+1!Originally Posted by John Kasaian
People usually wind up bug-eyed and amazed when I'm out and about with my camera. Usually my 8x10 Cambo is mistaken for a movie camera. I don't know why, the lack of Mickey Mouse ears on it should have been a dead give-away. Ah, well. I also do get asked, "Is that a Hasselblad?" People really aren't exposed to anything other than, essentially, point & shoot cameras.
"It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." - Walker Evans
My photographer friend sometimes asks if I'm still 'carting all that crap around'
hahahaha
we kid each other though
Depends on the crowd and the neighborhood. People on the local trails encounter me with the camera sometimes and are generally very polite, and some wait till I
take the shot and then ask to look under the darkcloth. I let them. The only exception was a herd of twenty-something Japanese tourists once, vying with one
another for who had the most rhinestones on their cell phone. A couple of them chided me for using such a big old-fashioned thing that nobody else has used for a
hundred years. I simply pointed out how people a hundred years ago did not make cameras out of aircraft alloy aluminum, or delrin, or titanium, or fiberglass and
penetrating epoxy, or for that matter, use a Goretex darkcloth. Usually, it's exactly the other way around. I've had tourist from both China and India commend me
for still using a "real" camera. The software techies & engineers are particularly enthusiastic about real film still being available. On the other hand, once I get inland, into what is essentially the Midwest of California, I have to be very careful about roadside photography. Idiots will go out of their way to hit a mudpuddle
or stir up gravel and rocks. When I doubt, I stay well away from such places, and stick to the backroads and hill country.
"Boris 'The Blade' Yurinov: Heavy is good, heavy is reliable. If it doesn't work you can always hit them with it."
"Sex is like maths, add the bed, subtract the clothes, divide the whoo hoo and hope you don't multiply." - Leather jacket guy
No I haven't given or received any mocking face to face. Usually it's the opposite, you meet interesting people, or teach about the hobby.
But I haven't been mocked for the type of car I drive, refrigerator I have, or the type of jeans I wear either. It's a primitive, tribal mentality to believe that anyone different than you is somehow bad or wrong. That belief is strong in some.
Garrett
flickr galleries
I even have a name for those types of people. I call them in-laws.
Mocked? No. I guess I tend to confuse them too much to mock.
ULF Digital Camera:
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
But really, who would mock such a gentle gnomish-looking fellow? (Out with the MF in the rain in Fern Canyon)
Or perhaps I do not get mocked because upon getting closer, the gnome turns out to be a 250 pound, 6'4" hairy guy with a heavy object in his hand (hiking up from the Valley floor, Yosemite).
Last edited by Vaughn; 22-Jul-2014 at 14:48.
"Landscapes exist in the material world yet soar in the realms of the spirit..." Tsung Ping, 5th Century China
I don't even bother to argue technical details like pixels versus square inches of film. That kind of thing is OK on a web forum, but distinctly unwelcome when I'm outdoors trying to relax and compose something. But it almost never happens. They take one look at the size of my pack and that big Ries maple tripod strapped on the back, and they know it's something serious. And they know that the purpose for their cell phone or even DLSR is something completely different. The only ones who don't are the bird watchers, who assume that I have a big spotting scope in my pack. So they skip along the trail with their little binoculars and field guides, note that I have serious gear, and therefore assume that I know an awful lot about birds. ... So they'll see some turkey vulture or crow out in the distance, and I'll get all enthusiastic and tell them that it's some kind of super rare tropical bird never seen before on the West Coast, that I'll invent some ridiculous name for, and that will make their day.
Heroique I have been belittled a bit at Glazer's as well. Also many Kenmore Camera's salesmen also wonder why I shoot large format. While out shooting for the last 30 years I have been asked why I am shooting film. As early as 1986 when I visited Kyoto and was at Nara photographing the Temple and Shine - and Englishman on the tour wanted to know why I was shooting with a Nikon F-2 and not a "new" digital camera. When I am out with a large format camera here in Washington State - I have been asked: why am I taking pictures with such an old camera? Or do I work for National Geographic?
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