Finding The Correct Addresses Worldwide - Could Be A Matter of Life and Death, in the USA

Schools should teach map reading and the streets in a city which have similar names. Time for a board game which plays this?

You can use streetview to find out what your destination looks like.

UK

In the UK we once arrived an hour late at a dinner. Why? Because we looked up a street name in London and went to an identical street with a different postcode

If in doubt, ask a passerby. Ask twice.

In London an American asked me, 'Which is the way to Oxford?'

 I told him, 'You need to walk down to the station and take a train.' 

He said, 'I was told it was in walking distance, a few yards away'. 

I said, 'You mean Oxford street?'

USA

In the USA in 2023 a boy called Ralph Yarl was shot after going to the wrong house.

In the evening hours of April 13, Yarl had been sent to pick up his siblings from an address in the 1100 block of NE 115th Terrace. He mistakenly went to a home less than a block away on NE 115th Street .

Terrace or street?

We live in London in a H ...ROAD. We frequently get mail or parcel deliveries clearly addressed to H....CLOSE.

Door latch

You can buy a door latch from Amaxon for about twenty pounds, and a portable door latch to take to hotels, or rental places.

Door latch from Amazon.

It is easy to go to the wrong address. The party inside is so loud that the people don't answer when you call. The house number is obscured. Several local roads have similar names, green road, green street, green drive, green hill, green lane, green avenue. We get wrong deliveries all the time due to mixed up addresses.

Houses should have clear numbers. Streets should have clear names, and arrows to other streets with similar names.

In the USA people going to the wrong house get shot. Two this week. April 2023. A girl called Kaylin Gillis died. She was in a car. 

Ralph Yarl lived. He had walked up to the front door.

 How can we stop this happening?  If every driveway was gated, with an intercom, anybody at the wrong house could simply speak to the home owner and be re-directed. Without going anywhere near the front door or front windows or back door.

Doorcam

When I searched for Doorcam in Singapore I was directed to a sales page offering an item at just under 500 dollars. However, I found doorcams around 50 dollars on the major suppliers such as Lazada and Amazon. The American popular one is Ringcam. 

Many condos offer doorcams as standard. It is a selling point for buyers, and renters.

The moral is, check the address. Check the house number. Check the street name. Check the postcode. Check the distance from the nearest landmark. Phone when you get near. Ask the people you are meeting to stand at the door. Or ask the colours of two items. 

If all the houses in the street look the same, then what? Banners? Balloons?

Party

When we had a party for a five year old, we put balloons outside. Unfortunately, another family in the looped road also had a party. A little Japanese girl spent the whole afternoon at the wrong party. Her aunt collected her, and had to retrieve the gift, and bring it to us.

It is easy to get lost.

In the UK if you knock at the wrong house, usually somebody will redirect you.

In the USA, it is a different matter. 

When children or teenagers deliberately set out to annoy, or frighten, householders, the results can be serious.

Knock and Run (Ring and Run in the USA)

This so-called game goes by many names including Ding Dong. It is not fun for the householder. They could be called out of a bath, have their TV or movie interrupted, and be terrified that a stalker, burglar or worse is going to escalate the nuisance.

Do not allow your children to play knocking on doors for annoy people for fun. 

It happened to me, once. I was called out of the bath. Summoned from watching my movie. Had a phone call interrupted. Was alone and terrified. Eventually, I stood behind the door, waited and watched. Would it be dangerous to answer?

When the doorbell rang, I heard feet scamper away. I flung open the door and chased after them. They disappeared into the house next door. I phoned my neighbour and told her what had happened and asked her if anybody in the house knew the culprits.

They had left. They were other children from further up the road, who had been visiting. 

She came round to see me. I was clearly shaking, upset, almost in tears.

She phoned the other mother.

Next day she phoned to say that the children had been told to write a note apologising for disturbing and upsetting me. She asked if she could deliver the note or if I would prefer the children to come and see me.

I did not want to see them.

She delivered the note. 

End of story.

But not in the USA. I won't go into trespass and stand your ground but you can look up the rules in the USA and any other country where you are living of visiting.

