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Discussion
8 Years Ago
So, when you are doing a photo walk in a museum with your LowPro bag and getting those great images of all the planes using the auto setting and your pop up flash, please refrain from walking up next to the man using the tripod and taking a bunch of harsh flash photography of the same thing I am shooting WHILE my shutter is open.......
In all fairness, I wasn't looking through the view finder and pressing the button so it wasn't obvious that I was actually taking an image standing there with my cable release and all..... Well, at least not to someone using the green setting and pop up flash.
Reply Order
8 Years Ago
Put him in the middle of a swamp with snakes crawling all over him........he is happy.
Make him deal with a tourist.....and the venting happens.
8 Years Ago
I bet he didn't even know you were there. Seems today everyone has blinders on and live in a very little world.
8 Years Ago
your lucky he didn't limbo through the shot or simply stand in front of the camera. or you didn't get a shot of a cell phone wandering in there.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
LOL people don't understand long exposures. People always walk right in front of my camera, especially right at the end of a 20 second exposure. I think they just assume you're waiting to take your next shot.
8 Years Ago
Wear a shirt that says "Hey see that red light....that means I am working here BACK OFF" lol
8 Years Ago
Just take another shot. Its not like you own the place.
Conversely I could get annoyed every time my path is blocked by someone taking family pictures. But instead I pause and let them take their shot and then resume my walk.
8 Years Ago
i used to use tripod, but every time they nudged the leg, shook the floor, etc, it just wasn't worth it.
---Mike Savad
MikeSavad.com
8 Years Ago
I do recall an incident in Hawaii where I set up a shot about 30 minutes before sunset and then of course right before I was going to take the shot a family comes down and gets in my shot.
But who am I to claim everything within sight of my camera lens and hold it captive for 30 minutes? I got my shot as they walked out and behind the rocks.
8 Years Ago
Why would people understand long exposures? You eat, live and breathe photography, but most people don't. I don't even know what a LowPro bag is. In their defense, I think that people in museums or on vacations are distracted and would be embarrassed to think they interfered with a photo set-up. Maybe it's best to expect the worst, then you won't be disappointed or frustrated when it happens, because the likelihood is good.
8 Years Ago
I don't do photography, I just take photos for reference for my drawings and paintings, but I take Ed's attitude, it's not my land, or scene, or museum, or car show, it's a public space, who am I to lay claim to it even for a short time? I was sketching an old truck at working historic farm owned by the county last fall that's popular with pro photographers who take family photos and photos for wedding invitations. I thought it was funny that they would ask permission from me to do photo shoots with the truck while I was there. Even though it was a bit annoying and I often had to stop working on my sketch because of it I'd tell them "Go ahead, it's not my truck.".
8 Years Ago
I was at a car show once and this big pompous camera guy was making a big show of taking pictures of this certain car. He was making this big deal of getting everyone out of "his" shot. Reflections you know. Well, the bottom line is this guy wasn't in a studio environment. He was at a public car show.
I circled around the show and 10 minutes later no one was near the car.
8 Years Ago
Reminds me of this place. I was working the scene from all angles. I got over to the other side of the pond, hike through the brush, find the perfect angle and then I'm just waiting for a cloud break to reach the mill building light it up.
The clouds begin to break and then at the at exact moment a maintenance guy drives in and parks right next to the mill. That's photography.
8 Years Ago
Ed, at least the mill can't up and drive away while you're sketching it. lol I do think that would be the most frustrating thing about pro photography, trying to find something that has a good composition and isn't cluttered with things or people that detract from the image.
8 Years Ago
I spent about 45 minutes last weekend trying to string together a decent series of photos for an HDR of a busy movie theater, Finally after getting enough shots without people walking by I went home and put together an HDR photo with my usable shots.
Upon closer inspection there was a dude looking at his cellphone just inside the theater doors through all my images lol. I didn't notice that at all when I was taking the photos.
Glenn McCarthy Art and Photography
8 Years Ago
Yep,
I was at a concert the other night taking photos of Kenny Rogers. Made sure that I was not blocking somebody's view and still had this lady assault me! Cursing up a storm and threatening to have security take me away. Good thing I had my "irritating people protector gear" on.
Man... Kenny Rogers made me feel young again. Talk about telling "back in my day" stories. How old is he? 100?
8 Years Ago
I think the most amazing part of that story is that you were allowed to use a tripod at all. A lot of places won't allow it for various reasons including they would probably be liable if somebody tripped over the tripod.
8 Years Ago
I used to run in to the uneducated all of the time when I was running dogs. You can do two things - nicely educate the person or chalk up the ignorance.
But I do understand your frustration JC :-)
8 Years Ago
I had a restaurant designer for a client from 1983 until he passed away unexpectedly in 2010. Back in the mid 90's he had a lot of clients in Manhattan. His used a lot of neon in his designs and I almost always had to shoot after sundown. It was virtually impossible to get the owners to stay for more than an hour after closing so I usually tried to get things going an hour before so I had a little more time to work. The dirty looks and comments I got just from bringing in equipment cases and setting up lights on stands. Not to mention trying to get exterior shots without people walking across the scene. I would have assistants, the designer, the owner, waiters, bartenders, everyone I could get a hold of, standing out of frame on both sides directing people to walk around behind me and every other person wanted to their own personal version of Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy. "Hey, I'm walkin' here."
