Curious onlookers - how do you handle them?

[Brian Vuillemenot]

It depends on where we are, what I'm shooting, how fast the light is changing, my mood, what they ask, and what kind of a person they seem like. Sometimes I'll explain everything in detail, and have them look under the dark cloth. Other times I'll ignore them until they go away. This is more likely to be the case if they ask "Is that a Hassleblad?", "How old is that camera?", "Is that a color or black and white camera?", or something like that.

That reminds me of an interesting and somewhat uncomfortable encounter I had in King's Canyon National Park a few months ago. I was shooting a giant sequoia along one of the more popular loop trails, concentrating under the dark cloth, and heard a ruckus of young people coming towards me. It was a group of about twenty kids from about 10-14 years old. One kid in particular, about 12 and kind of chunky with a crew cut and thick glasses, gets right up in my face, starts flailing his arms, and asking all kinds of annoying questions a mile a minute. He even looked at my camera, and told me I'm doing it all wrong, it should be pointed further up in the trees! I responded by giving him a dirty look and ignoring him. I went under the dark cloth for a few minutes, and when I came out was startled to find that the kid had been literally six inches away the entire time! Fortunately, one of the chaperones finally told him to leave me alone. Some people have no concept of personal space...

[Paul Metcalf]

I've actually shooting (film) around the Palouse the last couple of days, and it's also upland bird season (quail), so the camera has allowed me some access that I might not have had without it because it's obvious (more or less) that I'm not hunting.

[Aender Brepsom]

Like many others, I do go for a little chat if the situation allows it.

Brian's experience reminds me of a situation where I was setting up my camera in front of a small waterfall. A family with 2 children arrived at the scene, the parents took off their shoes and socks and walked into the water right between me and the waterfall, and finally sat on a rock just in the middle of the scene.
My facial expression must have been one of extreme surprise, but they didn't dare to move. We had NO chat. By the way, they were no curious onlookers ...
After 10 minutes, they left and I took my shots.

[Scott Davis]

I've been given the nickname "The Corruptor" in my little photo club here in DC, because when we're out shooting, even if all of us are shooting LF, I'm the one who gets approached and talked to about it. I'm also the friendliest, so I talk about the camera and let people (especially kids!) take a peek under the darkcloth. I was out at Antietam last fall with one of my photo buddies, and this whole family came up and started asking questions. I let them all take a look at the ground glass, and the mom let out a priceless comment after her turn: "It's like a small Hi-Def TV!". Yeah, I guess it is . I really don't mind, although the invariable " Is it old?" does get tired after a while. I just point out the aerospace aluminum fittings on the Canham and then it dawns on people that I must be telling the truth - they didn't have aerospace aluminum in 1900.

[David Karp]

Unless I have to move quickly to get the photo, I love to chat with interested people. I almost always offer to let them look at the GG, and always warn them that it will be upside down. It seems that many people find that disturbing.

I have never had a bad encounter with interested bystanders. The only bad encounter I have had was with another LF photographer! He did not do anything overt. He just refused to even respond to a group of other photographers who were already set up and ready to make some nice photos when the light was right. Maybe he was mad that one of us got the spot he wanted. That was the exception to the general rule that encounters I have had with other LF photographers have been great experiences. Lots of shop talk, trading of ideas, and just good conversation.

[Deane Johnson]

I had my 8X10 Deardorff set up in Death Valley once a number of years ago. The darkcloth was not over the camera and the scene was bright enough that the ground glass image, which was in shadow, was quite vivid. A little boy said "look Mommy, a TV".

[David Karp]

That's almost what I said the first time I looked through an 8x10!

[Robert Hall]

I find it interesting when I am out, because so many are just sooo curious. I love it when the stop by to ask questions. My wife wants to get me a shirt that says if I don't fall off the cliff, you can find these images at (my web site).

While I was in India I had an interesting experience. A large group of school children started following me around and at first were quite shy. The school masters kept them away as not wanting to be rude. I had my friend who speaks the local language explain that is was no problem what so ever and by the end of the day, I had droves of dark skinned children with beautiful white teeth chasing me down to be in one if the images. Everyone was so friendly there my wife was worried that I wouldn't come home.

While in China I had dozens of people gather around. I am a fairly large white guy with something they have simply not seen. I was overrun with people to look at me and the camera. I can only think what Lois Conner felt. lol

People would jump back out of the cloth after seeing things upside down. It was quite funny. And I had dozens of images taken of me with phone cameras. It was a neat experience.

[walter23]

I invite them to peek under my stinking black T-shirt (darkcloth) that hasn't been washed since I bought the camera a year ago

[lenser]

It's great to talk to folks while shooting, but I step through the shoulder strap on my zipped up Zone VI bag just in case there is a nefarious one in the crowd while I'm under the focusing cloth.

Most folks are a delight to talk with.

Tim