Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/03/13

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Subject: Re: [Leica] RE: Leica Camera-Handling
From: chucko@siteconnect.com (Chuck Albertson)
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2000 10:06:43 -0800

Jeremy,

Concert security must be different in the UK---there's no way I could
smuggle a 180 into a concert here. A few years ago, some Husky Hamburger
(local uni football player) working the door at an Iggy Pop concert frisked
me and seized my beloved Swiss Army knife. A week earlier, a Secret Service
agent frisking me at the entrance to a Hillary gig had found it, and waved
me through!

Concur with getting a seat a few rows back. With some bands, you can get
crushed by the lead singer landing on top of you, and at a Midnight Oil show
I needed a towel to mop up the sweat flying off Peter Garrett's (bald) head.
A good case for an exception to the "no filters" rule. In the front row,
also, the front-line security goons will spot a camera and try to put you in
a headlock---making them work their way through the mosh
pit gives you time for a discreet withdrawal.

Chuck Albertson
Seattle, Wash.

> I've stolen a few shots at concerts where photography was banned and there
> you have to be quite surreptitious in your camera handling.
> Apart from recommending a second row seat, rather than a front row,
there's
> also a better chance of getting what you want during the encore, as the
> bother of having someone ejected with only one more number to go isn't
worth
> the hassle.
>
> But about Leica handling. I decided rather than raise the camera
> conspicuously to my eye, I'd shoot from chest height, this I achieved with
a
> Visoflex 3 removing the eye level prism but looking down to focus and
> compose on the ground glass screen. With the bright spotlights on the
> artists the focusing wasn't a problem, I was using a 180/2.8 lens.
Although
> the eventual equipment combination was bulky it had the benefit of being
> able to be dismantled into several bits for transport in pockets.
>