+1 Underwater kenetics...SL4....LED "dive light" to focus on the near after I......focus at infinity (or the far) and tilt something...........
Originally Posted by vinny
Led flashlights and/or green laser pointer and. 90mm 4.5 by nikkor or rodenstock
I'm really trying to avoid unnecessary attention as shooting at night often attracts the wrong kind.
good luck using a view camera at night (at all) and not "attract attention".........
Well the fuzz got on my case earlier this week. Just seems like a powerful flashlight might attract more.
I understand.....I shot a store front in the fog this weekend and the owner showed-up while I was exposing film. She wasn't sure what to think....I developed the negs. and then went out to breakfast. Three hours later I returned to the store with a contact print of my efforts and an explanation of what I saw.......when I left the store...she was still looking at the 4x5 contact and smiling....it doesn't always work out that way.
No it doesn't more often than not. If only we lived in a perfect world. I've only been hassled by the police a couple times but each time I was detained for about an hour or while they "investigated". Something about them not " getting it". I'm sure its a legitimate chasm I being the artist and them a watchdog, completely diametrically opposed mentalities.
Something is wrong with that picture...I have "NEVER" been rousted by the police.....my experiences have all been good.
Safety first RodinalDuchamp!
Never been hassled by police but I have had a watchman call the owner and send a couple of German Shepherds in my direction.
Fortunately they were all bark and no bite and must have figured I was OK because after a lot of commotion they sat down and waited to have their heads scratched. Which REALLY pi$$ed off the watchman. Then the owner showed up and started screaming but I knew a businessman in the neighborhood and as soon as I said he was a friend even the owner got chatty.
Although I've never had a problem, and really can't picture it with Large Format gear
I usually have a little portfolio close, and don't mind showing them some of my work.
I happen to know one of the former forensics police officers in my home town too, and they can always call her up for a reference.
Which brings me to this point.
Most larger centers may still have a forensics darkroom mothballed up somewhere and may even have the equipment and chemistry needed to develop your film.
If they do, they may just let you develop a sheet or 2 if you ask.
One night, a few years back, I was doing night photography in the San Francisco Tenderloin district with a Nikon F3 and tripod shooting slide film. On one corner I spotted this sign:
With the sign's red light spilling over the neighborhood it was the perfect lighting and I mounted the camera on its tripod and focused for the shot. While doing that I heard muffled voices coming from the corner to my rear. I turned and looked and there were a good 10 or so gang members and I imagine that I was the subject of the conversation. Just then a San Francisco Police vehicle was slowly making its way to my left rear with two officers walking with it on opposite sides of the street. Their presence gave me safe passage so I took my shot and moved along.
That was the first time that I had been back in the Tenderloin in a couple of years and it had changed from a skid row area with drunks and down-n-out types to a gang infested and very dangerous area at night. If it wasn't for that fortuitous police patrol I would have been out of a camera kit at least.
Thomas
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