Luminous Landscape Forum
Equipment & Techniques => Landscape & Nature Photography => Topic started by: OnlyNorth on February 20, 2011, 01:01:20 pm
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Hi
I drive my car with the camera around the neck.I don't advise anyone to do that.1/2sec,16mm,f/8,720ASA
Thanks
Radu
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That is cute.
I hope your camera has its own airbag.
Eric
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Hi,
The Romanian Olt River Valley is one full of churches and monasteries.(1/15,f/22,16mm,200ASA)
Thanks
Radu
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Hi
I drive my car with the camera around the neck.I don't advise anyone to do that.1/2sec,16mm,f/8,720ASA
Thanks
Radu
I'm sorry to be a wet blanket but I wonder if I'm the only one who finds this thread disturbing. The mediocre results don't seem to me remotely to justify the obvious risks to the photographer and, just as or perhaps more importantly, other people on the road. Taking photographs while driving is dangerous and criminally irresponsible.
Jeremy
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... Taking photographs while driving is dangerous and criminally irresponsible...
Hell yeah! Especially with a view camera... I usually write my will first, then duck under the dark cloth of my 8x10. The good thing is, it does not take more than a couple of minutes to focus and compose. The most dangerous part is when I emerge from under the dark cloth, I usually get blinded by the light (either daylight, or incoming traffic)... and deafened by the incessant honking around me.*
* SA
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Hell yeah! Especially with a view camera... I usually write my will first, then duck under the dark cloth of my 8x10. The good thing is, it does not take more than a couple of minutes to focus and compose. The most dangerous part is when I emerge from under the dark cloth, I usually get blinded by the light (either daylight, or incoming traffic)... and deafened by the incessant honking around me.*
* SA
"* SA"?
Jeremy
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SA = sarcasm alert
Sorry, Jeremy, could not resist ;)
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Hi,
A possible answer...?
...who knows...
(19mm,1/125,f/16,200ASA)
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Hi,
There were many sunny days last Fall
Thanks
Radu
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Sooner or later, you will kill someone because instead of concentrating on driving you will be taking another of these pointless photographs. Stop it.
Jeremy
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Ok, Jeremy, I see you do not let it go easily.
The purpose if my little satirical piece was to make a point that we are not shooting with 8x10s while driving, but autofocus, auto-everything cameras that require nothing more than taking them into one hand and pressing the shutter (not even lifting them up to our eye). It takes just a second or two and is way less distraction than fiddling with a GPS, changing radio stations or CDs, smoking, or just plain talking to passengers, let alone on a cell phone.
Another thing caught my attention: you describe those photographs as "mediocre" and "pointless". While "mediocre" is debatable and subjective, pointless it is not. There is a whole book published recently by one of the most renowned American photographers, Lee Friedlander, "America by Car", whose sole premise is the esthetics of shots from within a car, with car details, dashboard, windshield, door frames, mirrors, etc., prominently visible in each picture. Although I am not mentioning this book as an argument in favor of shooting while driving, but in favor of the esthetics you call "pointless", it does appear that at least some of Lee's shots were made from a moving car.
What do you do when you are driving through a summer storm in South Dakota, with no road shoulder to stop, and the sun breaks through for a second? You ask your wife for her fashionably-colored P&S, the one that you wouldn't be caught dead being seen in public with it, and shoot through your side window:
P.S. As a courtesy to you as a fellow LuLa member, I promise to notify you when I plan to drive in your neighborhood in the future ;)
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No, Slobodan, I shan't let it go.
I spend a good deal of my working life dealing with people who have been seriously injured, or with the relatives of people who have been killed, in road traffic accidents. Cars are invaluable - I certainly couldn't live without mine - but they are very dangerous. Momentary lapses in concentration can have catastrophic effects.
If OnlyNorth persists in doing what he is doing, he dramatically increases the chances of his causing an accident with such an outcome. The maximum penalty in England for causing death by dangerous driving is 14 years in prison and for causing death by careless or inconsiderate driving, 5 years: I don't imagine it's significantly less anywhere else. The penalty would be of interest only to him, of course, and to any relatives he might have.
