Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2000/11/16

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Subject: Re: [Leica] How to get comfortable with my Leica?
From: Christer Almqvist <christer@almqvist.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Nov 2000 22:34:19 +0200
References: <p05010403b639bbb0aea9@[10.5.13.32]>

Tristan,

I agree with all the responses you have got, but I would like to add this.

First, get yourself a lot of training taking/sneaking photos 
unnoticed in a real friendly atmosphere, like at a friends or 
relative's wedding or at a party with people you know. Even if there 
are people there who do not like having their picture taken by you, 
you will not be in trouble if they notice you. There may be several 
other amateur photographers around and you can plead ignorance and 
innocense with an almost nil failure rate if somebody confronts you 
with the fact that he does not like his photo to be taken. In this 
friendly situation you can practice and learn how far (close?) you 
can get without being noticed, and what to do if and when you are 
noticed. A nod and a friendly smile goes a long way.

Next step is to go to a place where there is a lot of tourists and 
pretend you are a common tourist not wanting to take photos of people 
but of monuments and buildings. Too bad those persons just got into 
your picture. You will soon find out most people either do not notice 
you took a picture or they do not care. Once you have experienced 
this a few times you get very relaxed. I am aware that there are 
places where the locals hate tourists in general and photographers in 
particular. Do not try to force anything there. On the other hand 
there are other places (Ireland comes to my mind) where people 
generally have nothing at all against being photographed and you need 
not pretend anything at all. Smile and nod. Before or afterwards 
depending on the situation

And above all, act natural. Too much hiding the camera, too much 
trying to get by unnoticed may be contraproductive. Act as if you 
were  quite occupied with your camera (may actually be true)  but 
keep the subject in corner of your eye and when the right moment 
comes shoot as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

And check your preset exposure frequently. That is important, but 
mainly because it forces you to put your M6 to your eye  freqently so 
that it becomes natural for you to do so. If you are at ease, you get 
noticed a lot less than if you work under stress. At least that is 
the feeling I have, and that feeling helps.

Chris


>I am still trying to figure out how to get comfortable with 
>using/carrying my new M6 TTL.  On several occasions, in an effort to 
>do more street photography, I have carried it along on outings with 
>friends, only to discover that during the course of the day, I did 
>not even take the camera out of the camera bag. Either I didn't feel 
>I saw any photo opportunities, or I felt like I would be too 
>conspicuous with a nice expensive camera on the streets.
>
>I'm not really at the point of being comfortable been seen taking 
>pictures. I guess I'm shy and even afraid to take pictures of people 
>in the street...
>--
>
>T r i s t a n  T o m - <http://tristan.net/>

- -- 
Christer Almqvist
D-20255 Hamburg, Germany and/or
F-50590 Regnéville-sur-Mer, France

In reply to: Message from Tristan Tom <tt@tristan.net> ([Leica] How to get comfortable with my Leica?)