David Adolphus
03-14-2008, 09:32 AM
'Just received an email from a colleague on the recurring subject of running into the cops while shooting. I don't necessarily agree, but he's a highly experienced guy who's worked for all the big buff books, and his opinion counts.
Some names have been changed to protect...whoever. (John, please feel free to move this to a more appropriate forum if needed.)
Frequently, what we do (shooting) takes us places that we possibly ought not be. (Murphy's law: all the best locations are verboten.) If you haven't already, you will almost certainly run into some resistance shooting wherever you choose to shoot. Two sad but true stories:
* In NJ, I found a piece of fresh pavement at a GS Parkway rest area doubling as a commuter parking lot. It was coned off. So I went inside the cones, lined them up behind the car just so; it made a striking visual. The cop agreed as he hassled me. My first defense, "It's for a magazine" gave him room for the brilliant retort, "then you should know better!" And he gave me a written warning for moving cones in a construction zone.
* In CA, I was doing some car to car shooting on Pacific Coast Highway. A CHP officer spotted me, pulled the whole wagon train over and asked for a business card, which I gave him. To which he replied, "Good, next time I see you doing this I'll haul you in." Which means once again that it pays to be an amateur. He did, however, offer to close down PCH if we contacted the office. That would cost about $600 an hour to pull off. Yeah, let me get the checkbook out right now.
I will generally spill for the cops, because I'm weak and they have actual power (not to mention firearms); park rangers are hit or miss, and security can usually be blown off easily enough. I also generally keep working, getting as many shots as I can manage, while the owner tries to distract/intoxicate/otherwise bamboozle whoever is doing the hassling. License plates and shirts can be explained away by "ordering out the back of the catalog." The XXXXXX-wrapped Odyssey is a little harder to explain.
Even so, in advance of a trip somewhere you probably ought not be going, please tell your car owner and his/her comrades to lie if approached. I generally do this in person, as an aside before we get going, and surprisingly to me, most owners are OK with this. After all, they've parked their car--it's not like we're DOING anything. As I tell them, "you lie and I swear to it." It usually involves "a couple of car club buddies" taking some pics of a recent purchase. I've occasionally called a car owner "uncle" just to give ourselves a giggle afterwards.
The lesson: DO NOT EVER ADMIT TO SECURITY/POLICE/WHOEVER THAT YOU ARE SHOOTING FOR A MAGAZINE. Sometimes they'll come out and ask, "Is it for the magazine?" Not that they know which one--just the magazine. I usually laugh, as if to say, "as if!" Really curious security may wonder "why here?" I usually say something about liking the sun and the texture of the background. They don't generally know what to make of that. And that's OK. If they see you're not messing around with anything, sometimes they leave you alone. (If you start climbing on walls and such, you're a more obvious liability to them, and they're more likely to throw you out.) You do occasionally get someone who really wanted to be a cop when he grew up, failed utterly, and wants to take it out on you. For the ones you can't deal with, just go somewhere else.
Today's hilarious run-in with Indian Tribal Security while shooting cars in Palm Springs reminds me that, when shooting and as outlined above, honesty is not always the best policy. Silence generally is. Be honest, be brief, and be busy enough loading up your stuff that you can scoot in seconds. To wit, after we park my van once it's been driving on the wrong side of a double yellow line for the better part of a mile (so that I may shoot car to car, of course), with security in a silver pickup (without even a yellow light bar--what kind of security is THAT?) trying to get close enough to me to ruin my shot (and failing utterly):
"Hey, you can't do that!"
"Sorry."
"What's your name?"
"Jeff."
"You have a card?"
"Nope." (To the other car owners, "Let's go.") I put down my tailgate, and he reads my license plate number aloud. I don't care, though, because I'm already getting in my van and hightailing it the hell out of there. My two photo charges follow. And it ends.
Cowardly? Probably. But what are they going to do, mail me a ticket? Please.
Some names have been changed to protect...whoever. (John, please feel free to move this to a more appropriate forum if needed.)
Frequently, what we do (shooting) takes us places that we possibly ought not be. (Murphy's law: all the best locations are verboten.) If you haven't already, you will almost certainly run into some resistance shooting wherever you choose to shoot. Two sad but true stories:
* In NJ, I found a piece of fresh pavement at a GS Parkway rest area doubling as a commuter parking lot. It was coned off. So I went inside the cones, lined them up behind the car just so; it made a striking visual. The cop agreed as he hassled me. My first defense, "It's for a magazine" gave him room for the brilliant retort, "then you should know better!" And he gave me a written warning for moving cones in a construction zone.
* In CA, I was doing some car to car shooting on Pacific Coast Highway. A CHP officer spotted me, pulled the whole wagon train over and asked for a business card, which I gave him. To which he replied, "Good, next time I see you doing this I'll haul you in." Which means once again that it pays to be an amateur. He did, however, offer to close down PCH if we contacted the office. That would cost about $600 an hour to pull off. Yeah, let me get the checkbook out right now.
I will generally spill for the cops, because I'm weak and they have actual power (not to mention firearms); park rangers are hit or miss, and security can usually be blown off easily enough. I also generally keep working, getting as many shots as I can manage, while the owner tries to distract/intoxicate/otherwise bamboozle whoever is doing the hassling. License plates and shirts can be explained away by "ordering out the back of the catalog." The XXXXXX-wrapped Odyssey is a little harder to explain.
Even so, in advance of a trip somewhere you probably ought not be going, please tell your car owner and his/her comrades to lie if approached. I generally do this in person, as an aside before we get going, and surprisingly to me, most owners are OK with this. After all, they've parked their car--it's not like we're DOING anything. As I tell them, "you lie and I swear to it." It usually involves "a couple of car club buddies" taking some pics of a recent purchase. I've occasionally called a car owner "uncle" just to give ourselves a giggle afterwards.
The lesson: DO NOT EVER ADMIT TO SECURITY/POLICE/WHOEVER THAT YOU ARE SHOOTING FOR A MAGAZINE. Sometimes they'll come out and ask, "Is it for the magazine?" Not that they know which one--just the magazine. I usually laugh, as if to say, "as if!" Really curious security may wonder "why here?" I usually say something about liking the sun and the texture of the background. They don't generally know what to make of that. And that's OK. If they see you're not messing around with anything, sometimes they leave you alone. (If you start climbing on walls and such, you're a more obvious liability to them, and they're more likely to throw you out.) You do occasionally get someone who really wanted to be a cop when he grew up, failed utterly, and wants to take it out on you. For the ones you can't deal with, just go somewhere else.
Today's hilarious run-in with Indian Tribal Security while shooting cars in Palm Springs reminds me that, when shooting and as outlined above, honesty is not always the best policy. Silence generally is. Be honest, be brief, and be busy enough loading up your stuff that you can scoot in seconds. To wit, after we park my van once it's been driving on the wrong side of a double yellow line for the better part of a mile (so that I may shoot car to car, of course), with security in a silver pickup (without even a yellow light bar--what kind of security is THAT?) trying to get close enough to me to ruin my shot (and failing utterly):
"Hey, you can't do that!"
"Sorry."
"What's your name?"
"Jeff."
"You have a card?"
"Nope." (To the other car owners, "Let's go.") I put down my tailgate, and he reads my license plate number aloud. I don't care, though, because I'm already getting in my van and hightailing it the hell out of there. My two photo charges follow. And it ends.
Cowardly? Probably. But what are they going to do, mail me a ticket? Please.