Actually the owner of the property was easier to address, they usually have a clue why you might be taking pictures. But on the same day I had a nosey neighbor come out and ask me what I was taking pictures of and why. He was really right in my face. I told him I had been hired by an outside company to take pictures of the street.( of course he knew I was taking pictures of his neighbor's house) He wanted to know who hired me and what I was doing. I just repeated the same thing, got in my car and left with all the pictures I wanted or needed. Did not go back.......what do most of you do when you are approached by neighbors or owners who ask who you are working for?

Just tell them you are taking appraisal photos.
I was approached one time by a woman who was just POSITIVE I was taking photos of HER house and her ex-husband had hired me to harass her. I ended up showing her the photos I had taken (which at that point was just the street photo, not the subject) to prove to her I hadn't taken a picture of HER house. She was a real wacko!!!

I tell them that I am a real estate agent and that I take pictures of houses, I then smile and move on or if they are chatty and friendly, I answer their real estate related questions. I try to be transparent and not make a big deal out of it. It also depends on the neighborhood, maybe you want to get going Fast! lol.

I was driving while my partner was snapping the photos of a house last week when this woman came flying out of the house, demanding to know "why" we were photographing her house. We both started laughing, told her we're Realtors and the lender had hired us to take the pictures, so we guessed somebody was going to get a better loan deal than they have now! She looked surprised and said "oh". (We were guessing she's a tenant.) We asked her to step back into the house and take the kittycat with her, please, because we couldn't have people or pets in the photos. She cracked up laughing and suggested we take that kittycat with us because it wasn't hers and she wasn't having it in HER house! . . . So that all worked out okay.

I also don't tell them to much. I don't always know why I am taking photos. There are many reasons we are requested to take photos.
If the neighbors are out and about I photo the street and take a spin around the block.

I tell them that it is a strictly confidential matter and I'm not supposed to reveal the exact nature of my mission to anyone . . . . especially not YOU !

Of course, I would refrain from using this one because it doesn't usually have the "Calming Effect" that we all desire.

We are fortunate to live & work in a relatively friendly place . . . And we try to use smiles, politeness, interested-ness, and downright kindness and/or helpfulness as much as possible, even humor when we can fit it in. Doesn't work 100% tho' -- so I like those situations where I do not encounter people directly. We have noticed that even a friendly wave to the neighbors is often enough.

My partner and I are doing a "beautiful home...' series right now. We're photographing homes that we like (that we would love to list, too!), and send the homeowner a card with the photo of their house on it, and a little note about how much we admire their home. We also offer an enlarged photo if they call. We have had many calls for enlarged photos and have gotten tours of many homes that we LOVE, which has been a great fringe benefit of our endeavor, even though it has not resulted in a listing (yet). We are going to do a quarterly newsletter with home tips. Everyone who has contacted us so far has loved the idea. A few times we've had people either come out of the house and ask what we're doing, and we just tell them about our "beautiful home series" but more than a few times it has been a neighbor. We usually say we're doing a CMA for another similar home so we're photographing comps. One time my partner told a neighbor we were photographing houses for a book we were writing on beautiful homes.