20D: SO GOOD IT'S CRIMINAL !

Alain's Studio wrote:
I'm from Canada and I find what is happening with our friend down
south is sad, we can't go and visit you guys now without passports
even my kids needs them, what happen to the Berlin wall coming down
and how good that was.

I was in Berlin in 89 when the wall came down, and still have a large box
full of about 50 pounds of the wall that I hammered and chiseled down from
Check-Point Charlie...and I can assure you that your comparison is
absolutely out of place--to put it politely. Nobody is forbidding you from
traveling outside your country as was the restriction for East Germans. All
that is asked is that you have a valid passport. Big deal. It's about time
we knew who is coming and going. Most of the rest of the planet has
required passports for decades, and why not?


"Annika1980" wrote in message
ps.com...
I'm bored this afternoon so I go over to the dam to try to get some
pics of the herons flying (they were very uncooperative). I'm also
shooting a few ducks, some cardinals, and the lone falcon that lives
there. The light is terrible, it's about to rain, but hey ... I love
a challenge.
Anyway, I'm minding my own business when I notice there's some rookie
cop standing there beside me asking me what I was shooting. "Birds,"
I told him without even looking up from my 20D and the Forgotten 400
f/ 5.6L.

"Show me," he demands. So he makes me scroll through the entire CF
card showing him the photos to make sure I'm not shooting a picture
of little kids or the bridge ... you know, like terrorists always
do. So I'm narrating the pics as I scroll, "Great Blue Heron, duck,
falcon, duck, Presidential Motorcade, me flipping off the Pres,
another duck, me and the old lady doing it ..... "
You know, the usual stuff.

Just kidding about the Presidential pics. Thankfully, I deleted them
from the card before today's shoot. Otherwise, I might be typing this
from Guantanimo.

I was very polite with the flatfoot (since I don't really like jail),
but the more I thought about it after he left the madder I got. At
what point does having a nice camera make one a terrorist suspect?
When did that happen? (I know it must've been in the last 6 years.) I
know Bush (and his gang of crooks) wipes his ass with the
Constitution, but I must've missed it when photography became a
crime. I'm just glad my pal, Kamran, wasnt with me. He's from Pakistan
and
he's got a quick tongue. Can you say, "Taser?"

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, either. I think
the next time it happens I will politely ask the officer for a list
of things that I may and may not photograph. If he can't provide
such a list I shall politely ask him to go **** up a rope.

Anyway, here's a crappy pic from today's crappy shoot.
http://www.pbase.com/image/74796772

--
Images (Plus Snaps & Grabs) by Mark² at:
www.pbase.com/markuson

On 24 Feb 2007 16:58:58 -0800, "Annika1980"
wrote:

I'm bored this afternoon so I go over to the dam to try to get some
pics of the herons flying (they were very uncooperative). I'm also
shooting a few ducks, some cardinals, and the lone falcon that lives
there. The light is terrible, it's about to rain, but hey ... I love
a challenge.
Anyway, I'm minding my own business when I notice there's some rookie
cop standing there beside me asking me what I was shooting. "Birds,"
I told him without even looking up from my 20D and the Forgotten 400 f/
5.6L.

"Show me," he demands. So he makes me scroll through the entire CF
card showing him the photos to make sure I'm not shooting a picture of
little kids or the bridge ... you know, like terrorists always do. So
I'm narrating the pics as I scroll, "Great Blue Heron, duck, falcon,
duck, Presidential Motorcade, me flipping off the Pres, another duck,
me and the old lady doing it ..... "
You know, the usual stuff.

Just kidding about the Presidential pics. Thankfully, I deleted them
from the card before today's shoot. Otherwise, I might be typing this
from Guantanimo.

I was very polite with the flatfoot (since I don't really like jail),
but the more I thought about it after he left the madder I got. At
what point does having a nice camera make one a terrorist suspect?
When did that happen? (I know it must've been in the last 6 years.) I
know Bush (and his gang of crooks) wipes his ass with the
Constitution, but I must've missed it when photography became a crime.

I'm just glad my pal, Kamran, wasnt with me. He's from Pakistan and
he's got a quick tongue. Can you say, "Taser?"

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, either. I think
the next time it happens I will politely ask the officer for a list of
things that I may and may not photograph. If he can't provide such a
list I shall politely ask him to go **** up a rope.

Anyway, here's a crappy pic from today's crappy shoot.
http://www.pbase.com/image/74796772


If you were using a Nikon he would have left you alone. Even cops
know that serious photographers use Nikon. Terrorists, otoh, read the
camera magazines and buy Canons because they think they make them look
like professionals. :-)

Ah, I see by your remarks about the president that you are swayed by
conspiracy theories... that helps explain your irrational attraction
to a single camera company while calling others "the enemy."

