absinthe

Oleg, here are some contacts to help you: <ul>

<li><a href="http://nlgnyc.org/">National Lawyer's Guild NYC branch</a>

<li><a href="http://www.nyclu.org">NYCLU</a> (NYC ACLU office)</ul>

Also, contact Norman Siegel

<br>Phone: 212-532-7586

<br>Email: <a href="mailto:siegelnorman@aol.com">siegelnorman@aol.com</a><br>

Norman Siegel takes on high profile cases, but he is a very helpful guy with a great staff & will help point you in the right direction. <p>You should also file a complaint with the <a href="http://www.nyc.gov/html/ccrb/home.html"> NYC Civilian Complaint Review Board (CCRB) </a>. They aren't always receptive, but can sometimes be of help. <p>

Speaking as an activist who deals with the cops in good & not so good circumstances on a regular basis & also as the daughter of a retired NYPD Captain, I think you kind of asked for trouble. That doesn't make the cop's reaction right (and fighting it, if you're so inclined, is a good thing), but you shouldn't be surprised by the reaction either. If a cop says "Go Away", you should do so unless you are trying to get arrested or summonsed on purpose. You lucked out this time & believe me... your ticket has nothing to do with an attempted photograph, but rather your attitude. You're also lucky you didn't get a 24 hour trip to the Tombs (Manhattan Central Booking) because lots of NYPD have been opting for that course of action rather than ticketing. The Tombs are no fun, trust me. I know first hand. You chose to pick a verbal fight with a cop... not smart at all.

<img src="http://www.photo.net/bboard-uploads//005yZP-14425584.jpg"></img>

26 inches, corner property (lotta sidewalk), 2 car wide driveway & no snowblower :-( My arm is going to fall off. I grin & bear it because I love the snow (just not the shoveling). Camera didn't budge today as either I was too busy freeing the cars or busy moaning over my aches.

My non high end Elan7 comes with an option to leave the leader out. I then push most of the leader in, leaving out only a little to differentiate between exposed & unexposed rolls because I am naturally unorganized & my film is always getting mixed up. With my other cameras, they all manually rewind so I listen for the film to disengage the sprockets & then give the crank half a turn before I pop open the back. This leaves me with the leader out as well. I prefer to trim off the leader outside the changing bag, but I pop my film out of the cartridge before I load onto the tank wheel anyway so either way is fine. You can usually get a film lead retriever for like a buck or two at the same place as you get your chemicals.

Holdng your breath speeds up your heart rate. squeeze off your pic in between breaths, after you exhale. There is a natural pause there so that you don't have to change your breathing method to accomodate your shot.

Hee hee... yet another reason to love my old Pentax. Damned thing will chip asphalt before it breaks... and if it does, I'm not out thousands... not even hundreds :-)

 

I am going to have to try this.

BTW, I am both a buyer & seller with Paypal.

Sounds like someone hijacked an Ebay account and is using a stolen credit card to scam you. Don't EVER access Paypal or Ebay through a link from an email. Always go to the site directly. Too many scams & both companies know that & will never require you to access a page on their site only via an email link.

 

As far as the money deposited. If you return it, eventually the credit card company will flag the stolen account & contact PayPal to return any stolen funds & you will be out the 60 bucks you you sent the scammer plus another 60 to the stolen credit card's company. There is NO reason why a seller would send you money & ask for it back. This same scam is also run with Western Union money orders too. Leave the money be & contact Paypal right away. Truth is they may freeze your account because Paypal is dumb like that, but that will be temporary until they can verify that the 60 bucks is part of a scam.

 

This is most definitely a scam... too many red flags... uncharacteristic activity on an ebay user ID, seller sending you money asking you to send it back, email asking you to click on link & enter account info (btw, you don't ever need anyone's paypal ID to do business, just their email address that they have registered into paypal.)

 

For future notice, if the guy is legit, he can offer you a private auction open only to you on Ebay with a Buy It Now button. Don't let him take you off of Ebay since you will loose the little buyer protection Ebay offers & the seller is doing it to avoid fees which means he is stealing from Ebay. Another thing, for Ebay purchases, always pay by credit card through Paypal so you have double buyer protection... Paypal's buyer protection & if they fail to do right by you, your credit card's protection (they will do a chargeback on Paypal forcing Paypal to do a chargeback on the seller).

You need to worry more about yer ipod getting lifted than yer camera. On the subway, people try to snatch ipods when they see the white earbuds. Someone tried to snatch my sister's & its happened to several other people I know. Easy solution... get rid of those white earbuds. <P>

But back to your camera... much safer than an ipod. I wouldn't leave it laying around, but reasonable precautions with your property that you would use anywhere is sufficient. As far as getting to see the real city, that's subjective & depends on what your overall photographic endeavors are. Lots of areas that used to be "real" or "urban" or gritty or whatnot are now rather gentrified. Williamsburg, LIC, the LES, Harlem, etc... these places flaunt their past & history, but its all but stripped away & now only for nostalgia... part museum & part hipster hot spot. Does that make it less real? I don't think so, just different than what it was 10 & 20 years ago. To see where the middle & lower income people have made neighborhoods, you can safely venture into most of Queens & Brooklyn that is more than 4 subway stops from Manhattan. <p>

You can take the 7 train to Rosevelt Avenue in Queens & simply walk below the train tracks (its elevated in that part) through various neighborhoods that are always shifting & changing. Irish into Puerto Rican. Polish into Indian. You can see the old guard's fading storefronts as the new immigrants add their bright new awnings. Bodegas next to Irish Pubs next to Halal meat shops. The 7 train is great for using a Fun Pass on.

