Photographer shooting on public road almost being run over for shooting on “private driveway”
Jul 10, 2016
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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We’ve seen some crazy folks freaking out over photographers asking photographers to stop shooting but this one goes over the top. This is the first time I am seeing a photographer being threatened to be ran over for shooting cars.
According to Alex Stone, an automotive photographer from LA, he was shooting on a public road when he a truck driver confronted him for shooting on his “private driveway”. The truck driver repeatedly drove towards Alex and his companion and threatened them. Finally, he got out of the car and knocked Adam’s phone (which was recording the event) out of Alex’s hands. (Hit the jump to watch the full video, note that there is quite a bit of language on it)
Here is the account according to Alex:
A guy tried to run me over today… Along with the owner of the car I was shooting. In the past 10 years of shooting cars nothing like this has every happened.
Watch the video for yourself, keep in mind the following: We are on a PUBLIC road in the middle of Ramona, CA. Pretty much empty deserted road by a tiny airport. Five different residents of the area drove by asking if we needed help and weren’t bothered by our presence. I didn’t provoke the man because there was a really good chance he had a gun in his truck (the police afterward also confirmed this by saying lots of residents carry around there). Also, I said “sir” about 200 times because I was trying to be as polite as possible, even while he was trying to run me over.
Seconds before starting to record the man drove up and said we were shooting on a ‘private road’ which was false. I told him that we would be out in a few minutes and he yelled “FUCK YOU”, that’s when I started recording.
At the end of the video, he hits the phone out of my hands and it flies 20ft in the air and lands on the pavement with a broken screen thats all black. I was worried that the video didn’t save but it did. I tell him he owes me a new screen and it’ll be $200. He proceeds to pull his pants down and say “Suck those $200 out of my dick.” This is when we drive off, with the police on the phone.
After it’s all said and done the cops said that they’ll go have a talk with him to see how drunk he was.
Be safe out there. #
This is quite a delicate situation. The combination between a possibly drunk driver, and an area where many residents carry arms can escalate quite quickly. While I fully support the rights of photographers to take photos on public grounds, you need to consider if any photo is worth this kind of risk.
[via Alex Stone, thanks for the heads up Ben and Mitch]
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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25 responses to “Photographer shooting on public road almost being run over for shooting on “private driveway””
What I’ve learned after encounters like these to be the most likely reasons: Either they’re worried you’re taking photos to later come back and steal the vehicles, or the vehicles aren’t entirely legal in some way and they fear the photos will clue somebody in on that. And I wasn’t even specifically taking photos of the cars, usually something else but the car(s) happened to be in the frame.
It’s an aggressive world out there, and I’m getting to old to fight with anybody. I always carry my small Kahr 9mm, concealed, when doing street (or road) photography. If you are a cop you may see my LTC.
congratulation you are part of the problem… americans.. ROTFL….
Good choice Paul. I carry my Kahr .45.
You seem to be confused about the context. The photographer was photographing a clients car, not just random cars he sees parked somewhere. So the excuses you have for this guy are complete BS and even if any of what you say had been the case, it doesn’t give anyone justification to threaten someones life.
I’m not confused about the context, I’ve watched the video and read the article. You seem to be confused about my reply. My reply was about similar experiences that I myself have had and the reasons for these encounters as later explained to me by etiher the car owner(s) or police. At no point did I excuse or justify this kind of behavior. Please read carefully before throwing ‘BS” in your comments.
Keep shooting images, and call the cops immediately, without hesitation. Do not threaten, just follow through, with your art, your mission and life, legally.
The second he touched one of you, you should have subdued him to the ground and called the cops !!
Yes, escalating an already-hostile situation in an area where carrying guns is commonplace would have been the correct response. *shakes his head*
Take the vid to the cops and get some charges put on this retard. He really needed his ass stomped in his “driveway”.
americans are crazy.. that´s not news.
I would call the cops the second he threatened to run me over for the first time. The photographer should press charges.
America – i would not expect anything less than this idiocy…
Cannot believe the “good ol’ boys” cops only said they would go talk to him to see how “drunk” he was. You have video evidence of felony aggravated assault and even attempted murder. He should have been arrested.
What is going on with people today? The emotions are out of control!
A loaded Glock is bigger than any Ford Excursion.
True but I bet that dude also has an arsenal.
I wonder if he is a Bernie Sanders supporter …
Odds of that are vanishingly small.
I wonder whom he will be voting for president in November …
I actually laughed out loud at that!
They have his tag #, time to call a lawyer
The situation does make one think of having a gun. I really hate this stuff. I try and get them to listen to me go on and on about ‘art’. Art talk seems to send them packing. I think that in the future there will be more people worried about photographers for reasons they can quite verbalized.
I can’t wait for a follow up. I hope he contacts the police and takes video of the outcome :)
Had some guy do the same to me while photographing owls on dead end roads here in Alberta. Public roads and he was telling me he had suspicious activity and would not stop harassing me then firing his weapon to scare any owls I might have been taking photos of