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:10:21 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"
wrote:


"J. Clarke" wrote:
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

"J. Clarke" wrote:

The notion is that one can mount a firearm on a photographic tripod
for purposes of sniping. Never mind that it doesn't work.

I have a pro photographer friend who says that if a tripod isn't strong
enough to hold a machine gun, it's not strong enough to hold a camera.

So it does work with his tripods...

So he normally uses a tripod that weighs 14 pounds and stands 9 inches
high?

I don't know about his, but my tripod weights 3.3 kg and can be persuaded to
stand 9 inches high. The pushy salesman at the camera store demo'd it by
swinging his whole weight from it. He also stood on it with its legs spread
for low angle work. So it would probably work fine for a light caliber
machine gun.

It's real nice having a tripod you don't have to worry about.

Wait, if your Canons are so good at high ISO, why would you even need
a tripod????





David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:48:59 -0500, smb wrote:

If you were using a Nikon he would have left you alone. Even cops
know that serious photographers use Nikon. Terrorists, otoh, read the
camera magazines and buy Canons because they think they make them look
like professionals. :-)

Ah, I see by your remarks about the president that you are swayed by
conspiracy theories... that helps explain your irrational attraction
to a single camera company while calling others "the enemy."

Not others. Just one other is considered to be the enemy. He
couldn't call it the "evil empire" because that's reserved for the
other camera kahuna.

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 21:21:27 -0800, "Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even
number wrote:

Annika1980 wrote:
I'm bored this afternoon so I go over to the dam to try to get some
pics of the herons flying (they were very uncooperative). I'm also
shooting a few ducks, some cardinals, and the lone falcon that lives
there. The light is terrible, it's about to rain, but hey ... I love
a challenge.
Anyway, I'm minding my own business when I notice there's some rookie
cop standing there beside me asking me what I was shooting. "Birds,"
I told him without even looking up from my 20D and the Forgotten 400
f/
5.6L.

"Show me," he demands. So he makes me scroll through the entire CF
card showing him the photos to make sure I'm not shooting a picture of
little kids or the bridge ... you know, like terrorists always do. So
I'm narrating the pics as I scroll, "Great Blue Heron, duck, falcon,
duck, Presidential Motorcade, me flipping off the Pres, another duck,
me and the old lady doing it ..... "
You know, the usual stuff.

Just kidding about the Presidential pics. Thankfully, I deleted them
from the card before today's shoot. Otherwise, I might be typing this
from Guantanimo.

I was very polite with the flatfoot (since I don't really like jail),
but the more I thought about it after he left the madder I got. At
what point does having a nice camera make one a terrorist suspect?
When did that happen? (I know it must've been in the last 6 years.) I
know Bush (and his gang of crooks) wipes his ass with the
Constitution, but I must've missed it when photography became a crime.

I'm just glad my pal, Kamran, wasnt with me. He's from Pakistan and
he's got a quick tongue. Can you say, "Taser?"

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, either. I think
the next time it happens I will politely ask the officer for a list of
things that I may and may not photograph. If he can't provide such a
list I shall politely ask him to go **** up a rope.

Anyway, here's a crappy pic from today's crappy shoot.
http://www.pbase.com/image/74796772

I think it has less to do with Bush, and mostly to do with human nature.
Cops are no different than some other folks in other professions.
If you're a football player, you dream of making the big play in the last
three seconds of the Super Bowl. -If you're a cop, you dream of busting the
guy that would have killed thousands of imagined folk...and see your face on
CNN...where you'd get to say something stupid like, "I'm not a hero...I was
just doing my job" -all the while, fancying yourself not only a hero, but
becoming the manifestation of your life-long-dreams of being admired as one
by the entire country. It's pretty pathetic in one way, but completely
understandable too.

Everyone has a fantasy related to their job. It just so happens that some
of the idiots who are hired as law enforcement officers have a hard time
separating fantasy from reality...and whimsical stabs at herodom from the
law.

Ya, it's a problem, and ya, we need to hold their feet to the fire. Trouble
is, there are so many idiots with an overgrown sense of
one-man-justice...too many Rambos and Eastwoods. There are plenty of guys
who are drawn to law enforcement for no other reason than that they think it
would be "cool" to get to carry a gun around... I know of one such cop
friend of mine who admitted that this was very much in his mind when he
started out down that path.

