Where has your camera got you?

A few weeks ago, I was taking a photo with the 4x5 camera, of a local church. To cut a long story short, at that moment the vicar came round the corner and we got chatting. That chat has led to a commission to photograph four parish churches.

This morning, whilst photographing one of these churches, the church warden appeared and took an interest in the 4x5... then asked if I'd like to go up to the top of the tower and to see the bells... which I did, naturally.

If I'd just been taking a photo with a DSLR of the first church, I don't think it would have attracted any attention and I wouldn't have had the chances that I've been presented with. Where has your camera got you?

vickersdc said:

A few weeks ago, I was taking a photo with the 4x5 camera, of a local church. To cut a long story short, at that moment the vicar came round the corner and we got chatting. That chat has led to a commission to photograph four parish churches.

This morning, whilst photographing one of these churches, the church warden appeared and took an interest in the 4x5... then asked if I'd like to go up to the top of the tower and to see the bells... which I did, naturally.

If I'd just been taking a photo with a DSLR of the first church, I don't think it would have attracted any attention and I wouldn't have had the chances that I've been presented with. Where has your camera got you?

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Their bell-tower still has actual bells in it.?
Do you have any pictures of the bells.?
What an opportunity for you.

About 2 years ago, i was burning up the last few frames of HP5, in front of a church that had just finished services.
A couple of those people stared to talk to me. They invited me inside to look around.....i believe the church was just about 100 years old.
Sort of "California Mission Style".
UNFORTUNATELY....... the building had sat vacant for about 20 years and was a victim of rot and vandalism. All of the old woodwork was pretty much lost. They saved what they could, but most of what i saw was modern day drop-ceilings and sheet-rock walls.
At least the exterior was saved.
I am a Catholic/Atheist.........so i have a "special" relationship with churches.
I have been in several REAL Beauties.
Stunning places, some.

michael_r said:

My camera has gotten me into trouble with security people and the police quite a few times.

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Yes, I related my story a while back about when I was just taking photos of passing cars, using long exposures to get some nice blurs, when the police showed up. The patrolman DEMANDED to know what I was doing. I told him I was doing a blur/motion assignment for an art class I was taking at the local university. It was obvious that he doubted that since I am near 70-years old but he was more concerned about the equipment on top of my tripod, a Minolta SRT-100. I told him it was a camera shoots something called "film." He was still doubtful so I pulled out my notebook that had the print out for the class assignment and where I was recording all the exposure info. He was STILL doubtful and I asked him if I was using an iPhone would I be under less suspicion and he said I would. Well, I felt like it was a 1960s roust (yes, I am bearded long hair) and was tempted to get snarky but since I was only a block from my home I'd left with no ID and didn't feel like riding in the back of a patrol car. I just stood there and for a while we just looked at each other. Eventually he shook his head and left.

(This is not the first "run in" I've had with the local police. I was attacked and bitten by a pit bull while out for a run and had a pretty serious bite. I called animal control, which is part of our police, and when they found out that the owner was a clerk for one of our federal judges, they "lost the paperwork." I wanted information regarding rabies and was completely stonewalled. My doctor said I needed to do the rabies series but I was 10 days from running a marathon and he said I wouldn't be doing that should I do the shots. I took a chance and didn't get rabies treatment. I pressed the city attorney to quarantine the dog like they were supposed to but got push back and a threat regarding my job. I was a high school teacher. A month later the owner got a DUI, got fired by the judge, and we ended up in court where he lost big time. The moral of the story is that the old boy network is in force.)

My Rolleiflex gets me a lot of attention. It has also opened doors, so to speak, for me and got me into some very unusual places.

As an architect (now retired), when my practice started making money in the late 1990s I put away my beloved 3.5 E2 and invested big time in Hasselblad. As such addictions do when control flies out the window, this grew and grew and in time I had a 501C, two 500CMs and FOUR ELs. The latter being the only camera(s) that got me kicked out of a National Trust heritage listed church in Melbourne for 'disturbing' a funeral service by the EL film winding noise - GRRWRRKLUNK!

In time common sense and okay, sanity returned and offloaded the lot (the Hasselblads, not my Rolleis). I do wish I had kept the 501CM but we all make such mistakes. Nor am I at all keen to buy another. My 'flex keeps me occupied and happy and 120 roll film is now so expensive in Australia anyway...

I never did get into 4x5 or any view camera as I have an odd visual (or mental) quirk and cannot compose an upside down image.

Let me say that Rolleis are the last camera any sane architect should consider for architecturals. A few good accessories were made to ease the burden (I have two F&H panorama heads with spirit levels which make 95% of my shooting easier) but photography like much of life is about compromises. I plan and compose carefully and use slow films (Ilford FP4 is my favorite) and raise the enlarger that much higher when printing.

Aussies are much more laid back about photography and privacy invasion (at least in public) than the more neurotic Europeans and certainly North Americans. Street shooting has lately become somewhat of an issue here and the laws tend to favor the subjects over the photographers. For my architectural shoots I pass as a rather daggy over-70 geezer with odd equipment, a film camera with levers and wheels and gears and gadgets and TWO lenses and that fascinating object, a tripod. So I get by. Haven't been threatened with arrest yet. I think I would rather enjoy that, being cantankerous and somewhat forcible in discussion (I never argue or for that matter agree with most anyone about mostly anything) by nature.

