Japan high school girls have best scoop on m4/3 future

Mickey67 wrote:

i am uncomfortable posting pictures of my young daughter on the net. Maybe the person who took the photo has good intentions but others do not.

this is the general feeling of parents in my part of tokyo also. We are not allowed to take photos on mobile phones in case it gets onto the internet at school events - this is a school rule.

other than that a foreigner taking photos of school girls may well end up in front of the police - we had an warning the other week of a man with a camera stalking schoolgirls.

this might be right or wrong and an unfortunate reality of out times but at least respect the culture of the country you are in.

When we travel (or even at home) if there is a situation with kids we ask the appropriate responsible person if OK to do so.

Usually though it's just the kids and us in foreign places, then 90% of the time I leave it to my wife to shoot with her non-threatening compact camera. Sometimes I also use my M4/3 gear, which by using screen only and an E-P5 body certainly does not look too threatening or professional.

No sneaky shots, they either see us and engage with us, or they walk away (rare).

Never found a problem in Japan as they are basically a camera crazy country from way back, so are very used to using cameras or being in front of them.

But of course I do understand that attitudes change, so we always act on the side of caution and rarely show any of our shots anyway. They are not splattered all over Flickr or whatever, they stay at home.

England would be the most ridiculous place re photographing children. People have had police knock on their door because a photo lab reported them as taking child photos, even though harmless ones.

In this modern paranoid world, everyone is assumed to be a criminal.

Regards.... Guy