I hope you'll take him to task next time.
-Perhaps simply asking him why he's "searching" your camera, or "Have I
violated some photography law that warrants your searching through my
personal photos?"

I'm stubborn enough that I'd likely do just that...but laik bilong yu...

Then again, did the officer actually tell you/him to stop taking
pictures? Unless he was physically or verbally abusive, what's the
problem with showing him what you were doing? You may not like it,
but after all his job is public safety. Just because WE know we are
innocent doesn't mean that everybody who sees us shooting pictures
knows we are innocent.

There is really a theme to Annika's posts... Nikons are evil, the
president is evil... the police are evil... Yes, it's time to admit
it. It's the vast right wing conspiracy who wants to force everyone
to use Nikons and get Bush's permission photograph anything or risk
being tortured by Jack Bauer. Canonistas of the world UNITE !!!

;-)

"smb" wrote:
"David J. wrote:

I don't know about his, but my tripod weights 3.3 kg and can be persuaded
to
stand 9 inches high. The pushy salesman at the camera store demo'd it by
swinging his whole weight from it. He also stood on it with its legs
spread
for low angle work. So it would probably work fine for a light caliber
machine gun.

It's real nice having a tripod you don't have to worry about.

Wait, if your Canons are so good at high ISO, why would you even need
a tripod????

I didn't say Canons were good, I said Nikon was bad. Sheesh, get it
straight, guy.

David J. Littleboy
Tokyo, Japan

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:10:21 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"
wrote:


"J. Clarke" wrote:
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

"J. Clarke" wrote:

The notion is that one can mount a firearm on a photographic tripod
for purposes of sniping. Never mind that it doesn't work.

I have a pro photographer friend who says that if a tripod isn't strong
enough to hold a machine gun, it's not strong enough to hold a camera.

So it does work with his tripods...

So he normally uses a tripod that weighs 14 pounds and stands 9 inches
high?

I don't know about his, but my tripod weights 3.3 kg and can be persuaded to
stand 9 inches high. The pushy salesman at the camera store demo'd it by
swinging his whole weight from it. He also stood on it with its legs spread
for low angle work. So it would probably work fine for a light caliber
machine gun.

It's real nice having a tripod you don't have to worry about.

It might hold a machine gun off the ground but when you start shooting
you'll find that it's nowhere near stiff enough to stand up to recoil.

All that 14 pounds in the machine gun tripod goes to standing it 9
inches tall--it's not a 6 foot tripod that will adjust down to 9
inches, it's 9 inches, period.

Why do you seem so determined to feed this myth?

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:57:19 -0500, ASAAR wrote:

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 05:48:59 -0500, smb wrote:

If you were using a Nikon he would have left you alone. Even cops
know that serious photographers use Nikon. Terrorists, otoh, read the
camera magazines and buy Canons because they think they make them look
like professionals. :-)

Ah, I see by your remarks about the president that you are swayed by
conspiracy theories... that helps explain your irrational attraction
to a single camera company while calling others "the enemy."

Not others. Just one other is considered to be the enemy. He
couldn't call it the "evil empire" because that's reserved for the
other camera kahuna.

Ah, correct. There is just one enemy in his mind. I wonder why that
is so? Did an abusive cop wearing a Bush/Cheney campaign button
force him to perform an indecent act with a Nikon when he was a child?

(Oh, pardon me for using the N word.) :-)

smb wrote:
On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 21:21:27 -0800, "Mark²" mjmorgan(lowest even
number wrote:

Annika1980 wrote:
I'm bored this afternoon so I go over to the dam to try to get some
pics of the herons flying (they were very uncooperative). I'm also
shooting a few ducks, some cardinals, and the lone falcon that lives
there. The light is terrible, it's about to rain, but hey ... I
love a challenge.
Anyway, I'm minding my own business when I notice there's some
rookie cop standing there beside me asking me what I was shooting.
"Birds," I told him without even looking up from my 20D and the
Forgotten 400 f/
5.6L.

"Show me," he demands. So he makes me scroll through the entire CF
card showing him the photos to make sure I'm not shooting a picture
of little kids or the bridge ... you know, like terrorists always
do. So I'm narrating the pics as I scroll, "Great Blue Heron,
duck, falcon, duck, Presidential Motorcade, me flipping off the
Pres, another duck, me and the old lady doing it ..... "
You know, the usual stuff.

Just kidding about the Presidential pics. Thankfully, I deleted
them from the card before today's shoot. Otherwise, I might be
typing this from Guantanimo.

