As a newspaper photographer I’ve taken quite a few `snatch shots’, which are photographs of someone that were taken without the person in the picture being aware of it.

Actually there are two kinds of snatch shots, long range and close range. Long range shots are usually but not always taken with a zoom lens, usually from several hundred yards away. Close range snatch shots are best taken with a medium wide angle lens and they are taken from just a few yards away.

Let’s assume that you plan to take a long range snatch shot, that your subject (or prey, whichever way you want to look at it) is in a public park and that you are perhaps a couple of hundred yards away from him. Several things could happen.

You might casually raise your camera and pretend to be taking pictures of the park. Point it in several directions and perhaps play around with the camera controls to make it look as if you’re adjusting it, maybe changing the aperture or shutter speed.

But at some stage you’ll have to point the camera in his direction, and this is where the problems can begin. He may not be quite sure what you're taking a picture of; he may think that you're just taking a picture of the park or he may suspect that you're taking a picture of him.

It's bad news, either way, because he has now been alerted. This may be enough to make him turn his back on you and move away but if he doesn’t, if he keeps looking at you, keep cool.

Remember that he will be looking at the camera head on, and from this perspective all he can see is the front of the lens, he can’t see the body part of it. And as he can't see the body of the lens, the chances are that he doesn't know if it’s a standard lens or a zoom lens. If he decides that it’s a standard lens it might be ok, he might decide that you’re harmless.

Or he might tell himself that he doesn't care what kind of lens it is, you aren’t going to take his picture, period. He might decide to confront you about it, to walk over to you and find out what the hell you're doing. Keep calm, but also decide what you're going to do – and do it quickly. Basically you have three options.

One option is let him walk right up to you, let him demand to know what you're doing, admit that you were taking his picture and offer to delete the pictures. This may not be good enough for him, of course - he may decide to trash your camera and perhaps trash you too. Another option is to stand up to him; tell him you were taking his picture and ask him what he plans to do about it.

A third option is to take his picture as he is walking towards you, to forget how scared you are and keep pressing that shutter. Then, when you’re sure you have some good pictures of him... Run like hell!

* There are also important ethical issues involved in this kind of photography and I plan to discuss these in a future article.

Paul Gooch is a Press and wedding photographer located in Skegness UK. He sells his photographs to local, regional and national newspapers, has taught media studies at a local college and has published several thought provoking and perhaps controversial articles about photography on his web site http://www.paulgoochimages.com

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