Shooting film inside churches (ROME)

RattyMouse said:

Should I just leave the tripod at home then? Gosh...even outside you get shooed away??

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Haven't been to Rome so don't know but maybe a monopod?

You could call it a walking stick.

RattyMouse said:

Let me understand this better. you can be outside on public streets and STILL be told not to use a tripod??? That seems crazy.

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It's not so crazy.
You have literally thousands of tourists crowding in narrow alleys.

Apart from the danger of tripping anyone, even if a very small percentage of tourists used tripods, the flow of people slows down considerably, as they try to walk around your tripod and not get into your shot.

I'm a photographer and sure as he'll I'd get mad if I saw a couple photogs taking up and blocking the sidewalk or a minute or so trying to get the perfect shot.
Most tourist hotspots in Europe are really congested, anything that slows down the traffic is a big no-no.

If you get permission from the property owner, a tripod should be OK (in a church, that would be God).

Hatchetman said:

How long you been away from the US, Ratty? Law enforcement hassles photographers here all the time. The cops don't even know the laws. It's not worth getting into a pissing match with them.

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I have lived in the city of Chicago since 1970, and have never had a problem with a Chicago Police Department officer about using a tripod on a public sidewalk. In fact, I have had pleasant conversations with officers about what I was doing, including an older officer who had trained on a Deardorff at the academy.
However, private security guards are always hassling me, even when on public ways. If I am on actual private property, I defer to them, but I have held my ground when on sidewalks. Of course, they don't know the laws of optics, and think that if I am 6 feet away from their building, that I am shooting it instead of the building across the street or across the river, at an appropriate camera-to-object distance.

giannisg2004 said:

It's not so crazy.
You have literally thousands of tourists crowding in narrow alleys.

Apart from the danger of tripping anyone, even if a very small percentage of tourists used tripods, the flow of people slows down considerably, as they try to walk around your tripod and not get into your shot.

I'm a photographer and sure as he'll I'd get mad if I saw a couple photogs taking up and blocking the sidewalk or a minute or so trying to get the perfect shot.
Most tourist hotspots in Europe are really congested, anything that slows down the traffic is a big no-no.

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OK, that makes a lot of sense.