I was very polite with the flatfoot (since I don't really like
jail), but the more I thought about it after he left the madder I
got. At what point does having a nice camera make one a terrorist
suspect? When did that happen? (I know it must've been in the last
6 years.) I know Bush (and his gang of crooks) wipes his ass with
the Constitution, but I must've missed it when photography became a
crime.

I'm just glad my pal, Kamran, wasnt with me. He's from Pakistan and
he's got a quick tongue. Can you say, "Taser?"

This isn't the first time this has happened to me, either. I think
the next time it happens I will politely ask the officer for a list
of things that I may and may not photograph. If he can't provide
such a list I shall politely ask him to go **** up a rope.

Anyway, here's a crappy pic from today's crappy shoot.
http://www.pbase.com/image/74796772

I think it has less to do with Bush, and mostly to do with human
nature. Cops are no different than some other folks in other
professions.
If you're a football player, you dream of making the big play in the
last three seconds of the Super Bowl. -If you're a cop, you dream
of busting the guy that would have killed thousands of imagined
folk...and see your face on CNN...where you'd get to say something
stupid like, "I'm not a hero...I was just doing my job" -all the
while, fancying yourself not only a hero, but becoming the
manifestation of your life-long-dreams of being admired as one by
the entire country. It's pretty pathetic in one way, but completely
understandable too.

Everyone has a fantasy related to their job. It just so happens
that some of the idiots who are hired as law enforcement officers
have a hard time separating fantasy from reality...and whimsical
stabs at herodom from the law.

Ya, it's a problem, and ya, we need to hold their feet to the fire.
Trouble is, there are so many idiots with an overgrown sense of
one-man-justice...too many Rambos and Eastwoods. There are plenty
of guys who are drawn to law enforcement for no other reason than
that they think it would be "cool" to get to carry a gun around...
I know of one such cop friend of mine who admitted that this was
very much in his mind when he started out down that path.

I hope you'll take him to task next time.
-Perhaps simply asking him why he's "searching" your camera, or
"Have I violated some photography law that warrants your searching
through my personal photos?"

I'm stubborn enough that I'd likely do just that...but laik bilong
yu...

Then again, did the officer actually tell you/him to stop taking
pictures? Unless he was physically or verbally abusive, what's the
problem with showing him what you were doing?

The problem is operating on the the assumption that you are compelled to
show him ANY of your personal pictures without cause.

You may not like it,
but after all his job is public safety. Just because WE know we are
innocent doesn't mean that everybody who sees us shooting pictures
knows we are innocent.

And what picture would have shown that you were participating in dangerous
activity?

There is really a theme to Annika's posts... Nikons are evil, the
president is evil... the police are evil... Yes, it's time to admit
it. It's the vast right wing conspiracy who wants to force everyone
to use Nikons and get Bush's permission photograph anything or risk
being tortured by Jack Bauer. Canonistas of the world UNITE !!!



--
Images (Plus Snaps & Grabs) by Mark² at:
www.pbase.com/markuson

On Sun, 25 Feb 2007 06:17:03 -0500, smb wrote:

Not others. Just one other is considered to be the enemy. He
couldn't call it the "evil empire" because that's reserved for the
other camera kahuna.

Ah, correct. There is just one enemy in his mind. I wonder why that
is so? Did an abusive cop wearing a Bush/Cheney campaign button
force him to perform an indecent act with a Nikon when he was a child?

No, it's nothing like that. Twenty seven years ago he underwent
an extended training session where he was forced under hypnosis to
watch a training film titled Bretannika1980, modeled after another
released 18 years earlier. Now, every once in a while he'll get a
phone call from someone that asks him "Why don't you pass the time
playing a little solitaire?" and when sufficient time passes for him
to react to a preconditioned trigger, he'll get another call with an
assignment that sends him off on an anti-Nikon mission.

Annika happens to have an extensive film/DVD collection that
includes A Gathering of Eagles, Hail, Mafia, Journey to a Hanging,
Manhunt, Three Days to a Kill, The Violent Breed, Shoot, Megaforce,
The Violent Breed, Trained to Kill, The Columbian Connection, Escape
From The Bronx, The Manchurian Candidate, The Good Die Young,
Butterfield 8, Room at the Top, Walk on the Wild Side, The Running
Man, A Dandy in Aspic, The Magic Christian and I Am A Camera.

His friends report that he has an odd preoccupation with these
films that he and they haven't been able to explain. I've tried to
figure out what makes these films so fascinating to him but really
haven't gotten anywhere, other than to note that all of them contain
roles played by either Laurence Harvey or Henry Silva. Strange.