An apparatus and method for preventing a photographic image from being taken has a triggering mechanism which will generate a signal when detecting a light signal indicative of a camera flash. A flash unit is coupled to the triggering mechanism for generating a counteracting flash after receiving the signal generated by the triggering mechanism. By generating a counteracting flash a very short time after detecting the flash, the apparatus saturates an area of the camera's image field during the camera's exposure period. Thus the image in that area is obscured.