[LargeFormat] Chicago...tripods and the law

[Brock Nanson]

On Thu, 19 Feb 2004, Joseph O'Neil wrote:

> At 09:13 2/19/04 -0500, you wrote:
> >Naaa,
> >
> >Different days, different people.  A lot of your woes come would come from
> >misguided and ignorant passerby's that go call 911 because they see someone
> >with a camera on a tripod shooting the towns water reservoir.   You must be
> >up to no good, if not, why are you hiding under that black hood??
> 
> 
> -snip-
> 
>          Actually, now that the subject has been broched, I ahve been an 
> amatuer astornomer for over 20years now, and our local astornomy club has a 
> million and one tales of the police comming to investiage "hodlums, 
> terriorts" and more.
> 
>          Remember - we are outside at NIGHTTIME with strange intruments on 
> a tripods - and if you guys think you have it bad, I can tell you - God's 
> honest truth - long before 9-11, we have had it worse.   My favourite local 
> story is a group of my friends who had the provincial police decend on them 
> en masse one night, because a passing motorist phoned in on thier cell a 
> report of a "bunch fo holdums witha stolen hot water heater in the middle 
> of a corn feild"    Don't ask, I dunno either.
> 
>          Then there was the guy from nothern Ontario  who setup in a feild, 
> apparently too close to a military base here in Canada late one night.   As 
> bad as some of you have had it with police, how many of you have had 
> soldiers level a machine gun at you, demanding to know what you are doing?
> 
>          there's a thousand more such stories in amatuer astronomy, so 
> don't feel that you are alone ro singled out.  For what it is worth, 
> amatuer astornomers have been putting up with such attitudes since before 
> WW2,a nd some reports i have read, even before WW1 - after all, you ahve to 
> be some sort of "weirdo" to setup an optical instrument ona  tripod late at 
> night, by yourself, ina  dark feild with no lights around.   Can we assume 
> Ansel Adams had a bit freer reign at the same time period?
> 
>          so, count yourselves lucky, there are those who have it worse.

And then there was this guy by the name of Galileo who really pi$$ed of 
the establishment with his telescope...

What national parks in Canada have the US-ish Draconian laws about 
professional photographers?  I've never heard of such a thing here 'out 
west', but then we tend to be outlaws, laughing regularly in the face of 
authority...

It never fails to amuse me that the 'security' people make such a big deal 
about photography in plain view.  With the advent of cell phones with 
integral cameras, small digital cameras etc, who but a freakin' idiot 
would try to gather 'intelligence' with a big camera???  Certainly no one 
with the wherewithall to build an explosive device or hijack and crash a 
plane.  Security in airports is always good for a laugh.  One week you 
need to boot your laptop, the next the explosive swab is all that's 
needed.  Same thing with cameras.  New procedures, each as inane as the 
previous one.  Should someone tell them that you could put explosive in 
the film cartidge area of a 35mm camera and still see through the lens?  
That you can boot a laptop with a USB or Compact Flash device and fill the 
drive bay with something nasty?  When I travel by air, the only feeling of 
security I have is knowing that there are a whole bunch of planes in the 
air at any given time, and the odds that mine is the one with the bad guy 
aboard is fairly low.  The poorly educated staff at the security 
checkpoints don't exactly leave me with a warm fuzzy feeling.

Just to bring this back on topic, has anyone every had security question a 
view camera?  It's fairly time consuming to set it up with a lense to 
prove its actual purpose.  Not exactly as simple as taking the lens cap of 
your Nikon and letting them play with the AF... 

-- 
Brock Nanson
Kamloops BC Canada