The War Story Thread

[Battou]

OK, What the heck, why not start a thread for any and all experience tales be it positive experiences or negitive experiances.

Share your rants, security encounters, compliments Nikon/Canon fist fights or what ever else happened to you wile you where out taking pictures or just toting your camera around.

I'll start.

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Another 400mm encounter, this one positive.

Wile out to shoot some of the local birds, I walked into the post office to pick up an envelope to mail a print. Wile waiting in line I pulled it up to put the lens cap on and put the hood down when a gentleman who was filling out Paperwork noticed it. "That is a heck of a lens" as he is oogling my camera. "Yeah, it is" I replied, He went on to explain what it is he does for a living. He is a field researcher, He did not say exactly what he researches but his work is published. He went on to say that the book was going to sell but it was lacking good photos.

This poor guy it trying to use an advanced point and shoot, but it is just inadaquate for the range he is trying to cover. He went on to explain that the equipment he Knows he needs is just way out of his price range, and out of curiousity he asked what I paid for what I had.....The poor guy damn near wet himself when I told him what I was paying for it. "Ho woah wait...lets talk" he sais He asked wher I got it and where he should look for this kind of stuff.

I prolly should have put a little more thought into my reply but the truth is true and I snaped off that I got it second hand from a user on a forum at thephotoforum.com, and a good place to look for equipment would be B&H Photo. He wrote it all down diligently, I made sure to meke sure he understood my camera was film and used an obsolete lens mount and suggested a body to look for if he wanted to look for what I was using.

I then wished him a good day and toddled off.

 

[Jedo_03]

Well... I'm in the post office, and there's this guy in front of me with a camera slung around his neck with one of those show-offy lenses and he starts yabbering with the counter assistant about this and that and 15 minutes later the queue is half a mile long and this guy is still blethering on and in the end I just walked out...
LOL...
Jedo

 

[Battou]

Well... I'm in the post office, and there's this guy in front of me with a camera slung around his neck with one of those show-offy lenses and he starts yabbering with the counter assistant about this and that and 15 minutes later the queue is half a mile long and this guy is still blethering on and in the end I just walked out...
LOL...
Jedo

:lmao: That wasn't me....I stepped off to the side and let the old woman who was next do what she needed.:lmao:

 

[Battou]

Well....It finally happened, I am not surprised. I had the police called on me for having a camera the size of New Jersey in a public park where lots of little girls where playing in their sunday best.

As I have stated I am a child care provider and when the two kids I supervise asked to go to the park I saw no reason not to (they need the exercise). Upon arriving at the park we find there is a church gathering being held in the park. K it's a public park right across from the church, what ever. There where aproximately a dozen kids there (not including the two I brought) the majority of witch female. The two I had began to play as they had planned, I sat down and began changing the lens on my camera swapping the 400mm for an 85mm. Normally I would stand under the little gazeabo at the top of the hill but upon my arrival it was full of kids so I stayed out.

It did not take long for the adults males of the church group to begin posturing between myself and the kids, I kindly asked what was going on down there (glancing across the park), He told me and invited me to feel free to come down and have a bite to eat. This I respectfully declined, To put it bluntly I want nothing to do with their beliefs, I just don't buy into the whole "Church" thing. He then proceeded back down to the rest of the gathering and took the kids with him. After about five minuets or so a second man approched me, He offered me a CD....well at this point I figured if they're offering bribes of food and then now a compact disk, it's time to get the hell out of dodge...they are not going to be comfortable untill I either leave or join them. So I Change my glass again, (I can't put the 400 in the brief case, it won't fit.) and coax the two I brought to go to another park. They agreed quickley, it seems they don't like large gatherings either.

I got fifteen feet from where I was sitting when I saw the police cruser come around the corner behind me....I knew full well what he was there for. When he pulled up beside me I looked at him and kinda chuckled and shook my head and told the kids to hold up because he was going to want to speak to me.

We've got some smart cops around here, I could tell just by the look on his face he did not want to talk to me but a job is a job and he had to. He came around the front of the car and I said "Your are here to talk to me arntchya" He sais "Yeah we got a call" I told him I was not suprised. That one cought him off guard and he asked if I saw them call, I said "no....I am a photographer and a child care provider, In this day and age photographers get this a bit and as a child care provider I am also in the position where I have to assume the same thing when I see it. I know exactly what what they are thinking and I understand it" After that he took down the standard information Name, address, drivers licence yada yada.

After he had what he needed to do done he asked about the capibility of the lens I had on the camera and I gave him a what I feel was a perfect description about idealy framing a building a quarter mile away, and then we headed our seperate ways.


The only part about the whole thing that sucked was the fact it sucked up so much time I had to take the kids home instead of the other park they wanted to go to, and on top of that I had to explain to them why the police wanted to talk to me. Trying to explain this concept to children is difficult because I can't exactly tell them that people think I am a sexual preditor, thankfully their mother was nice enough to help out and kid friendly it as the "Stranger Theroy" and it was up to me from there to explain how it effects Photographers and picture taking.

 

[Jedo_03]

... and people taking pictures of nude underage girls and displaying them publicly is not helping to dispel public hysteria either...

Personally, I hardly ever take my gear with me anymore when I'm taking the grandkids (11 and 9) to the park: Never when we go to the beach.
I guess I'm thin-skinned about it - the paranoia has rubbed off onto me...
Apart from my own two - only time I photograph kids is on assignment with one or other of their parents THERE...
Jedo

 

[Battou]

... and people taking pictures of nude underage girls and displaying them publicly is not helping to dispel public hysteria either...

Personally, I hardly ever take my gear with me anymore when I'm taking the grandkids (11 and 9) to the park: Never when we go to the beach.
I guess I'm thin-skinned about it - the paranoia has rubbed off onto me...
Apart from my own two - only time I photograph kids is on assignment with one or other of their parents THERE...
Jedo

I carry a pile of gear with me just about everywhere I go, As of right now (as was set yesterday) I have One digital point and shoot and three SLR lenses (50mm, 85mm and 60 - 300mm) in my brief case and one SLR with 400mm lens on body. I can not stand just sitting there just watching these two kids (10 and 8) play. So I take whatever I have with me, wasting half a roll of film on flying toys is better than just sitting there doing nothing, and you never know one might actually end up with a keeper or even an occation where a set of Photos are necessary.

That said, I have no intention of turning over my camera to the public hysteria, but my current occupation gives me a rather unique perspective on it though.