personal safety / security while photographing

[Brian C. Miller]

Just don't go into the field without camo, body armor, an assault rifle, some flash bombs and you'll be fine. It is the wild west after all.

No. Daisey, Red and Noel, Madame's Mercantile, Percival Custom Leather, and many others. There is a difference between "psycho militia" and "genteel country folk."

That's very cute, Kirk. But personal defense is very different for a female, (everywhere, not just The West), and should be taken seriously.

After four years in the US Army, I can guarantee you that some women can, in fact, tote an M16. And that personal defense is not that different for a man or a woman. If you don't have firearms training, definitely don't go blithely packing something for your vacation holdiay across various jurisdictions. Laws vary.

ES: If you normally just take off and go photographing, then definitely just take off and go photographing. It's what I normally do. Are there threats out there? Yes. What are the chances of running into one on this trip? I don't know.

If you really are worried about your personal safety, don't go there. But for normal life, if you have any concerns, just check in with the local sherrif's department or rangers, and they'll tell you about anything that you should avoid or be concerned about.

[Richard Raymond]

DS,
According to my daughter:
1: Stay on second floor of motel whenever possible.
2: Most concerns are in cities rather than in parks and wilderness
3: Don't use "camera bags". Use food coolers, soft lunch bags, etc.
4: Plan to get to your hotel in mid afternoon and check in if possible. Then go out for sunset shoots.
5: Big cities, ask security for an escort to car that is in parking garage.
6: Use cell phone camera to send pictures to concerned relatives from the places you are shooting. Lets them know that you are ok, where you are and they feel more connected to the trip. Most places you visit will have cell service unless you are in central Nevada where it is definitely a long way between cell towers.
Ric (and Rachael)

[Drew Wiley]

Yes indeed, Brian ... the local sheriff or his deputy will kindly provide a map of where his
own pot farms or meth labs are, so you don't accidentally photograph them. Like I said,
common sense applies to dealing with everyone, including law enforcement types, when traveling the West, or anywhere else for that matter. And the last thing I'd have on me
if I did encounter one of em is a gun. .. that is, unless you look like normal a deer hunter in season, with a brand-new unused rifle pointed across the road, bright orange clothing, and whiskey all over your breath...

[E S]

Wow, I had no idea I was going to provoke such a response! Many thanks to all who have contributed.

Dan, yes, former rockhound is about right. I haven't been active in it since I was a wee sma' girl, but it sure was fun. Thanks for the suggestion of the pepper spray, I'd been thinking about getting one or more of them.

DKirk, your first suggestion of diary pages with phone numbers etc is excellent. I don't do that even now, and I really should. My phone has a few taxi, restaurant, and hotel phone numbers in it for the places I go most frequently either with or without a camera, but that's really it. I should plan better. . Extremely good point about the first aid kit. I wouldn't have thought of that! I will be purchasing ever possible map I can, partly because I just love maps and partly because I detest GPS. Can an in-car GPS be tracked by law enforcement if the car and driver appear to be missing (that is what I take from "Make sure it has GPS for tracking purposes") ? And your second suggestion -- I had no idea that the Glaswegians had developed such a nuanced, elegant language, and I am grateful for the lesson in linguistics

frotog, oooh. That never ends well for me, she can read me like a book. I'm actually not scared about this trip, but very excited; I plan ahead like this so that when I get to where I'm going I know what I'm doing and where I'm going next. And the responses to my query have given me a lot of things that I can tell her "I'm doing A, B, C, ... X, Y, and Z, and I *will* be safe."

Greg Miller, thanks! my camera and all its bits lives in a bog-standard black Eastpak backpack, the tripod case would probably be taken for a rifle scabbard, but still no need to go flashing stuff around.

BrianShaw, I am *always* a bit of a loner! And I don't talk to strangers if I can possibly avoid it, either. I think I'm either INTJ or INTP, don't remember, but the introvert characteristic was almost off the scale. And thanks for the hint about always keeping the gas tank happy, good point.

Kirk, this is a true story: when my parents were moving us from Maryland to Oregon in 1974, one of our neighbors said "ooooh, you're moving to Oregon? But won't that be horribly dangerous? I mean, there are Indians there!" We think she thought that they were all hiding in the sagebrush waiting to leap out and ambush the settlers as the wagon train came through. We lived in Bend from 74 to 79 and Reno from 79 to 88, and I miss the West terribly. I will send you an e-mail shortly, thanks for the kind offer!

Sevo, I agree that "injury / death by stupidity" is much higher on my list of hazards than are either human or animal attackers. Part of what I'm learning from everyone's responses has been all the things I had forgotten or wouldn't have thought about (first aid kit, for example!), and your hint about being honest about fitness is extremely helpful, as are your other points.