However, I also wonder how he would attempt to explain, just before he starts his sentence, to children whose father he has killed, or to parents whose teenage daughter he has rendered brain-damaged, wheelchair-bound and doubly incontinent, that those are reasonable prices for them to pay for his pointless (and I don't shy away from that description) attempts at "art".
Even if he were producing something worthwhile, which (in my opinion, of course) he isn't, there would be no conceivable justification for the way in which he is doing it.
I entirely agree with the scenario in your penultimate paragraph, with one simple proviso: if it's safe, you pull in to the side of the road, stop the car and put your emergency flashers on before you start fiddling with the camera. If it's not safe, you shrug and accept that there will be other opportunities to take a snapshot. It's hard to appreciate a photograph when you're dead.
I do appreciate your courtesy, however!
Jeremy
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... Momentary lapses in concentration can have catastrophic effects...
Of course... and that is especially sounding horrible when supported by tearjerker scenarios. But what if our hypothetical distracted driver (and lets leave the poor chap, OnlyNorth, alone, as he is certainly not the only one) killed a serial killer, on the loose for years? Or sent to hospital a team of terrorists on their way to blow up a plane? Wouldn't that make him a hero?
Pardon my dark humor, but your tearjerkers do not prove your point. Your professional exposure to those scenarios, however laudable your role might be, is actually clouding your judgment, making it less objective, exposing it to an availability bias (i.e., a bias in which we tend to form our opinion based on samples that are closest, most "available" to us, disregarding the whole pool of information). It is like asking a divorce lawyer for his view on marriage.
You also failed to address my main point, which is that taking pictures while driving with today's auto-everything cameras IS NOT inherently more distracting than numerous other driving distractions. In fact, I argued it is WAY LESS distracting than keying in directions into a GPS, fiddling with radio, drinking hot drinks, smoking, quick phone calls, talking to your passengers, glancing at passing scenery or events, etc. These are common, everyday minor distractions millions of drivers are having as we speak. And these are the distractions millions of drivers learned how to deal safely with. Otherwise, we would have a daily carnage on our roads. It is to easy to advise "just do not be distracted at all"... life is way more complicated than that.
P.S. I will be driving in your area tomorrow... oh, wait, it is Manchester Avenue, Batavia, Illinois... never mind, you are safe ;)
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The toll of terrorists accidentally killed by people playing silly games with cameras while driving is, I think, small.
All the divorce lawyers I know are happily married.
Being already exposed to distractions makes adding another, wholly unnecessary, distraction even more foolish.
Whew! It's safe for me to go out.
Jeremy
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Hi,
Being on this forum,my intention was not to disturb Your customs & habits or to upset You.I saw a topic "Shooting while riding in the car" at "Digital cameras & Shooting Techniques" and I tried to share my experience to those who are interested in.(Of course I work at several photografic projects) As I said before my intention was not to upset You but I must confess that such "proletarian rage" against all who were not aligned I saw only here,in my country,on communist-proletcultist(or proletkultist) ages.I am still quietly because You do not exile me to Siberia!
Tanks
Radu
PS1: as You know the Communism was invented in West Europe like Mafia and so on.Here it was applied only ;D
PS2: another possible answer is below.(16mm,f/11,1/250 sec.,200 ASA)
Tanks again :-*
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Hi,
Being on this forum,my intention was not to disturb Your customs & habits or to upset You.I saw a topic "Shooting while riding in the car" at "Digital cameras & Shooting Techniques" and I tried to share my experience to those who are interested in.(Of course I work at several photografic projects) As I said before my intention was not to upset You but I must confess that such "proletarian rage" against all who were not aligned I saw only here,in my country,on communist-proletcultist(or proletkultist) ages.I am still quietly because You do not exile me to Siberia!
Tanks
Radu
PS1: as You know the Communism was invented in West Europe like Mafia and so on.Here it was applied only ;D
PS2: another possible answer is below.(16mm,f/11,1/250 sec.,200 ASA)
Tanks again :-*
Radu
You misunderstand the cause of my annoyance. It is directed at your foolish actions, not at you, for reasons I set out in my previous posts. Demonstrating that you continue to be a deliberate menace on the road does not "answer" my point: it reinforces it. If it pleases you do to so, take all the photographs you like, whatever merit they may lack, from moving cars but do it when someone else is driving.
