Smile, You're On Camera

No thanks, and I don't want to smile unless I have a good reason to do it.  I am feeling grumpy about being forced to be on camera much too much. Cameras are at most doorways, street corners, mall halls, stores and perhaps even out in the woods where one seeks privacy and peace. I know people who set up cameras for fun and don't warn others that they are being filmed. At a group event at a country cottage one evening, we were supposedly treated to films of people hiking in the nearby woods. For a few hundred dollars, some of the rollicking social folk in that locale, set up their photography equipment in the name of capturing wild four legged forest creatures but accidentally caught the activities, however innocent, of a few two legged ones. I didn't find this kind of amusement amusing. It's not fair or ethical in my opinion, and I am sure that is how most thinking people would react.  Others I know of, who do the same thing in commercial stores, have a jolly time sitting with their companions, jesting about their customers, or not, who come into their establishments. Often these recordings include voice.  And who knows what other viewers enjoy their free candid camera movies taken of anyone, anywhere in public.? There are certain peace-keeping souls who don't mind being filmed in candid shots by unknown photographers, and say so, but I have an aversion to being filmed without my permission or at least having been given a warning that I am being photographed. It feels that my personal space is invaded and that my freedom to come and go at will, is restricted. Like most people, I am sort of uncomfortable when a picture of me with or without others, is being taken. Not being trained in the skills of modelling for the camera lens, I am never sure just quite how I should turn, smile, stay still, or pose. Many people with the advent of "selfies" and social media, practice their posing in front of their phones or mirrors, but I am not among that sort. From an early age, if not at birth itself, modern individuals have become accustomed to being "taken" by a camera. What isn't filmed by amateurs with phones, security items and social media devices? It is becoming a "Big Brother Is Watching You" world. In some ways it's a good thing, but mostly it isn't. Where is the freedom to be yourself and know that you are not being perhaps surveyed in everything you do. What happened to times when you could duck in somewhere and surreptitiously adjust your bra straps, or loosen your belt or hike up your jeans privately without being under possible scrutiny? Just as the written word can be taken out of context and twisted, as proved by the media, your photo can be muddled with so that what is you, can become something unflattering, other than you. In jest: it makes the "burka", kind of tempting, hmmm?