Drew, thanks for the hints. It's interesting, what you say about law enforcement. I've never had any interactions to speak of with US law enforcement. Your description of a typical hunter is amusing; here in Provence a typical hunter would be dressed all in green or brown, loyal dog at heel, and sitting in a layby next to his little white van, sitting on a folding chair, with his pastis or rose on a folding table next to him, gun across his lap waiting for the sanglier to wander in front of his gun The camera and other gear would definitely be carried indoors at night, if only because I'd worry about Igor (my camera) getting lonely if he spent the night alone in the car

To those who have discussed guns, I don't have a philosophical objection to guns. I have fired a .22 rifle, but it was in about 1983 or so, and that was the last time I ever handled a gun. And between crossing jurisdictions, and not having a permanent US address, that's just not a can of worms I want to open.

Jim Noel, thanks! Good points. I do tend to pretty much empty my backpack when I stop to set up the camera, but it's a very interesting and useful tip.

Brian C. Miller, thanks for the input. I definitely plan to do this trip. After being with my employer for 15 years, I will get either an extra month's salary, or an extra month of vacation -- 22 working days. I have been dreaming of going back to Yosemite for years and years now, and this extra 22 days is just going to be sitting there demanding to be used! There is no way I'm going to let even a slight concern put me off of it, but this way I'll have thought through everything well ahead of time.

Ric and Rachael, thanks to both of you! Thinking about the logistics on this trip, I think the only sane way to do things is to be prepared to "sacrifice" a day or part of a day to getting from motel A to motel B, then spending a couple days at motel B so that I don't have all my stuff in the car all the time.

Thanks again to everyone!

E.

[Steve Smith]

I detest GPS.

Me too. When I have been a passenger in cars driven by drivers with GPS (called SatNav here) they seem to turn normally sensible people into idiots, taking detours away from routes they know well having driven them many times.

Can an in-car GPS be tracked by law enforcement

No. All a Global Positioning System does is work out where you are on the planet and overlay that position on a map. There are phone based systems which use GPS positioning to send your position back somewhere (e.g. the office of a trucking company) but basic GPS does not do this.


Steve.

[Drew Wiley]

GPS can get you into a lot of trouble if you don't know its limitations. Whenver leaving a
paved road, inquire locally. In off-season, be careful of any high pass. Always always always have a sleeping bag and extra food and water in the car. Distances are long. Cell
phone coverage is spotty in much of the West, to put it mildly, and tow trucks or emergency can be a long ways away. One of my favorite examples is out in the middle of
Nevada: the sign says, In case of emergency dial 911, but in front of the 9-1-1 is an area
code in a different state! (Utah), and nothing resembling a telephone within a long long ways. Still, every time I've traveled to the Southwest the most scary part of the trip was
simply getting out of town here alive thru the wacko freeway traffic. First hour is always
the most dangerous. Critters and canyons don't scare me.

[Greg Miller]

Can an in-car GPS be tracked by law enforcement if the car and driver appear to be missing (that is what I take from "Make sure it has GPS for tracking purposes") ?

You may want to look at a Find Me Spot GPS/Satellite messenger. It has a GPS built in along with a satellite transmitter. If you press the 911 button, it sends an alert to a central monitoring station along with your GPS coordinates. The central monitoring station then alerts the closest police or search and rescue team. I carry mine for back country use. I don't intend to ever need it, but since I travel solo in the back country often hiking at night, you never know when you might blow an ankle or knee far from the trail head (even then I would not use it unless it became a life threatening situation). If you kept yours in your pocket, you could send an alert if you ever found yourself in a dicey situation. It only costs $120, plus $100 per year for the satellite service. And you will get satellite reception everywhere in the US.

It can also send "I'm OK" message to any email address. So you could easily send one every day to your mother to keep her felling good.

[Steve Goldstein]

Check ahead about any possible jurisdictional issues with pepper spray as laws vary from state to state. It shouldn't be too restrictive in the west with the possible exception of California, but (a) I'm not a lawyer and (b) I'm unfamiliar with those laws in any western state. In some eastern states one can't get pepper spray without a firearms permit. And I doubt you'll be able to fly home with the stuff, even in checked luggage, so be sure to dump it before you head to the airport.

[al olson]

Hi ES,

The places I photograph in the Four Corners area are either overcrowded with tourists or very desolate around ghost towns and some of the Anasazi ruins. Never have I seen a threatening situation and I am less concerned about humans than I am about rattlesnakes.

In most of the areas I shoot, cell phones are useless. There are no towers in the wilderness. Likewise along many of the highways of US and lesser designations. I have a SPOT Personal Tracker that I carry with me in my camera bag.

In case you have an accident or other emergency you can send out an SOS/911 signal via satellite that will transmit your geocoordinates and allow SPOT to alert the proper authorities. It also allows you to send out canned messages (entered from your computer) to selected email addresses along with the coordinates of your location that will display on a computer maps such as Map Quest.

The cost is nominal with about $100 for the transmitter unit and $100 per year for the service. Fortunately I have never had to use it for an emergency, but I use it to send locations to friends and family when I am traveling, if for nothing else, for where I am spending the night.

[al olson]

My apologies. I inadvertently stepped over Mr. Miller's post. I second his reasons for getting this device.

I should add that there is an additional tracking feature available which will send out messages/locations periodically every 10 minutes for an additional annual charge of around $50.