The only time I was ever evicted from a site (other than the aforementioned church) was in 1994 when I was shooting in Sydney, a high rise designed by the (rightly) renowned Austalian architect (the late) Harry Seidler. I had set up for a vertical shot when the Great Man in person and larger than life as he was, came stomping out of the building and demanded that I cease and desist. Which I did. He claimed the site was "copyrighted by me" (him) and I had no right to be there it with my equipment. He did add, "nice camera, by the way" as he left. I've read he was a Leica M3 man. He was clever and let the equally renowned Sydney photographer Max Dupain shoot all his projects. Those images are immortal.

A few days later I went back and got my shot. Herr Seidler was nowhere to be seen. Those slides are somewhere in my archives. I keep them as a reminder that we are all human and all humans have bad days. Even the great.

Oddly, twice when I was out with my Korona 5x7, strangers approached and wanted to know if it was a Hasselblad. They were pleasant enough and we had a good chat each time, but twice? I didn't think to ask them why they thought what they thought...

(Lovely shot of the bell ropes!)

vickersdc said:

A few weeks ago, I was taking a photo with the 4x5 camera, of a local church. To cut a long story short, at that moment the vicar came round the corner and we got chatting. That chat has led to a commission to photograph four parish churches.

This morning, whilst photographing one of these churches, the church warden appeared and took an interest in the 4x5... then asked if I'd like to go up to the top of the tower and to see the bells... which I did, naturally.

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Dee, really cool story. When I was a kid, I always wanted to go up in the bell tower to see what was up there.
Thanks for sharing.

It gave me the chance to meet Lou Reed, Al Stewart, Long John Baldry, and a quite a few other really interesting people.

MattKing said:

It gave me the chance to meet Lou Reed, Al Stewart, Long John Baldry, and a quite a few other really interesting people.

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Were you a working Music/Concert photographer of some sort.?
Wow......LJ Baldry.!
Not the biggest name perhaps................but a long career that influenced quite a several people of the time, and a few that came a bit later.

My first University studies were at the University of British Columbia. I somehow managed to complete a Bachelor of Science degree (Physics) while spending incredible numbers of hours working as a photographer - mainly chief photographer - at the student newspaper, the Ubyssey.
We published a tabloid format newspaper three times a week during the academic year, averaging about 12-16 pages per issue, with ad content about 50% of what a typical commercial paper would have - lots of column issues and lots of photos.
The Ubyssey recently celebrated its 100th anniversary, and a lot of good journalists came through there (a Canadian prime minister too!).
Here is a link to the January 7, 1977 issue which includes my photos of both Lou Reed (in concert and in interview) and Long John Baldry: https://open.library.ubc.ca/collect...ubysseynews/items/1.0126938#p0z-7r0f:Lou Reed
Unfortunately the scans are poor, but they do have about 100 years in the archives.
Long John Baldry was actually a local. He moved to the Vancouver area in the 1970s and spent the rest of his life here.
One of the finest shows I ever saw was Long John Baldry playing in support of his incredible album, It Ain't Easy. The show was at a great venue - a club called the Old Roller Rink because, that was what it had been converted from.

Very Interesting Indeed.
Looks like you got more than your monies worth from your education.
No doubt you have many Fond/Great memories.

Small crowd of police, but never jail.

Well, there was that time back in 1973 when the very fact I had a 35mm SLR got me a test roll for my high school yearbook -- 35mm was a prerequisite to be a yearbook photographer, because they supplied the film by bulk rolling Tri-X (in those days, that saved the yearbook more than 50% over buying factory rolled film -- they could get through a whole school year with two bulk rolls, even including providing test rolls to anyone who showed up and wanted to try out to be a photographer).

I shot the test roll inside the deadline, using everything I knew about making good images -- bracing on door frames (or once an upright piano) for slow-shutter indoor available light shots, using slow shutter for sports activities to blur the action or the background (depending if I panned with the motion), etc. In the end, my Exa II's shutter curtain failing to completely close resulted in not getting the gig for the rest of the year -- but out of that 36+ exposure bulk roll of Tri-X, shot in less than a week between classes and at evening activities (this was a boarding school, so the student body was on campus 24/7), SEVEN frames wound up in the yearbook (with the shutter issue cropped off, of course).

I've wondered for decades what might have been different if I could have afforded a Nikkormat or Pentax like the other applicants had that year...

michael_r said:

My camera has gotten me into trouble with security people and the police quite a few times.

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I think we need to know more!

I got yelled-at by nuns recently as I was taking this shot at the local Mission with a 4x5 Crown Graphic. OK, not really yelling, but they were closing the grounds for the day and gave me a stern directive to hurry up.
I had flashbacks to my Catholic school days and the nuns with the metal-edged rulers. I guess you could say my camera has just brought me back around to my childhood.

jimjm said:

I got yelled-at by nuns recently as I was taking this shot at the local Mission with a 4x5 Crown Graphic. OK, not really yelling, but they were closing the grounds for the day and gave me a stern directive to hurry up.
I had flashbacks to my Catholic school days and the nuns with the metal-edged rulers. I guess you could say my camera has just brought me back around to my childhood.

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Beautiful image, jimjm.