Jeremy
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Jeremy, your safety concerns are widely misplaced: Radu is obviously driving on (former) roads to Communism, built wide and long, but now practically deserted, devoid of traffic, with whatever cars left driving in the opposite direction, hurriedly returning from the future. ;)
I also couldn't help noticing a bit of... how shall I put it... remnants of a (former) Empire's patronizing prescriptivism in your posts to Radu. ;)
Now that I lashed out at both sides of the (former) Iron Curtain, we can all be friends again and continue to shoot and drive safely.
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Jeremy, your safety concerns are widely misplaced: Radu is obviously driving on (former) roads to Communism, built wide and long, but now practically deserted, devoid of traffic, with whatever cars left driving in the opposite direction, hurriedly returning from the future. ;)
As long as he drives only on roads devoid of other traffic, whether vehicular or pedestrian, the only person he's at risk of killing is himself and since it's none of my intention to stop him from self-harm, I can have no objection.
I also couldn't help noticing a bit of... how shall I put it... remnants of a (former) Empire's patronizing prescriptivism in your posts to Radu. ;)
Hmm. I'm old but not old enough to have nostalgia for Empire, jolly good thing though it might have been. Anyway, I'd have said exactly the same thing (with rather more force, in fact, since I'd have a potential personal interest) to a Mancunian.
Now that I lashed out at both sides of the (former) Iron Curtain, we can all be friends again and continue to shoot and drive safely.
Agreed. The latter two at different times.
Jeremy
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Radu, Just for fun, can you do some out of your rear window too?
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Hi,
Yes,if I see interesting things.
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NO Radu! It was a joke. Turn around and put both hands on the wheel. Please! OMG.
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What!? On the road to Communism even the rain is red!?
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NO Radu! It was a joke. Turn around and put both hands on the wheel. Please! OMG.
No need. He only drives on deserted roads, remember. He should get the speed up to 70 or so, set the cruise control, turn round, frame the shot with considerable care and make sure that it's well focussed. After all, what's the worst that could happen?
Jeremy
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Hi
1/2000,f/11,1600ASA,manual focus,A priority.
Thanks
Radu
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Hi
1/2000,f/11,1600ASA,manual focus,A priority.
Thanks
Radu
Manual focus. Good idea.
Jeremy
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In a parallel universe, ... I mean: thread ..., I posted the following, which I feel is appropriate here (or perhaps better in the "But Is It Art?" section):
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=49777.msg427876 (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=49777.msg427876)
Eric
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In a parallel universe, ... I mean: thread ..., I posted the following, which I feel is appropriate here (or perhaps better in the "But Is It Art?" section):
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=49777.msg427876 (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/forum/index.php?topic=49777.msg427876)
Eric
You show great potential, Eric. Keep working at it and you'll be able to sack the driver soon. Of course, in a parallel universe, you'll be alongside the other traffic and, hence, safe.
Jeremy
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You show great potential, Eric. Keep working at it and you'll be able to sack the driver soon. Of course, in a parallel universe, you'll be alongside the other traffic and, hence, safe.
Jeremy
Thank you, Jeremy.
I had indeed been wondering whether proper etiquette requires me to have the driver sign all my prints. That is, of course, a difficulty that OnlyNorth's method manages to avoid, although perhaps his undertaker should co-sign them.
Eric
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Thank you, Jeremy.
I had indeed been wondering whether proper etiquette requires me to have the driver sign all my prints. That is, of course, a difficulty that OnlyNorth's method manages to avoid, although perhaps his undertaker should co-sign them.
Eric
I'm surprised at you, Eric: I'd imagined proper etiquette would be second-nature to you.
Of course the driver should sign the prints, as long as he's doing at least 60mph at the time.
Jeremy
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I normally mount the camera externally on the car (or as far away as I can get it) and then use a remote release.
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Hi,
Sometimes the vibrations are needed.(1/8,f/22,16mm,200ASA,manual focus)
Thanks
Radu