Thursday, August 10, 2006

Picture This

I realize that I can easily over react to things so without a doubt I may right now be doing just that.

I scan a blog once in a while of someone from my church. Sometimes I find it amusing to see the perception of what he thinks happened and what actually happened. They can be very different.
He had linked a photo album with several activities of ours. My thoughts were instantly "Does he have permission to post those?" When my photograph and children’s came up the answer was NOPE.

Is it wrong to do that?

It seems a bit creepy to me, plus it was a very bad picture of me. No one comments on his but he most likely has several readers.

Should you ask before you post a photograph of someone?

Is there a bloging etiquette for this?

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I understand your concerns, Milly.

The question, as I understand it, is: Were the pics taken in a public forum, in other words, in a park, on the street...etc. If so, I don't think there is any legal action that can be taken only because anyone can take and publish pictures of anything that is considered public viewing. (That includes you and the Fam if you happen to be in the view-finder.)

If it was on private property, then you may have grounds for having them removed.

But let me say that humility and unity are of the utmost importance, here. You are dealing with a brother in Christ. And as such, you should approach the situation with a genuine and sincere desire to have the pictures removed, yet at the same time, remaining unified.

In other words, don't go into this with guns a-blazin'.

Milly said...

Danny,
No way will I say anything to him. Nor would I take any action. I’m just saying if we all got together I’d ask before posting picture of you or your family. I think it’s a bit of a respect issue. If you knew him you’d know better than to ever say anything to him. I won’t elaborate on that because I’d be wrong to do so.

salguod said...

Milly,

What he is allowed to do is perhaps different from what it would be nice for him to do.

If you aren't comfortable having you picture on his blog, I think you can ask him to take it down, politely. I don't see how saying something like this (privately) would be offensive:
"Hey ___, I read your blog occasionally and I noticed you put up pictures of [event] including me and my family. I'm not comfortable having those on the web, would you mind taking them down?"
Of course you know the person, maybe that wouldn't go over well after all. :-)

It's hard to regulate this in a public place or event./ You picture ends up in peoples albums, in a newsletter, the newspaper or even on TV. Now people are putting up photo galleries all the time. :-)

Makes me wonder what it was like when photographs were new and started becoming more common. Did folks freak out when they started to appear in the paper? What about TV news? We are concerned with internet photos, I wonder if in 10 or 20 years it will be thought about?

Milly said...

I know him very well and I won't bring it up. Lots of drama, not worth it.