a reasonable expectation of privacy.
If I was at home, for example, I would consider it reasonable to expect no one will be trying to watch me through my window. Therefore, I would object to a stranger taking a photo of me.
If I was wandering down the street, I wouldn't have any expectation of privacy and don't understand why a photo of me in that situation could be considered rude.
That said, however, I am aware that many people don't think like that so I wouldn't take photos of people in public so as to not offend them, regardless of whether I understand or not.
The more intimate the space in someone's life you're in, the more explicit the permission needs to be. The OP's example of being in a high tourist area where the camera to people ratio is going to be extremely high, the odds of personal image privacy is just going to be low no matter his reservations. Its bad form to go up to someone working and taking their photo because you 'like the shop' in a close up regardless of where you work. I'm sure that he's been a part of thousands of photos at this point where he was just a part of the stall at the bottom of the picture.
He's within his rights to tell someone going for his face that he does not approve and to ask them to delete it. His expectation of privacy is much lower in those conditions than say in his backyard with his neighbor's kids playing with his son or something. If a random was taking photos there, I think the law would come down pretty quickly.
As someone hired to do both photography and videography on a regular basis, I have to take the public sphere into consideration constantly. People on the street are less likely to be bothered than say people sitting and drinking coffee at Starbucks outside. Vancouver is a pretty film aware city so you get both people who are appreciative of your work, who politely get out of your way and those who make an issue of it. Taking it calmly in my stride, having access to other people who can get rid of misconceptions is my way of managing it. At no time should you get bellicose about it because it reflects badly on your peers who will be down that street after you.