Wikipedia reports

Michael Bishop, a 56-year-old man in Louisville, Kentucky, shot at a group of children playing ding dong ditch at his house on 13 June 2011. A 12-year-old boy was hit in the back with a shotgun blast and "the boy was taken to Kosair Children's Hospital with what police call non-life-threatening injuries". The shooter was charged with attempted murder.^[18] On 8 December 2015, his final day in office, outgoing Kentucky governor Steve Beshear issued 197 pardons,^[30] including a pardon for Michael Bishop.^[31]

A 14-year-old Oklahoma teenager, Cole Peyton, was shot in the back and arm while playing "ding dong ditch" in the early hours of New Year's Day of 2016.^[32][33]

Dean Taylor, a 63 year old coach and former San Francisco Police Department officer, was arrested following an incident involving an 11-year-old boy who rang his doorbell in San Rafael, California on 12 February 2021. After two boys rang his door and ran, Taylor chased the boys in a vehicle, cut off one of the youths and emerged from the car. Then he allegedly grabbed one 11-year-old boy by the neck, pushed him to the ground and forced him into his vehicle. He drove the terrified boy around the block, and allegedly told the boy that he would "put a bullet in his head" if the prank happened again. He dropped the boy off near Point San Pedro Road and Loch Lomond Drive, and police were called. Taylor faces felony charges including kidnapping, making criminal threats, false imprisonment, battery and child endangerment.^[34]

A California man, Anurag Chandra, 42, faces several murder charges for his role in the Temescal Canyon Road crash on 24 January 2020. After one of the boys had been dared, all six teenagers drove to a nearby home on Mojeska Summit Road in Corona, about 50 miles southeast of Los Angeles. The boy rang the doorbell and returned to the 2002 Prius that they were riding in, and the group took off. Chandra, who lives at the home, chased after them in his 2019 Infiniti Q50. His car rammed into the back of the Prius, causing it to veer off the road and into a tree. Daniel Hawkins, Jacob Ivascu and Drake Ruiz, all 16-year-old passengers, were killed in the crash. The 18-year-old driver and two other boys, ages 13 and 14, were injured but survived.^[35]

Burglary

Do not let your family be criminals who knock on doors before burglary. If this behaviour becomes common in a neighbourhood, eventually people get shot just for ringing the wrong doorbell, even if it is just to ask the way.

Finding The Right House

Of course, neither Google Maps nor a satnav will take you to the right building if you have confused street, road, close and terrace, or the postcode.

Does spelling matter? Does grammar matter? Does accuracy matter? Does the correct street name or postcode matter. Yes, it can be a matter of life and death. 

Today I had a Whatsapp message telling me to go to a Toastmasters International meeting in one area. But the meeting programme gave a different address. I had to contact three people to sort this out. In the end, I did not go. Apparently, the club alternates venues.

Two ways you can help people.

1 Firstly, by being willing to turn up to an event, or drive somebody to and from the event. 

2 The other way is to ensure that they have the right address and do not waste time going to another place with a similar name. 

 This is not the first time it has happened in the USA. Another famous case, well known in Japan, was Yoshi Hatori. Halloween.

It was Halloween. Don't arrive dressed like a ghoul on somebody's doorstep. 

Take care

If you go to the wrong terminal at an airport you could miss your flight. Go to the wrong address, and you could miss your dinner reservation at a restaurant.Go to the wrong address for a party or to collect your friend in the USA you could be shot by the householder.  . .  Go to the wrong place in wartime and you could be captured by the enemy.

Google Streetview.

  

Google Maps

https://www.lightinthebox.com/en/p/video-doorbell-camera-wireless-battery-powered-wifi-video-doorbell-camera-motion-detector-2-way-talk-hd-video-night-vision-cloud-storage-battery-power_p9471176.html?

https://www.google.com/maps/@1.3738835,103.7636757,15z

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11987303/Construction-boss-charged-killing-20-year-old-Kaylin-Gillis-short-fuse.html?dicbo=v2-ooYrCrK&ico=outbrain_footer

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11988351/White-homeowner-84-RELEASED-200k-bail-charged-shooting-black-16-year-old-Ralph-Yarl.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shooting_of_Ralph_Yarl

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Kaylin_Gillis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killing_of_Yoshihiro_Hattori

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knock,_Knock,_Ginger#:~:text=Knock%2C%20knock%2C%20ginger%20(also,traditional%20holiday%20of%20Nickanan%20Night.

