Here is a stupid warstory for ya

Battou · Apr 6, 2008

I nearly pounded the tar out of someone this weekend.

One of my biggest pet peeves in life is being accused of something I have not done.

I shoot a lot from the gazebo at one of the handful of city parks here in town.

Some of the stuff I have shot from that spot, It's nothing spectacular but just to demonstrate the shots I take there.

the park

the kids

A penguin attempt

Now that said, I was approached by some one and his friend wile I was turning in film the other day. Right there in the store he tells me,

You have been taking pictures of my house and that's illegal. You where on the gazebo hiding in the bushes taking pictures of my house, I seen you. I have two witnesses and one is a cop, you do it again you are goin to jail

...Um Well, No I am not goin to jail, this much I know, But it irks me that he thinks this is going to fly. I have not been photographing his house, I have no reason to, even if I did I would not hide. The fact of the matter is this stupid drunk thinks he is going to have me arrested for illegally photographing his place of residence from a city park, what the hell. He has got to be hiding something, but truthfully I don't give a rats ass what.

Well My response to him was a simple

lol what ever, do what you will

then I personally went down to the police department and told them that he may come calling at some point in the near future.

I wanted to beat him to within an inch of his life but... I think I'll wait untill the police tell him there is nothing they can or will do about it.

Now that I have that out of my system....Any one else have an instance where some one not affiliated with law enforcement and/or security try telling you what you where doing was illegal?

Antarctican · Apr 6, 2008

A vendor with a cart outside a local market tried to say it was illegal to take a picture of the knitted stuff he had for sale.

As I read your story, I too was struck by the idea the guy has a guilty conscience or has been up to something, given the way he reacted to your presence in the gazebo.

Yahoozy · Apr 6, 2008

sorry to go off topic here but this made me remember an instance of teenage vandalism of mine hahah
so, i will admit this was not a well thought out move but its funny in retrospect
so, me and my friends were hanging out behind a Vons grocery store skating (they were skating i was taking some pics) and i notice an electrical box behind me, that has its door ajar
so, out of curiosity i opened it to see what it looked like and there were, along with a bunch of dials and meters, three big switches which all said "ON / OFF" and all currently in the ON position
well, ive always wanted to flip a giant switch (and this thing was like a foot long and half a foot wide, like a cartoon switch) so i switch one of them to OFF
now, almost immediately after doing this i realize that was a very stupid thing to do, so i hurriedly switch it back to ON, and tell my friends that we should probably move somewhere else
sure enough, as we're walking away, i get a call from one of my other friends who was inside getting a drink, and he says that all of the power in part of the store went off, then back on, and some people were freaking out inside
so, pretty much i turned off a third of Vons (im assuming a third because there were 3 switches)
anyway, that is one of my few tales of teenage "vandalism" hahah
again, sorry to go off topic on this one =P

Yahoozy · Apr 6, 2008

that being said, i did almost got the crap beaten out of me by a crazy dude who thought i was "spying on him through his window" when really i was on a ridge (shooting at mountains behind his house) testing out my new telephoto (this was back when i got my first camera and never really registered what i looked like when taking pictures)

Battou · Apr 6, 2008

Antarctican said:
A vendor with a cart outside a local market tried to say it was illegal to take a picture of the knitted stuff he had for sale.

As I read your story, I too was struck by the idea the guy has a guilty conscience or has been up to something, given the way he reacted to your presence in the gazebo.

Yeah, he is prolly on parolle or probation, smoking some pot or having a beer or something, that is fairly common around here.

notelliot · Apr 6, 2008

since i got the grip for my d300, i've been itching to whip someone with it. i just think the force of the blow would knock a heavy lens off the mount. i should walk around with my 50mm more often.
reason i say that, is because a lot of people seem to get upset when i refuse to take their photo and email it to them for free. i usually laugh at them a little, but some just need a camera upside the head.

Iron Flatline · Apr 6, 2008

That's probably one of the few redeeming features of those big SLR lenses like a 70-200mm... you could defend yourself nicely with it.

RKW3 · Apr 6, 2008

I was at Tommy's Burgers (fast-food) the other day, and I was taking pictures as my dad ordered (for no reason, just boredom), and the employee asked me to stop taking pictures. I just looked at him blankly but I stopped shooting. The worker was Mexican, so my dad and I suspect he was an illegal alien or something lol. My dad said you should always do what a restaurant employee wants before you get the food, he could do bad things to your food if you don't!

RKW3 · Apr 6, 2008

Iron Flatline said:
That's probably one of the few redeeming features of those big SLR lenses like a 70-200mm... you could defend yourself nicely with it.

Lol its a blunt 2 thousand dollar hammer. Nice.

Socrates · Apr 6, 2008

RKW3 said:
I was at Tommy's Burgers (fast-food) the other day, and I was taking pictures as my dad ordered (for no reason, just boredom), and the employee asked me to stop taking pictures. I just looked at him blankly but I stopped shooting. The worker was Mexican, so my dad and I suspect he was an illegal alien or something lol. My dad said you should always do what a restaurant employee wants before you get the food, he could do bad things to your food if you don't!

Sounds to me that you were on private property.

RKW3 · Apr 6, 2008

Socrates said:
Sounds to me that you were on private property.

Well we were outside, and pretty close to the sidewalk. I'm not sure what the "rights" are, but I stopped taking pictures anyways.. So no harm no foul.

Battou · Apr 6, 2008

Iron Flatline said:
That's probably one of the few redeeming features of those big SLR lenses like a 70-200mm... you could defend yourself nicely with it.

I have an 80-200 FD on my AE-1 but, I'd rather not unless I need to, even then I would use the body first.

Socrates said:
Sounds to me that you were on private property.

They where both with in their rights, He can take pictures in a public resturant and the staff can aske he stop.

Had RKW3 continued shootinb he could have been asked to leave, failure to comply then would have been tresspassing. By stoping RKW3 Had his cake and ate it to...or was it a burger

sabbath999 · Apr 6, 2008

To truely beat somebody over the head well and good, you need a Nikon F or even an F2...

Although... a Pentax K1000 will do in a pinch.

(Ghastly) Krueger · Apr 7, 2008

RKW3 said:
The worker was Mexican, so my dad and I suspect he was an illegal alien or something lol.

Not all Mexicans living and working in the US are illegal immigrants.

Clutch · Apr 7, 2008

sabbath999 said:
To truely beat somebody over the head well and good, you need a Nikon F or even an F2...

Although... a Pentax K1000 will do in a pinch.

I dunno, dude, an old Graflex 4x5 press camera would dang sure get the job done when it comes to busting a head open. Personally, I'd save the wear on my camera and joust them with my tripod.