I've Been Caught! So busted.

In some of my past posts I've been noting that my camera skills are far from stealthy and some businesses owners have been less than thrilled with my camera use. I have been getting odd looks along with the random stink-eye, but no one has actually 'said' anything to me.

So.....yesterday I was taking photos and after a day of unfortunate looking people (I'll post evidence at the end), I saw two pretty blondes sitting on a bench. I tried to get a quick shot while I was walking their direction - thinking that images of the locals would be interesting for the blog.

Blurry, but it looks like she's looking at me.

Let's take a closer look. Yep, she sees me. Oops.

About 5 minutes later, my friend Sebastian says, "Hey - you should get a picture of the transvestite. She's right behind you". Without turning around, I lift my camera over my shoulder and click (my first time trying this sneaky camera move).

I start walking down the street and look at the photo. Crap! I realize it's the same blonde girl from the bench and she looks pretty pissed in the picture. Transvestite?! What is he talking about? She is actually a pretty girl. 

Sort of dark, but looking kinda of mad.



Lightened up the photo .....and yep, she's pissed.

A few minutes later, here comes BLONDE TRANNY (I'll just stick with the term, it's a nickname at this point) storming up to me. Standing about 2 inches away from me (phew, the garlic - holy crap, she has to be Russian) she glares down at me and says very rudely,  "BLAH-blah blah, (read: foreign language). 

With the most innocent look possible, I sweetly say, "Sorry.........I only speak English".

Now even more pissed, she says (in perfect English) "YOU TOOK MY PICTURE!" and she points at my camera. She says in a very loud tone "LET ME SEE IT, I want to see it. YOU SHOW IT TO ME NOW!!!!

I stand there and look at her dumbfounded. Realizing she's probably 2 seconds from  grabbing my camera (Tranny is a giant btw - towering over me, she has to be over 6"). I stall, not knowing what to do. 

As a quick way to buy more time I say, "Whaaaattt?" (like I didn't hear her).

She repeats her above statement and is now about to explode. I realize I have limited options, so I fess up and say "I thought your were pretty, so I wanted to take your picture".

My compliment threw her off completely. She stood there for a second letting it sink in. She gave me a 'huff' with her breath, turned around quickly and stomped back to her friend. I think to myself "Whew, major ass-kicking avoided. Close call".

So....the question is: if you are in public, do you have any privacy rights when it comes to things like  photography? Papparazzi takes photos of celebrities all of the time.

Also, any ideas why she would be so mad over me taking her photo? That was a big reaction to something very minor. And just to clarify, Blonde Tranny is not a tranny. She is in fact, a giant tall pretty blonde girl with anger issues from somewhere in Eastern Europe.  And Tranny.... if you ever stumble upon my blog and see this photo of yourself.......please don't kick my ass. Thanks.

Photo Bonus:
This is what I mean by unfortunate looking people. Not judging, just saying it wasn't an eye candy day. You would never see this in France.