How To Take And Edit Group Photos At An Event Such As A Club Meeting Or Wedding

Problem
Your three main problems, er, nine main problems, make that eleven, are:
1 Timing
2 Getting near enough to take photos
3 Getting good poses - interesting pictures
4 Lighting and Angles
5 Permission to photograph places, events and people
6 People who don't want to be on Facebook or the internet
7 Remembering names for captions
8 Getting credit for your photos

9 People online who don't switch on their camera
10 Privacy of identity

11 Revealing that few of you attended

1 Arrive Early
You want a nearby parking place so you are not taking heavy bags a long distance.

You want the venue looking pristine before people arrive and obscure features or stand with their back to you or making funny faces, running about creating blur.

You need time to establish goodwill.  Get a seat near the front or side, or a place in the aisle (without obstructing fire exits and doors).

Take photos of VIPs because they will be surrounded by well-wishers later

Getting Near
If you have a zoom lens and tripod, arrive early, ask where the chairperson or president will be standing or sitting on stage so you can choose where to position yourself. You can move freestanding chairs to get in a better position.

2 Early Photos
Take an early photo, ideally of somebody standing on stage and sitting in the audience, preferably a VIP, failing that any willing bystander. This will show you if the area is visible.

You will notice any annoying obstructions such as trailing wires, or stacked chairs.  Advertisements for other events (which can be removed during your event and replaced), religious messages in a hall attached to a religious building, distracting children's drawings, or fire hydrants. You might wish to move so as to focus on the centre of the stage.

Also notice chairs vacated by the president and left empty with papers, bags in the aisle or on chairs.

If the front row is empty, I ask members of the audience to move forward.

Lights
If you have not enough light, you could turn on some lights.

If you have too much light, and you get glare from a window behind the stage, or people turned into black silhouettes against a white background, move to one side, or get separate photos of people standing with certificates at the other side of the hall.

Smiling Before And After
Take contestants before the event in case they leave at the half-way interval. They may also be smiling, confident, standing upright at the start. This will be the flattering photo to show, rather than one of them looking glum or slumped after they learn they did not win first place.

Conversely, you might find that your winner looked anxious before the contest, but jubilant afterwards.

You might think to ask the losers to congratulate the winners. Also tell the winners to tell the losers that they gave great speeches (or painted great paintings or made tasty and amusing cakes - whatever the event). You might also add your own praises to the 'losers'. You can then photograph all the participants together looking happy.

Photo Editing
To save time, spin through all your photos and delete blanks and accidents on both the original mobile phone or camera and any editing device with a larger screen.

You might immediately select one, two, three of the best photos to send immediately to your website or the local newspaper. This will help you catch deadlines.

If the event is a family and friends affair, such as a wedding, anniversary or reunion, you can share with family members before they go home.

Save any programme or agenda of the event and tick or star the people you have photographed.

Some photographers, on an event shoot, list every photo taken in a notebook. They have columns with the photo number, the event number, the names of the people in the photo, the place, time of day, correct title.

Numbering storing and indexing prints
I visited the home of the head of a New Zealand photographic society. He had all his photos stacked on shelves in shoe boxes going back several decades. Every photo was stored numerically by date order. He had books of indexes by subject, so he could find a waterfall, or local shop owner, or boat race, in different years.

Disasters
Many people get cross about photos of disasters. However, you may be doing the victims a favour if your photo can identify who is at fault and help a victim claim compensation, or if they were accused of wrongdoing, prove they were not guilty.

Happy Events
Even if there's an official photographer, your extra photos may be welcome. The official photographer might take mainly the VIP family. You might take the aunt in the corner, the boss who arrived late, the dog, or the dessert. If there's a dispute with a photographer, or a disaster with the photographer's equipment, your photos could be a handy backup. Even if the bride is happy to pay for the large photos, you might have some small ones for yourself and guests with a lower budget.

