What Would be Your Response (Or, Why I often shoot "off the beaten track")?

Tony Egan

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Really? All the Australians I've met have been laid back genuine nice people. And that's more than a few. Right now I'm actually considering taking a position and moving to Tasmania.

We used to criticise the "ugly American" tourists but we have some pretty ugly cases of our own I'm afraid to say. Our exchange rate has been overvalued for many years allowing lots more Aussies to travel (further than Bali). A friend just got back from Spain saying all he seemed to meet were other cashed-up Aussies drinking too much and talking too loudly!

Tasmania could do with a bit more class, so come on down Martin!

And yes, my response was ironic or perhaps sardonic. I have unloaded with some foul language against officious security guards on a few occasions much to my later regret. Regardless of the job or the power of the uniform, I should have been more polite. By making his post I think Bradley probably agrees.
 

Tony Egan

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Sorry mate, that was me. My tongue-in-cheek response was intended to point out that we all think (and occasionally say) offensive things and have our own intolerances and snobbishness about other people and practices. I really don't think the non-croppers and rebate revealers are offensive and there are plenty of other posts on APUG where this has been batted back and forth. I won't repeat my views here other than to say I don't understand why "the picture" must always be forced into an arbitrary aspect ratio?
By all means we should take our photography seriously(even very seriously) but not ourselves too seriously!

Cheers
Tony
 

Truzi

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Unlike many of my fellow carbon-based bipeds, I am not thin-skinned: I never take insults to heart.
That is good, but still, if I think you were wrong in _how_ you did something, I should not state so in the same manner that I thought was wrong of you (unless I'm specifically trying to start something ).
 

moose10101

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(and yes I was jacked on coffee ((Two pots of Starbucks Guatemalan for breakfast and several Monsters as chasers)))

If you consume that amount on a regular basis, I'm more concerned for your physical well-being than I am about your overreaction (though it was massive).

I would never react that way because I'd rather not run the risk of being physically assaulted and/or shot.
 

sly

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I would never react that way because I'd rather not run the risk of being physically assaulted and/or shot.

He was in Canada. Assault might have happened, but hand guns are not fashion accessories here.
 

MattKing

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He was in Canada. Assault might have happened, but hand guns are not fashion accessories here.

Well he was in Alberta, so a shotgun is always a possibility:devil:
 

Bill Burk

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I find that a few minutes out of my busy schedule of shooting really does not make ANY difference.

I missed a shot once by taking the time to talk to someone. At Mission San Juan Bautista, a group of tourists called up to me to say they had found a lenscap and wondered if I lost one. I stepped down from the rise and helped best I could. No, it wasn't mine, but there was another photographer there (I saw him earlier working a 4x5 where I asked him if he could still get film for that.) I directed them back to where I had last seen him. Later I found him shooting a Rollei and we talked... He actually HAD lost a lenscap to an LF lens, but by then the guy who had it was nowhere to be found. For all the helping and talking, I never went back to the scene of the animal drama I was considering... I believe a large cat had found its dinner of a very large bird. I wanted to shoot the bird's feet and feathers with a mission in the background.

I still don't have anything like that in my portfolio.

Sometimes it DOES make a difference if you stop to talk to strangers.

I lost a shot.

But I was friendly to the strangers and the photographer... I hope I never get so aggravated at stranger's behavior that I lash out. But I understand your space was invaded. You were brave to reflect on your behavior here.
 
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BradleyK

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Well he was in Alberta, so a shotgun is always a possibility:devil:

Actually, Matt, over there in "Yahoo Country," large pick-up tricks, assorted tools and agricultural implements, are more of a concern...
 
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batwister

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Agree.

The reiteration of "while I was working", in particular, sound very Jack Nicholson to me.
 

Peter Simpson

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I think you overreacted. I wouldn't feel bad if someone wanted to see what I was doing, as long as they didn't keep me from doing it. Some of us aren't gifted artists, and a view through someone else's viewfinder can help us learn.

Granted, there's getting so close you're invading someone else's personal space, but that aside, did you really need to be so abrasive? I'm pretty sure you didn't improve those people's image of film photographers.
 

jovo

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Merely by framing these questions you seem to be willing and able to be self-critical, and even more, willing to listen to some pretty strong opprobrium. That's not easy to do in 'public'. So, while I don't admire your behavior in the incidents you described, I do admire your sense of conscience and personal responsibility. I also think that the next time you will wait an extra beat or two til the urge to verbally clobber someone dies down a bit. Good onya for sharing this.

For your penance, say 12 Hail Marys, and 10 Our Fathers....hehehe....!
 

dunetraveller

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I often find people annoying. Reacting the way you did was probably not how most people would actually say, but they'd have thought it in their heads for sure! So all you are is guilty of not repressing a good opportunity to vent. No problem here.
What those other people would have done is be polite to the interlopers, then rant at everyone else they knew; thus being rude to their friends and nice to jerks. I would rather you rant at the offending people and be calm and reasonable here personally.
 

cliveh

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I am surprised this thread has run on to 7 pages. You didn't need to ask this question, as you already know you made a mistake and over reacted.
 

pdeeh

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Or perhaps the price of being human. And those other people who are so annoying are human too ...
 
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All I can say is that often I go shooting with friends. Even though we photograph exactly the same things, sometimes from very similar positions and locations, we end up with completely different looking prints.

My response would be to feel sorry for them that they don't have more imagination than that. Have to follow your heart, instinct, intuition, and emotions.
 
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BradleyK

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Pioneer

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Wow! Seven pages! This topic certainly struck a nerve with a lot of people.
 

TheFlyingCamera

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megzdad81

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If they were members of the US Congress, you should have started the sentence that way.
 

Black Dog

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When I've been out with my mamiya c330, every other person I've met seems to have owned one! But no ITAH as yet for me....[sobs quietly]
 

DREW WILEY

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A couple years ago I made my usual midsummer tuneup hike up a particular steep goat path above Sonora Pass in the high Sierra, and propped up my
8x10 and Ries wooden tripod for a nice shot of a particular crag. The location is a bit of a grunt, maybe a 2000 ft grade to around 10,000 feet. But otherwise it's only a couple of miles, and one can actually see the road from there, way down there. Then a German tourist managed to literally stumble
his way up there. "Vere ish de lake? Vere ish de lake", as he tripped over one rock after another, then a log. The lake was right in front of him, but he couldn't see it because he was staring at his GPS the whole time. Then he spots me. "How dare you dessekrate nature wish dat big thing!" he angrily protested. I merely smiled and politely replied, "Nice GPS. Is that the model John Muir used?"
 
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