8 Years Ago
When I was shooting weddings I had that happen to me all the time, and more often than I like to think about now I had family members stand right in front of me to take a photo of what I had just set up, and I know they knew I was the photographer, I was the guy with the Mamiya 6X7 with the flash mounted high, and running the show for my hour and a half of posed shot time, so yeah I know what you mean JC!!!
TL Mair
tlmair.com
8 Years Ago
What REALLY makes me crazy is when I'm standing on a footbridge trying to get a shot in low light, and invariably people keep tromping across like a herd of freakin' rhinos and bounce the damn platform. I wait until the bouncing stops, start all over trying to compose and focus, and here comes another pack of elephants. Would it actually kill them to wait an entire 10 seconds so I could get my shot? Apparently so.
8 Years Ago
Did you rent the museum for a private shoot? If not, did you plan to be there during low tide? If not, who do you think you are that you expect people to read your mind and stay out of some invisibly marked space and not use their cameras? It sounds like you may be the irritating fly in the ointment, not them.
Dan Turner
Dan Turner's Seven Keys to Selling Art Online
8 Years Ago
JC, You crack me up. there you are camera tripod and batman outfit and you somehow expect people to not mess with you? C'mon Batman :) At least he did not fly a drone into your shot, or your intake :)
8 Years Ago
please excuse me your in my space...what space ! , unique story but the responses priceless.
8 Years Ago
In all fairness, I wasn't looking through the view finder and pressing the button so it wasn't obvious that I was actually taking an image standing there with my cable release and all..... Well, at least not to someone using the green setting and pop up flash. -JC
Taking everything into account that occurred, I wonder who managed to pull off the better image, the long exposure with tripod or mr. someone using the green setting and pop up flash? LOL
8 Years Ago
OK, back
Let's see. It wasn't a huge irritation just a vent among those who might understand.
Actually, I LOVE tourists.
1. They buy art.
2. They are the reason why we have no income tax
3. Some of them really add a nice natural beauty to the beach
4. I like people, almost all people.
Tourists are actually quite easy to work with or around for my shots. The only people up at sunrise are me, the fishermen, some surfers, some joggers, an occasional photographer and once in a blue moon some tourists. So, I shoot t sunrise a lot. It is easy to be patient and let them walk through and around the scene then shoot. No biggie. You can make them a part of the scene. You can go where they simply aren't OR go where they go but off season. I will wait until the winter to get my wide angle shots of the inside of our lighthouse for that reason and normally wouldn't go near the museum this time of year but was shooting a change of command there anyway so had to be there, might as well shoot some other stuff.
Now, the LowPro bag is important to this story for this reason. If you are sporting a grand worth of camera bling on your strap and have 150 dollar camera purse with presumably more camera stuff inside I would expect at least some level of knowledge about photography. I would expect a modicum of courtesy. Especially when you are alone and simply doing the same thing I am.
Hey, if it was a tourist with a cell phone or even a dslr I generally offer to shoot them with my gear and send them the high res image free. (I give them a card that leads to the web site and then tell them to use the contact artist tab.) Tourists shooting with you are an opportunity to sell. Some tog that probably does 25 dollar senior packages and would be MUCH better off buying a couple books on digital photography rather than spending 150 on a LowPro bag and shooting on auto I have a little less tolerance of.
Footbridge joggers are a pretty constant work around down here.
I can only imagine the frustration of a wedding photographer in today's cell phone shot world.
On tripods and flashes. Both the Navel Aviation museum and the Marine Corps Museum allow them. Actually, one of the workers there approached me once and said FINALLY, someone that knows how to shoot in here in dim light. He added that not only do they allow tripods but watch this. He touched the airplane. (Only surviving aircraft left today that flew in the battle of Midway.) He said here, you can TOUCH history.
Again, it is easy to go where there are no visitors, really.
8 Years Ago
JC,
CT and other states have income taxes to pay off older bond issues in large part.
Florida and many southern states are about to catch up. To support larger populations
there needs to be major capital outlays, bond issues. When they come due it is going to get ugly.
And they will come due on a rolling basis.
Dave
8 Years Ago
I'll rephrase......
JC likes snakes more than fauxtographers (and I cringe when I use that phrase.....just being a pain).
8 Years Ago
JC,
I had about the same thing happen once. It was easily solved. Use a variation of the following and you, too, will find these problems easily solved.
I was taking pictures for a magazine once. Night shots. Tripod.. long exposure... etc. Up comes a videographer from a local network TV station. He sets up 25 feet away, turns on the powerful video light and starts shooting. I (VERY NICELY) asked if he could give me a few more minutes. He did not answer. (Anybody with experience knows when the local news guys show up, we newspaper and magazine still shooters are bottom-of-the-barrel pond scum and don't deserve an answer.) He continued shooting.
