When my family and I went to the US in 2010, it was and still has been the best trip in our lives so far. We went to the south west and were part of a German-speaking guided bus tour. My brother and I started a challenge and we wanted to “collect” pictures of all 50 states through cars’ license plates. So we got the south west states pretty easily, as we went through them, but such rare sights such as Alaska or Hawaii were a must-have. So we usually went to parked cars and just took a picture of the plate. At one point, the owners approached me, but they were pretty chilled about it once I explained why I was doing it. I now wonder if I was being careless or unmindful and whether this could have gone wrong to the point that some people might have felt threatened?
21 comments
What’s unmindful about it?
yes we all still talk about you and the trouble you caused.
no I think that sounds perfectly harmless
No. You have no expectation of privacy in public space. So long as you don’t attempt to use your pictures in a commercial venture you are in the clear.
No, license plates are by their nature designed to be viewed by the public. The owners might be curious about what you’re doing, but have no valid reason to object to people looking at (or taking photos of) their car and their plates.
There’s a chance that someone would be weirded out by a stranger taking a photo of their license plate. It’s totally legal to do so, but the primary purpose of a license plate is to identify and track vehicle, so a stranger taking a photo of their plate can come across as a potential attempt to track the owner.
Most people will be fine with it once you explain what you’re doing. But it’s understandable they’d be skeptical at first. No real way around it you’re not doing anything wrong, but it’s just a thing that can create some awkwardness at first.
Everyone’s talking about how it’s legal, but there’s a lot of things that are legal but seem weird. It would be legal, for example, for me to park outside someone’s house with a big telephoto lens and take photos of the building from the outside all night. Weird as hell, but legal.
Nah, I’d probably ask you what you were doing if I saw you photographing my license plate because that’s not typical behavior, but once you told me why? I’d have no problem with it. It sounds like a fun challenge and is almost exactly what me and my brothers would do on road trips as kids, only we were kids before digital cameras.
Do you remember how many you got?
Nah license plates are public, but as we all know there are some truly crazy people in the world so always beat to keep your guard up.
I mean, I’d be curious why someone was taking pictures of my plate, but the license plate game is pretty well known. You usually take a picture of a plate if you’re going to report it to the authorities.
No. There’s no expectation of privacy in public and license plates are public facing.
Like those owners, I’d definitely be weirded out though and ask what you were up to if it was my truck, but an obvious tourist doing something harmless isn’t going to raise many eyebrows beyond that.
It would be a little strange to see and a paranoid person might get jumpy even with an explanation of what you were doing. It isn’t like it is private information or anything. You drive your car with its plates in public all the time. My car gets photographed every time I drive through a toll road.
There’s nothing legally wrong with it so long as you weren’t trespassing on private property to do it.
But let me say that if I walked out of a grocery store and saw some random person photographing my car I would be a bit suspicious. If you gave me your explanation I would be fine with it and glad to be part of the contest.
However, I’m not everyone. Some people may be paranoid criminals. Some people may just be paranoid and aggressive. Some people may just have a strong sense of self defense or protection of their family. So you could trigger a negative response. That would be my only worry. It would probably be the same in Germany if I was photographing a random strangers car and they saw me doing it.
Reasonable for someone to be alarmed by a stranger taking a photo of their license plate, but nothing actually illegal about it.
Most people will be fine with your explanation.
We’re you able to see them all? It’s a fun game to play. I usually do this on road trips, only I don’t take pictures. I live near an Air Force base, so I can usually spot some fairly hard to see plates. I know for sure if I drive around my neighborhood I could spot at least one Alaska plate. Hawaii plate isn’t easy to find usually. But Vermont, Montana and Wyoming are up there with pretty rare.
So, my wife and I play a game making words and phrases out of license plates – it works especially well in NJ, where license plates are usually “A##- AAA”, if you get what I mean. So a license plate like “B40-FME” would be funny to us, because it means they want to be f*cked by a 40-year-old.
We will often take a picture of the license plate and send it to each other. But I try to be really discreet about it… I do worry that someone will think I’m trying to stalk them or report a crime or something. I don’t think we’re doing anything wrong though because it’s just between us. I would never create an instagram or something for this and post them publicly.
nah. If you have the knowhow, you can get to peoples’ information with license plates, but the layman really won’t care. It’s courtesy to block out the numbers if you’re posting on social media, but other than that, you did nothing wrong.
Most people probably wouldn’t care especially after explaining yourself. A rare person might get weird about you taking a picture their car or plate, but that would be sort of silly. If you were tailing someone you could just write down the number and make and model of the car. It is public information that is literally displayed to be seen.
Did you actually see a Hawaii license plate? I see Alaska ones from time to time, but the idea of a car being brought over from Hawaii must be super rare.
I would say it depends on the owner. Most would be weirded out because that’s very unusual. There’s always a chance of snapping a picture of the plate of someone doing something illegal and they could have thought you were a cop or trying to report them. But most wouldn’t go beyond asking.
So you’re the reason my identity was stolen!
But seriously, it’s legal to take pictures of license plates. A lot of people will blur or mark over the number as a courtesy, but you aren’t going to get in trouble or anything for taking a picture. Some people may be suspicious of someone taking pictures of their car, though, so just be subtle about it.
It’s definitely unusual but definitely if someone explained that that’s what they’re doing id find it more fun and cool than anything else. Most people should be understanding imo
No, you’re fine.
> I now wonder if I was being careless or unmindful and whether this could have gone wrong to the point that some people might have felt threatened?
I’ll never understand the German habit of deciding something must be wrong when it isn’t.
If taking pictures of license plates is bad then r/Delaware is in deep trouble.