Abusive comments when taking a shot

[E. von Hoegh]

I prefer longarms myself. A bayonet on a revolver looks ridiculous.

 

[Steve Smith]

I prefer longarms myself. A bayonet on a revolver looks ridiculous.

You should try one on a cannon (not a Canon).


Steve.

 

[jp80874]

I have yet to have a landscape yell at me. I do shoot in area that are generally considered dangerous, lately the Flats or warehouse district of Cleveland, Ohio. At age 72 pushing a 7x17 in a baby jogger I am resigned to the fact that I can not run away from a threat. I prefer and usually shoot with another pair of eyes, usually a 50 year old man with an 8x10. He is no more likely to run than I. We try to always have one of us looking about while the other is under a dark cloth. We both have cell phones and I carry a bottle of bear grade Mace (pepper spray) on my belt in plain sight.

We are very polite to who ever approaches us. Usually they are honestly curious what we are doing, what that big thing on the tripod is, and why we are there. In most cases they find nothing attractive about what we are shooting and wonder what we see in it.

In one particularly bad neighborhood a man about 25 years old approached and said, “Excuse me for bothering you, Sir, but what is that thing and what are you doing?” I explained that it was a camera designed for wide angle pictures and I was interested in the large freighters and the bridge building on the Cuyahoga River. He thanked me and said that it was interesting. I thanked him for being so polite, and said it was a new experience in this situation.

John Powers

 

[E. von Hoegh]

You should try one on a cannon (not a Canon).


Steve.

 

[BrianShaw]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:UStanks_baghdad_2003.JPEG

If you squint while viewing it looks like these tanks were equiped with sword bayonets.

 

[ROL]

My favorite, being the giving of abusive comments, particularly when someone is taking a long time setting up a shot, is "Take the shot, Ansel!"

 

[Katie]

John, that's about all I get, too. "What are you doing? Is that a video camera? Is that a Leica? What are you taking a picture of? You should really get one of the sunset...

Most people don't get it or care or realize I'm shooting black and white..

Then I stick the kid back in the baby jogger with my bayonette muzzle loader and leave.

 

[GRHazelton]

The other day I had my Pentax 645n with its 120mm macro mounted on a focus rail on my Manfrotto tripod shooting a dog-tooth violet in my front yard. My next door neighbor, who rarely speaks to us, hollered "Mighty fancy camera, George. Is that a Nikon?" I told her it was a film camera, a Pentax, and that Nikon had never made anything like it. She seemed disappointed that it wasn't a Nikon and wasn't digital. Now, had I been using my baby Busch Pressman she probably would really have gone off the rails.

Not abusive, maybe, but irritating.

Shooting with the same camera someone asked me how many megapixels, can I see the LCD? I told him 30 to 50 depending on what film I used and the dpi level of a scan. He stomped away mumbling "GD smart***" or worse.

 

[lxdude]

I was up at the local overlook with my camera and 500mm mirror lens on a tripod, setting up a shot of the mountain in the distance. A couple of young guys were sitting in a vehicle slightly off to side. As I get ready to take the shot, I hear in a perfect SoCal dude accent, "Hey don't take my picture, duuude!" I assured him I wasn't and told him he was nowhere near being in the image. He replied, "Awright dude, cool."

Later I reflected on how little the speech of a significant subset of local youth has changed in the last 35 years or so.

 

[John E Earley]

The most abusive comments I get are from my wife when I try to take a photo of her without giving her a chance to "fix" herself up.

 

[Gerald C Koch]

Some of us Democrats own and shoot and carry guns too.

Lest our friends in other countries misunderstand, I know of nowhere in the US where it's legal to just shoot someone who comes to your door. If they enter forcibly or against your instructions otherwise, yes, but not just because they're saying nasty things (and calling me a Republican I consider an insult) when you talk to them freely. You're well within your rights to tell them to get lost and slam the door in their face, and if they don't leave your property you can call the police to have them removed and charged with trespassing. If they don't get the hint and break in, THEN you can shoot them (in this and many states.)

In Florida the Republican legislature passed The Stand Your Ground law. If a person feels threatened anywhere they no longer have to attempt to escape and can shoot the person. The state also makes it very easy to get a concealed weapons permit.

I feel so safe now, not.

 

[cliveh]

In Florida the Republican legislature passed The Stand Your Ground law. If a person feels threatened anywhere they no longer have to attempt to flee and can shoot the person. The state also makes it very easy to get a concealed weapons permit.

This is a joke right!

 

[ajmiller]

I was driving through Scarborough North Yorkshire last winter and saw a coach parked outside a suburban house with posters in every window advertising an Elvis impersonator who was playing a New Years Eve gig. It was early morning with snow on the ground and the whole scene was a bit odd so I decided to photograph it. I jumped out and started moving around to get the shot. Suddenly I heard a load of abuse coming from the house behind. I turned to see a bare-chested bald man fastening a pair of sequinned trousers up coming out of his front door. He bawled and shouted and abused me before I finally managed to convince him I wasn't the local authority who he'd had trouble with for parking his coach on the grass. He went back in and as I left I pushed a business card through his door with my website in case the photos were any good.
A few days later I received an email with the subject line: 'A Message from Elvis' and an apology.

 

[E. von Hoegh]

This is a joke right!

Sadly, no, it's for real.