So I solved it myself. I took my tripod, walked to his location, and planted it (and my broad shoulders) right in front of his video camera. I did not say a word. In less than a minute, he switched his light off and said "I'll wait until you're done." Problem solved. If you're bold enough, it's easy enough.
8 Years Ago
LOVE your solution Dan.
This was not at that level. The solution was really quite easy in my case. I just waited for her to scurry off to the next display and reshot my image. Really I didn't think about it again until I was downloading my card.
Oh, and for those that have never been there "Youarenotaphotographer.com" is hilarious with their fauxtographer imagery. To get on there you must post your fauxtography as part of your online portfolio and offer your work or services for sale.
8 Years Ago
JC
It's good to see photographers and plein air painters have a similar "problem" like this.
I'm actually surprised he didn't at least inquire about why Batman was in a museum taking photos in the first place.
He didn't, by any chance, have this weird clown like smile on his face, did he? :-)
Bill Tomsa
http://billtomsa.blogspot.com/
8 Years Ago
Fortunately no clown face but unfortunately no patent leather suit with a tale and cat ears either.
8 Years Ago
When I used to shoot film in the days before Photoshop, every single tourist who walked into my frame invariably wore either a bright red or bright yellow jacket. And they would just stand there and wait me out.
8 Years Ago
Here is an interesting link to a blog article I posted on my G+ page to share with other photographers. (I'm not the author)
http://photofocus.com/2015/07/09/the-era-of-the-entitled-photographer/
It's definitely a two sided coin, especially when taking into consideration the photographer may be a professional,like myself, and out doing our job trying to make a living. Make NO mistake however... I don't expect ordinary people oblivious to their surroundings at very public places to even give a crap or comprehend what I'm doing. I simply avoid those situations.
The good thing for myself and others in my field, the casual idiots and point and shoots JC encountered are not awake at 3am traveling to location and hiking in with a headlamp preparing to set up for amazing lighting. If someone else follows me shortly after I arrive at a remote wilderness location, it's obvious they are serious about their craft and we often wind up networking and keeping in touch long afterwards.
From my perspective, I feel it's always best whenever possible to be considerate.
Anyhow, it's a nice article to read
8 Years Ago
I am pretty sure that same person puts the backpack on and rides my train during commuter hours with no clue of how far his backpack sticks out behind him and whaps people like me with it.
8 Years Ago
Great article Thomas.
I really love negative wind chills for crowd control, or did when I lived in the North East.
Ice storms made for great indoor shooting in the DC Zoo.
Here, it is all about shooting at sun up or in the winter. 20 degrees sends even the locals straight home.
8 Years Ago
Good article, Thomas, and thanks for posting it. The scenario of other people with cameras encroaching on "our" photographic space also reminds of when I used to fish a lot. The entire bank along the perimter of a lake could be empty, and another person with a rod will setup right by you. Or, as has happened to me also, I could be out on the local 400+ acre lake, be the only one out there, and a guy in another boat will anchor closeby and cast into "my" spot, which goes against every bit of fishing etiquette in my book. :)
8 Years Ago
Just got back from DC and then georgia... DC was a pain... I was in a conference during the day so I went out in the evening to shot... flashlights... I wanted to kill everyone with a flashlight... you could see without one if you did not blind people with them... I took this photo a dozen times to get one without people walking up with their flashlights... I know I don't own the space... and only one person knew what I was doing... he commented about it and we chatted for a second or two... but it was a pain...
8 Years Ago
Ah, DC and the photographic Mecca that it is.
Try shooting the Cherry Blossom Festival. No exaggeration, there are thousands of photographers lined up on the shores of the Tidal Basin at sunrise every single day. I just don't like shooting what everyone else does.
Of course, at 0200 in the mist, you can get an uncrowded image.
Then there is the spot in DC where you can get the Trifecta. Not the Mall but the one spot where you can get the DC Trifecta of the Lincoln, the Washington and the Capitol all in a single frame. On any given weekend sunrise there are 20 togs all within 100 feet trying to get the same image at sunrise.
Paul W Faust - Impressions of Light
8 Years Ago
that is what our society has now become - totally self centered and without a thought of anyone else - - - what you describe is nothing to what I have come across when others are around where I have been shooting - that's why I no longer go where there are any people if I can help it - and when I do go it is off-season with less tourists and no kids and most of the time the parents are worse than the kids - - - nature and landscape photographers have all this trouble a lot less than anyone else but it you go where people go - deal with it because they sure as hell will not care
Paul W Faust - Impressions of Light
8 Years Ago
JC - the last time we talked you were living in NY - - where have you gone to now and what are you doing? - legally that is.
Paul W Faust - Impressions of Light
8 Years Ago
Ah Florida - the bugs and gaters supermart
so what are you doing there now?
the lawyer thing didn't last long - but at least now you're an honest citizen again