How would you take pictures discreetly?

I have a smart phone that I will use for a photo audit of a menu, but I don't know how I will take pictures without looking completely obvious that I am doing so.

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When I do those I just take the pictures. If I get approached I just say my friend wants something so I am texting her the menu so I can get her order.

O.o o.O

Happily shopping New England and beyond!!!!!

With camera phones you see people taking pictures everywhere of everything. I would take some pictures of the restaurant and of the menu board and of anything else around me as if I were trying to figure out how to use my new camera phone and if anyone asks (which they won't) tell them you are trying to figure out how to use your new phone. A few dumb photos such as of your foot or of a window that is nothing but glare can help support your claim if need be, but you won't need to because you won't even be asked.

Hm, would saying I am using it for a Yelp review be good?

I stay away from any mention of reviews or reports. If anyone pays attention to me photographing, I say I am taking it back to the office or it's for my Facebook. I've only once had anyone pay any attention at all. Too many people are walking around snapping photos constantly. Hardly anyone notices or cares. Just act natural.

And, turn off the flash and the sound for the picture. That "click" is louder than you think, lol.

Based in MD, near DC
Shopping from the Carolinas to New York
Have video cam; will travel

Poor customer service? Don't get mad; get video.

I always say that my daughter may want to order too so I'm sending her pics of the menu so she can choose. I follow it up with she changed her mind and went and got Chinese.

I pulled it off in trying circumstances, with a digital camera. It can be done. I was in a middle section with two open sections on both sides and a direct Line-of-Sight from the kitchen, so every server or helper could spot me.

I'm a big guy so I hunkered over the dish like a starving pit bull and snapped away.

Now, today's picture challenge was taking a picture of a branch bank in the ghetto with a police squad car and K-9 SUV sitting in front.

I took it from a distance and if the editors want another shot, I will refer them to remedial editing.

Do not read so much, look about you and think of what you see there.
Richard Feynman-- letter to Ashok Arora, 4 January 1967, published in Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track (2005) p. 230

I was wondering the same thing. For some shops they just want the menu board and when there is no drive-thru, or a comparison between the menu inside and the drive-thru, when you're not ordering anything so it seems obvious to just run in, take a snap and leave? These comments are helpful, though.

Being a mystery shopper sometimes require that you be very quick and creative in the excuses department. You run in to take your pictures and if anyone looks at you oddly, "My boss told me to stop in and get him a kosher hot dog with onions and relish. I told him you don't have kosher hot dogs and he swore he gets them here all the time." Of course if they have kosher hot dogs on the menu he wanted a grilled cheese, if they have grilled cheese, he wanted a fish taco etc.

Ok I got one for you all. Now I am a trained veteran at taking discrete pictures with a digital camera none the less ut how on gods green earth do you take pictures inside an airport of several things and not get at best questions by the authorities at worst indefinetly detained. Yes this was an actual requirement for an airline shop.

Shopping Western NY, Northeast and Central PA, and parts of Ohio and West Virginia. Have car will travel anywhere if the monies right.

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How would you take pictures discreetly?

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