In the event that the official photos are lost during house moves, it can be handy to have duplicates of the official and unofficial photos.

Historic Family Photos
Duplicate wedding photos kept by others are useful at the time - and years later.

I went to the 80th birthday party of an elderly great-aunt. Her nephew, who I hardly knew showed me a lot of photos of people I didn't know. Then he produced a wartime (WWII) wedding photo and said, "I don't know who these people are. Do you know them?"

I gasped, "That's my parents - their wedding photo! In World War Two. Before I was born. I don't have that photo."

My distant relative didn't know the people, or even that it was a wedding photo.

I knew. "It's their wedding. I can tell by my father's clothes and the flower."

"But she's not wearing white."

Wartime Wedding Story From A Photo
"They are both wearing hats, and my father is wearing a top hat, and they both have a flower. It's not her first wedding, but her second wedding, so white would not have been considered suitable. Her first husband died in a plane shot down at El Alamein. She married my father towards the end of the war, when there was clothes rationing. Some brides had white dresses made out of parachute silk from used parachutes. She wouldn't have wanted that, even if she could have afforded it, because any reminder of planes would have been too upsetting. So she's wearing a sensible suit in dark material which she could use again."

"Would you like the photo?" He handed it to me. I was so happy. Thank you to the photographer who printed so many duplicates, to the family who kept them, to the descendant who was able to give it to me.

Making Friends With Official Photographers
Make friends with the photographer. The photographer is often ignored and avoided. They might be glad of a chance to talk, or have a request. You can give each other names of the VIPs, work out timing, position yourselves to not get in each other's way,

At a presentation of awards find out if the event organisers have asked you not to use flash, and how to get around restrictions.

Make Friends With Event Organisers
There may be a sign saying no photography. That might mean you cannot photograph the statues and ornaments in a religious or historic building because the venue sells their own photos. They might be or afraid of photographers acting on behalf of burglars. However, the organisers might be happy for you to take photos of people at the event.

Maybe the historic statue is OK to photograph but not the company logo which is a trademark. On the other hand, you might be forbidden to photograph the valuable painting on the wall behind you, but the organisers might be delighted to have publicity for their logo, their event, or flyers for their future events.

Conversely, the organisers may have an exclusive arrangement with a photographic society to take and sell photos of VIPs at the event, but you may be free to photograph the outside and inside of the building and your own family in the building, or on their own with certificates in a corner.

You might also be allowed to take photos before the event, of the building and the audience, or during the interval, or upstairs at the reception, or of a bride and ring after the wedding ceremony.

Organising Posing and Photos
You can brief the chairperson to ask recipients of certificates to turn to face the audience, not stand talking with their back to the audience.

The chairperson can also announce in advance: "I'm going to ask everybody to come up, one by one, and stay on stage for a group photo."

I ask people to keep their hands still. I also ask, everybody face the front. I also say: One, two, three.

Another useful message is:
Please don't take photos during the singing. The choir will pose for photos in a big group at the end, and individually during the interval.

Editing
You can either go through each photo and correct every aspect of that photo. Then mark which photo is best.

Or select the best photos and edit only the best ones.

Or edit all photos for brightness, or automatic enhancement, or vertical alignment, or cut out empty foreground, crop to enlarge the people.

Selfies
Remember to take yourself at an event. You can take a selfie, or ask another person to photograph you. This is useful for your cv, your business, your blog, your family and friends, or as a record of everybody at the event.

Captions
I like to caption all photos the evening of the day I took them with the aid of my event agenda, on the back of which I write the spelling of names and nicknames. Sometimes a long name is on the agenda but Stephen Michael Horphin prefers to be captioned with the name everybody knows, Steve or a jokey nickname or caption, 'Speedy' Steve.

It's lovely afterwards to be told:
'You take great photographs.' (Thanks for telling me that, Gill.)
'You make me look good.' (Thanks for saying that, Shan.)

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.