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Curious people asking questions about equipment


hans_beckert

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One of the pleasures of traveling with Leicas is meeting interesting people. Funny I don't get this reaction with any other camera brand. Several years ago while shooting with my R8 in Ho Chi Minh City an elderly gentleman came up to me and asked about my camera. Since I happened to be standing outside his home he invited me in. Turned out he was a war photographer who made that famous shot of the young GI in one of the last choppers evacuating Saigon; you know the photo of soldiers pushing people off so the chopper could leave? Anyway I hung out in his studio and listened to war stories and drank tea.

 

I also listened to beggars and don't find them annoying. I have actually represented some of them if they qualified for SS disability benefits since most of whom I've met had some sort of mental illness. Our government does not help the indigent mentally ill because statistically they die within 10 years on the streets while institutionalized they can live out their lives. This was actually a calculated move by the federal government to save money.

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There are reviews of a Nikon 400mm 2.8 lens (list $10,000) on www.photographyreview.com. The reviews there feature a part where the reviewer lists the pros and cons of the product. One reviewer's list of cons for that lens mentioned that people asking if you work for Sports Illustrated or National Geographic becomes tedious after awhile.

 

I find that using a tripod of any quality becomes a source of curiousity. I still find it funny when you are looking through a viewfinder composing a shot and someone asks if I am taking pictures. Although it can be distracting, most people are just being freindly. I might chat with them for a bit. If I need to concentrate, I just politefully say so and carry on without further conversation.

 

One one occasion I felt compelled to be a wiseguy. I was shooting a road going off into a forest in foliage season. Some guy drove his car up his somewhat nearby driveway demanding to know what I was taking pictues of. It was obvious what I was shooting and it wasn't near his property. Since a freind was with me, in case trouble started, I responded that I was taking a picture of the scene in front of the camera. After an awkward silence of about 30 seconds he hurrumphed and drove back down his driveway.

 

On another occasion (again with a freind) I was shooting city buildings shortly after dark. A band of hoodlums appeared asking if we were "yo" from the newspaper. They wanted to have their picture taken. When I explained that the camera and film wasn't set up right for such shots, they said, "Yo! We ain't good enough for your pictures?" I said fine, aimed the camera at their nutty pose and hit the flash test button. No film wasted and they went on their way after asking if their picture would be in the newspaper. Talk about annoying.

 

If you use a tripod, have a flash bracket or a big lens, people will stare. You will have to live with it. They are not as bad as those at work somewhere who go outside to smoke a cigarette. Such people have an unknowing cumpulsion to stare at anybody doing anything nearby. If you are in this group, please pause for a moment to realize you are doing this, that the person putting something in his car isn't the most facsinating thing in the world and that they would like to not be gazed at the entire time just because you are bored. Its not like they are shooting pictures with a big lens and tripod or anything.

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Hans: "Would you want a scrofulous wanderer hanging about when you have $5000 worth of goods in your bag and on your person?"

 

Hans, this is an inherent risk with photography. Nothing you can do about it. Take up painting instead - at least that's 'art'.

 

Hans: "To be safe is better than to be sorry...."

 

You are *so* suburban and insecure (or maybe you have aristocratic blood). Get over it and throw away your proverbial ever-ready cases.

 

Henry wrote: "(BTW, the potato goes in the front of your pants)"

 

People, this is indeed one of the funniest threads going. ;-)

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Harry Geron , feb 17, 2004; 10:11 p.m.

<i>Hans, did it ever occur to you that they just might consider you as much of a threat to them?

 

Keep digging, Pretty soon you will have a hole big enough to crawl into, then you can pull it in after you and then not be bothered by those unworthies any more.</i><p>

 

I feel compelled to answer this one. How could he have considered me a threat when he crossed the street to approach me? <b>You</b> were not there, so you have no business saying what you said. He was walking down the street asking person after person for change. When he got close to me and started his 'story', I told him to get away from me. In no uncertain terms, I might add. Scrofulous vagrants are not what I want to have around me when I am alone with expensive equipment. Do I make myself clear?

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is hans beckert for real, anyone?

 

wouldn't any decent person have packed up, deleted the user account and

hoped this thread would be deleted right away... after posting it? i can't help

but thinking this has to be fictional, it's just too "good" to be true;)

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Hans, your ability to take a joke good-naturedly without becoming (overly) defensive led me to think that a serious response might be in order (I know, this could lead to the thread's deletion).

 

I've found when I'm shooting with view cameras, people come out of the woodwork to chat -- most of them seemingly seeking only to confirm my egomaniacal intuition that most people are morons -- but I've had an interesting chat or two, and since I'm mostly shooting architecture or landscapes, I'm not in a rush and can do what I'm doing while carrying on a conversation or (usually when I'm trying to calculate an extension's effect on exposure or something with my appallingly bad math) I just ask for a moment.

 

I've also been stopped when shooting with older (usually retro-looking chrome) rangefinders (usually by geezers who used to shoot with them, or the kids of such geezers), and since I'm usually shooting on my own free time, and not for pay, I enjoy a good chat about olden times and cameras.

 

I've never been stopped when shooting with SLRs -- as mine are rather pedestrian, I suppose -- but don't think that'd particularly make a difference. So I guess I have the same "problem," but I simply do not find it a problem.

 

And to the rest of you cads, I apologize for the quasi-serious post.

 

John

 

p.s. Frank -- most imaginative use of Jay's camera + bag yet -- well done..

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