Trevor, on one of the PBS channels I think I saw one of those DVDs or similar. Showed the guys going over the course they were gunna run the next day. Sweetjaysusmaryandjoseph, if they didn't behave just like action heros, but no CGI, no stuntmen. It was cool.

First off, the NYPD have nothing to do with how businesses operate. Complaining to them will do nothing as it isn't their resposibility to handle such things. It must go through different governmental channels. To say NYC does nothing about these places is also rather false. They are investigated & fined all the time. The shops pay the fines. Its a cycle. The problem lies with the laws on the books. In order to change the laws so that the punishment is to shut down the shop, one has to lobby various governemtal channels. Seems nobody has stepped up to the plate. Nothing will change until people decide to take action & request government action to change the laws on the books.

Dino, Kodak sends it to Dwaynes. They no longer process it themselves. They allow Dwaynes to represent them. I say cut out the middleman, unless the middleman is cheaper, & lower your turn around time

Look, not everyone is bitten by the Leica bug. If the guy tries out the camera & isn't into it, don't give him grief about selling it. And no, he probably WON'T regret it in the least when he finds out that he can fund a fabulous camera outfit that is more to his liking with the money he made selling it. Not everyone falls in love with Leicas & its better to have a camera you enjoy using than to have one that sits in a box, even if it holds its value. If he likes it, he is lucky to have such a nice outfit for free... if he doesn't, then he's lucky to be able to sell this to fund what he wants. Either way, its a win-win situation for him. If he chooses to sell, whomever buys the outfit from him will probably be happy too. & then the camera will be loved & fondled properly. <p>

Daniel...here's my two cents:<br>

Get the camera CLA'd (don't worry... if you sell it, you can mention that it has been CLA'd & get more money); Pick up a few rolls of B&W film... ISO 400 is good for most lighting conditions; try out yer camera ( look for good light & shadows... B&W is all about tonal differences) & drop the film off to be processed at a PRO lab. It'll cost more, but this way you up your chances of getting your first few rolls back properly processed. Drug store labs are notorious for bad processing. If you don't care for it, be happy in the knowlege that you will get a nice sum for what you have there. This is a great place to sell Leica gear, just follow the forum guidelines for selling stuff here. If you did enjoy it, Learn how to develop your own film for starters. Its easy & you don't need a darkroom. You can get instuctions at the library or online. If your still interested, sign up for a darkroom course & learn to make prints. I love doing my own B&W. Its my personal zen time. I also enjoy doing my own color prints digitally so the two diciplines can coexist very nicely together.

Kodak ships to Dwaynes... so does walmart, cvs, walgreens, etc.... Dwaynes is the only place processing Kodachrome in the US

Duggal ships to Dwaynes. In the us, the few shops I know of that still "process" Kodachrome ship to Dwaynes. B&H shipa to Dwaynes & they are cheaper than directly dealing with Dwaynes. I drop my Kodachrome off there, but occasionally I decide to throw my money away & say hey... lets push the kodachrome (because I am sick like that)... for 12 extra bucks for 1 stop... sent directly to Dwaynes sice not even Duggal will offer pushing & pulling for kodachrome anymore.

Lesley... his name... Malcom Tentt + Malcontent = Troll

Rockafellar center just opened its observatory up after being closed for 20 years. Their observatory is surrounded by plexiglass so you'll probably have to shoot through it. Don't know about the tripod. As far as the Empire State Buildingis concerned, someone once posted a shot of the chrysler building they took at night from the Empire State BUilding with a 200mm lens & a beanbag to support the camera. Don't have a link for it, but it was beautiful.

I tend to like iso 400 & I bring along a ND filter in case its extra sunny... but I am in NYC where shadows are ever-present

When I read this title, I immediately thought of a Curb Your Enthusiasm episode from 2 weeks ago :-)

The above was in response to the following:

 

"That's usually the case where leftists and conservatives meet, the leftists are more vocal and less civilised."

hmmm... but look who resorted to insults first... but then again I am sure it's just you & not those who you seem to represent

Tim, your right, of course, but don't ever tell me that I can't "motorvate" because then I just get plain mad

Hey Brian... you think you can think about eventually implementing some way to mark a photo as interesting in addition to marking a person as interesting? I think sometimes people give a photo a very high rating just so it will appear in their highest rated photos list which is an easy way to browse yer favs. While it won't elliminate all or probably even most of the mate rating, it sure would be a nice feature. Perhaps for subscribers only so we feel all speacial & such?

Heya Marc

 

To insert a photo via uploading it & have it show up inline, make sure the photo is no wider than 511 pixels and you must leave something in the caption box... photo title or even a blank space will do, but you have to at least hit the spacebar.

<a href="http://thelightsrightstudio.com/digital-darkroom.htm">The Light's Right Studio</a> has tons of tips & tutiorials on sharpening. Intermingled with his directions are little nuggets of info on what USM is & how it works along with obvious graphic examples. It really helped me a lot when my USMing wasn't doing what I wanted it to.