 

[pdeeh]

This is a joke right!

as Mr. von Hoegh says, no ... google "George Zimmerman and Trayvon Martin"

 

[Katie]

Great story AJMiller! I really enjoy stories where people end up being nice!!

On the other topic: what's the point of a concealed gun anyway? Aren't the only people concealing guns the bad guys and the undercover cops? I don't think anyone should conceal anything... That's jut asking for trouble!!!

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Great story AJMiller! I really enjoy stories where people end up being nice!!

On the other topic: what's the point of a concealed gun anyway? Aren't the only people concealing guns the bad guys and the undercover cops? I don't think anyone should conceal anything... That's jut asking for trouble!!!

Someone, I don't recall who, when asked about concealed gun carry, responded "If you expect to be using your weapon, you're a God-damned fool to carry it anywhere but in your hand".

 

[cliveh]

I turned to see a bare-chested bald man fastening a pair of sequinned trousers up coming out of his front door.

And that is the second you squeeze the shutter.

 

[Ken Nadvornick]

Only non-random people are shot here.

As a general rule of thumb I try to shoot as few people as possible every day, as the associated follow-up paperwork is simply murder.

Ken

 

[Roger Cole]

Great story AJMiller! I really enjoy stories where people end up being nice!!

On the other topic: what's the point of a concealed gun anyway? Aren't the only people concealing guns the bad guys and the undercover cops? I don't think anyone should conceal anything... That's jut asking for trouble!!!

Not around here. In Georgia all you need is a clean record, a set of prints, and $75 (more or less, varies slightly by county.) Friend rode his motorcycle over to our housewarming party and we were talking guns, so he just pulled out his 9mm Makarov (not the typical 9mm Parabellum) that he was carrying, dropped the magazine and racked the slide to unload it, and we compared it for carry purposes to my little J-frame S&W .38. Stand your ground really is not intended to apply to the Zimmerman case, whether or not juries and a DA applies it that way being another question. Even the author of the law said as much. It still requires, or should, that one not go looking for trouble, it just allows you to not run away when trouble finds you. And yes I DO feel safer, or at least a lot less in a bind knowing if trouble finds me I am unlikely to run and also knowing I am legally justified. Otherwise I feel caught between the proverbial rock and hard place with the perp on one side and an oppressive law on the other. How on earth is concealing something asking for trouble? The point is that you don't single yourself out as the first target, no one can tell how many armed people are around and might resist if they do something majorly criminal, your weapon can't be easily snatched and on and on. There are lots of reasons for it. But in Georgia you do not HAVE to conceal. Once you have the permit, and it's a weapon permit not a firearm one, you can legally strap on a sword or a battle axe if you want and walk down the street. You can carry in your own car without a permit. Obviously I don't agree that it's useless not in hand - it can be in hand very quickly.

But I regret getting into that exchange, the original subject being much more interesting and on topic. I had someone a bit upset I photographed their house once, but I explained it wasn't commercial, I was a neighbor, just got this neat old camera (Yaschicamat 124 - didn't bother telling them you could buy its brother brand new until 1986 - most people assume my non-G dates from at least 20 years prior to it's late 60s birth) and liked the way the light fell on their house that evening, and they were fine with it.

I had some curious people watch me with the 4x5 on the Roan balds on the portion of the Appalachian trail that cross Roan mountain near the TN-NC border stand and watch and clearly wonder what I was photographing. They couldn't figure out why I was behind this big rock that was blocking my view. They finally realized with an "ah-hah!" moment, "Oh, you're taking a picture OF the rock!"

 

[E. von Hoegh]

When you're out photographing strangers, they'll be a lot less abusive if you have a large revolver belted to your waist.

Hear that, you Brits?

 

[Steve Smith]

Hear that, you Brits?

Heard and ignored!!

We have no need for personal weapons.


Steve.

 

[cliveh]

Heard and ignored!!

We have no need for personal weapons.


Steve.

+1

 

[E. von Hoegh]

Heard and ignored!!

We have no need for personal weapons.


Steve.

Nor do I. I'd actually be in more danger - from accident - or dropping the damn thing on my foot - were I to carry a gun.

But you have to admit it would keep the peanut gallery polite.

 

[Roger Cole]

This is always fruitless. For the most part, people where it's legal and there's a culture of law abiding gun ownership and usage like things that way, and vice versa. The only exception that sticks out in my mind was a couple of folks in Australia who expressed their love for our firearm laws here (as in "I f##'in' LOVE Georgia!") over on the LFPF. But those, I feel quite sure, were either former or current rural Australians. I grew up rural and owned guns all my life. My dad bought a shotgun for me when I was born, and gradually introduced me to it and to rifles and eventually handguns at age appropriate times. I have a photo of me at about age 2 or 3 holding that shotgun with my dad doing most of the holding of it and me (carefully.) It lived at my grandmother's until her death, where she last used it age 93 to dispatch a marauding groundhog from her garden. By the time I was old enough to drive I was welcome to go get it any time I wanted to take it hunting. I still have that little .410. For most of my formative years I would have been shocked to learn that some people DON'T own guns. Really. My wife grew up in and has always lived in urban areas and had never held a firearm until we got together. Initial aversion is giving way and she's changing her mind; she's finally even expressed a desire to learn to shoot. But then her father is from south Alabama and though he never owned guns to my knowledge he's quite comfortable with hunting and people having them, and she has a strong country southern influence from his side of her family. It's a cultural thing we could argue for years about and never really understand how the other could have the views we do.