I know he had a gun, Smith and Wesson, but I didn’t see a badge. Are you sure? I thought he gave up being a lawman that late in his life.! His only real mistake was thinking an angry drunk was harmless and sitting with his back to the door when he clearly knew better than that. I was there but it was a long time ago.
But what this has to do with tripods or NY, IDK. But it’s a fun chat.
But back to Gotham city, Sunday mornings were really dead in NYC (when I lived there), so probably best time to try your wings there... (Wall St. was empty)...
As long as you don't block sidewalks or venture onto private property, you might be just fine...
Steve K
That’s consistent with my experience with the DC Capital Police. They looked at me with binoculars, waved, and moved behind a pillar. As I finished up they looked again. No fuss. But it was early in the morning and it was basic just me and them. Private security seems to often be more aggressive.
Back then, I frequently traveled to NYC for work and thanks to the generosity of a coworker and her husband, I was able to stay free of charge in the penthouse condo they owned that was located on 110th Street, between First and Second Ave. They kept it for those times when they visited family and friends or her husband was in town on business. (They also maintained apartments and condos in Chicago, San Francisco, San Diego, London, and Singapore because the husband often traveled to those cities on business as well and hated to stay in hotels. Yes, they were quite well off.)
Whenever my schedule allowed, I would piggyback a day or two of vacation to the end of my business trips and use them to explore / photograph the city.
Because of its proximity, I photographed all over Harlem late at night / early in the morning and only once was I ever physically threatened. That said, when I photographed during the day, I was frequently yelled at by people for taking their photo, but they were only blustering, so it didn't bother me much.
The only time I was physically threatened, I was photographing down the street from a social club around 2:00 am on a Saturday morning and caught the attention of the crowd as they were leaving the club because it had closed.
Here in Phoenix, I will usually stand my ground when people tell me I can't take street scene photos because it's illegal, but when 20-30 amped-up and/or inebriated young men object and then start to circle me, I am wise enough to beat feet and quickly retreat, which I did without any further incident.
(Of course, here in Phoenix, I'm usually prepared to defend myself in the event I'm threatened, which isn't an option in NYC, so that is also a factor in my willingness to stand my ground here.)
I don't recall ever being hassled by the NYC PD, but I was regularly hassled by security guards and doormen who claimed the property where they worked extended all the way to the street, which was BS 99 times out of 100 and they knew it (because I told them to call the police if they must and I would wait until they arrived so I could explain my side of the situation and they never did.)
I was, however, hassled regularly by the Park police, including one time when I was photographing the RFK and Hell's Gate bridges from the empty soccer fields on Ward's Island using an infrared camera, which they viewed as highly suspicious because they thought only a spy or a terrorist would use a specially modified camera like mine. <rolls eyes>
I usually don't talk to the police -- I am a paralegal, after all, and know better than to do so -- but they were skeptical of my explanation that I was taking photos on what, to them, was not a very photogenic day, when I stupidly mentioned I was photographing with an infrared camera and things looked very different than they did with visible light ... oops!
I ended up being detained -- but not arrested -- for more than an hour while they investigated me to determine whether I was a threat or not. Which sucked, because the weather and light really were absolutely perfect and they would not let me continue to photograph while I waited for them to complete their investigation.
My last visit was in May 2015 -- in fact, that's when the incident on the bridge occurred -- because my friends sold their condo and I had quit my job in 2013, so I would have to pay for both my airfare and my housing if I visit again, which is much too spendy for me now that I'm semi-retired.
This gets at one of the more sensible provisions of NYC’s rules: § 9.01(b)(1)(ii), which requires a permit for photography that involves the assertion of exclusive use of more than one-half of a sidewalk, or when the sidewalk is narrower than 16 feet, exclusive use that leaves less than eight feet available for pedestrian use. One might quibble that the latter condition is excessive in an area where there’s little foot traffic, but the overall thrust is that you need a permit if you’re going to interfere with use of the sidewalk by other people. Seems reasonable enough to me.
As Mrs. Iselin said to the senator, “Dear, you’re good at a great many things, but thinking just isn’t one of them.”
The Washington Post recently suggested that the Park Police’s reputation is in tatters; I’m not sure it ever was otherwise.
wow, lots of good stories. A couple of weeks ago I was wandering around in the city, where I saw the heavily guarded Saks 5th ave store. I took this photo with my Chamonix Saber. When I came back with my tripods and wider lens set up, the security guard at Rock center told me that I can not set up the tripods on the sidewalk next to the Rock center.
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