Weaponary

[CooperTown]

I wrote this earlier but it was buried deep in an old thread so I've decided to start a new topic on it. Original post starts below:


What the hell is it with this forum?

I came here thinking this might be a place to look at some interesting street photography images shot with equipment I'm familiar with yet every thread I've read so far has been an astounding collection of the weaponry you should carry when taking photos on the street.

WTF???!!

I'm in regular contact with some excellent street photographers and have hung out and shot some photos with one of Australia's best. Never, never, NEVER has the subject of weaponry cropped up. These photographers are based in Sydney, London, New York, Paris, Berlin and lots of other big cities. We've had discussions about being chatted to by the police but in several years of shooting on the street, discussing and hanging with some top photographers never has the subject of weapons come up.

So far on this "Urban life & Travel Talk" thread I've been advised to carry; mace, a nightstick, a Glock, a .45, a knife, travel in a pack, hide your telephoto lens with "camo", put your camera in a box with a hole cut in it and never turn your back on a group of people.

Wow, have fun with your style of street photography.

Personally, I'll carry on with my own style which pretty much consists of carrying a camera in a back pack, pulling it out when I see an interesting shot, raising it to my eye and taking the picture.

Oh wait. Then I throw the stun grenade and run like hell....

[thebishopp]

Kind of all depends where you are at.

I have a friend who's wife is from the UK and there are places she is afraid to go to certain places (he rattled them off to me but this conversation occured a couple years ago) because of the rampant crime (no guns but lots of broken bottles, bats, sticks, knives, etc. used by local street thugs). He told me it gets worse every year and this guy is a big pro UK fellow (wants to move there).

Most photographers may not run into these problems because they consciously or subconsciously take steps to keep themselves out of dangerous situations. Then again there have been newspeople who have been beheaded and killed in iraq and other countries.... of course you wouldn't have spoken with them because they are DEAD.

If you aren't in a dangerous area then you don't need protection. Kind of how it works you know?

[Pete]

So why start another thread on the subject?

Please direct all related discussion on this subject to the threads already in existance. If you don't want to discuss this subject, then don't visit those threads.