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The cops are on the prowl again!
I had an interesting experience today, although I don't consider it a bad one. I am shooting at a hotel near the airport. I am taking a nap when I hear the door knock and the words police. I happen to be indecent at the moment so I throw on some pants and answer the door. Two federal marshalls are at the door. They tell me they are just working the area and were just checking for anything suspicious. They wanted to know if I had seen anything suspicious. I said "no" to which they asked what I was doing with such unusual photographic equipment. I turned my head and realized what was going on. They had seen my Photogenic strobes, sans umbrellas, on stands near the window. Someone had aparently spotted them from the streets. I pulled out my camera and showed them some examples of what I was shooting and we all got a bit of a belly laugh. No terrorists here, although one of the models that showed up today turned out to be pretty scary looking. To tell the truth, it was reassuring to have them knock on the door. It means they are really paying attention. I got a call from the hotel manager apologizing and inviting me to shoot in his hotel any time I wanted. Jun 29 06 07:41 pm Link ...and I hope he comp'd the room! As for what your equipment REALLY was... it was a pair of highly mobilized lazer tracking and centering units. Good thing you had the stingers still hidden under the bed!!!! Alan.. next time you want to play terrorist.. do it from a broken down vehicle on the 405 under the flight path. Make you wonder what was in the room you did not see.. that allowed THEM to SEE YOU!!! Jun 29 06 07:47 pm Link haha thats an interesting day. I'm surprised they didn't come back to watch the rest of the shoot. Jun 29 06 07:47 pm Link Alan, according to things I read from others here... you should have said: "I know my rights and I am free to do whatever I want and don't have to tell you anything!!!" lol!!! Jun 29 06 07:48 pm Link Steven Bigler wrote: The lights were right next to the windows and would have been easily visible from the street. After they left, I closed the blinds. Jun 29 06 07:49 pm Link Steven Bigler wrote: that's what I was thinking! Jun 29 06 08:00 pm Link Steven Bigler wrote: KM von Seidl wrote: The room already was comp'd. They gave me a gift card because they had made a mistake on a reservation at another hotel from the same chain. Jun 29 06 08:03 pm Link Steven Bigler wrote: Alan, you should have said: Jun 29 06 08:06 pm Link Alan from Aavian Prod wrote: Steven Bigler wrote: The room already was comp'd. They gave me a gift card because they had made a mistake on a reservation at another hotel from the same chain. You could have got a full refund. Jun 29 06 08:07 pm Link Steven Barrett wrote: I got you, they should have given me back the money I never paid to begin with! Good thought! Jun 29 06 08:19 pm Link My first thought is - Just what exactly constitutes "unusual" photography equipment? Jun 29 06 09:40 pm Link SKPhoto wrote: That is NOT a stinger shoulder launched missle.... it is a light meter... shaped like one!!! Jun 29 06 10:09 pm Link Alan my curiosity is aroused may we have a pic of the unusual (weird) photo equipment..was it so strange??? And what did the Polizei think...you were using LAZER equipment to blind people several miles away?? Still wondering ....Mike Jun 29 06 10:15 pm Link Gee Alan, it must be contagious. I just shoot a bunch of swimwear at a local city park. After about 25 minutes, the local patrol slowed way down and than circled around. I was with a brand new model and didn't want any confrontation. So, sent her to change and went and initiated a friendly chat. I told them I was just shooting a family friend, and asked if I was doing anything wrong or were they just bored? Turns out they were bored. I told them to pull up into a close parking place and that I'd put the girl in something simpy if they wanted. They did, she did (we were already going to shoot it next anyway). Now I have an open invitation to shoot anywhere in the park as long as they are on duty. You handled it well. - Ed Jun 29 06 10:32 pm Link SKPhoto wrote: The impression I got was that they thought I had cameras in the windows. Once they saw them close up, they realized they were lights. Jun 29 06 11:21 pm Link Ed Stevenson wrote: A long time ago, a lifetime ago, I owned and operated a movie theatre in Norman Oklahoma. One night after the theatre closed, some friends of mine were over and we decided to practice rapelling off the roof of the theatre, so it's about 2 AM. One of my female friends got her hair caught in the ropes about 1/3 of the way off the roof. We spent about 45 minutes rescueing her and her hair. (it would have been a large chunk to cut off) Anyway, after a successful rescue. A van started up in the supermarket lot across the street. It was the PD. They came and showed us night vision video of the event. They were pretty bored that night and just watched us. Jun 29 06 11:41 pm Link Geez, Alan.... I've just got to get you one of those  LOL Studio36 Jun 30 06 03:45 am Link studio36uk wrote: Haha Jun 30 06 10:14 am Link SKPhoto wrote:
Jun 30 06 10:28 am Link Chris Ross wrote: I was looking at the less expensive f2.8 version of that the other day. Jun 30 06 10:30 am Link Alan from Aavian Prod wrote: You know ... I think my first digital was about that size. Jun 30 06 10:33 am Link Chris Ross wrote: Ahhh, the compact one?? Jun 30 06 11:53 am Link ..Maybe your lights were "Alien Bees"...? LOL Jun 30 06 06:54 pm Link studio36uk wrote: I want one too. It will go nicely with my door mat. Jun 30 06 08:48 pm Link A number of years ago, I was a contract compliance officer for agricultural products. My job called for me to make a circuit of several flour mills out in the middle of nowhere, which meant I had to stay in lots of fleabag motels. After checking into a motel in the middle of nowhere, I started preparing some flour samples for shipment to a laboratory. I had to use the boy's room and found that someone before me had stopped up the commode. I called the desk and asked that the toilet be fixed. I went back to work on my samples. There was knock on the door and it was the hotel maintenance man. After about 5 minutes he left rather hurriedly. About a half hour later, there was another knock in my door. I looked out and it was the maintenance man again. When I opened the door, it was forcibly pushed in on me - knocking me to the floor. In rushed a bunch of guys - one of whom pounced on my chest. Cops. Well, after about an hour, they realized that my scale and plastic bag sealing equipment was being used to prepare flour samples - not dime bags. Nonetheless, they left without so much as an OOOPs. But they did tell me to be careful. Jun 30 06 09:42 pm Link good thread, well handled by all involved, and am taking the new doormats and door hangers to a printer now, lol. Jun 30 06 09:47 pm Link Westview Photographics wrote: Sounds like my cops were nicer than your cops. Jun 30 06 10:26 pm Link I guess Ive had better luck, at least on location. I was shooting a friend of mine for grins and giggles in her ass-less jeans (shoulda seen the looks she got in the mall heh heh) in a local park i use alot back around 93. The local bike cop came thru and his face lit up like it was christmas. Watched as long as he could before he got a call.....I offered to give him a print of this and you'd think he'd won a rolex. Of course, i was a dispatcher at the time and he knew who i was, but he would have responded the same way with anyone. Most of them at that time would do the same...now to actually. I wouldnt do that in the park now though, just enough puritans on the dept these days, and too many crazy ass religious laws that are applied retro actively and need no evidence, and a fat chick DA who gets re-elected prosecuting morals laws.  And here is the type of stuff we were doing. I made sure there were no kids around, but even then it was pretty tame. She was a total exhibitionist, which bodes well for modeling in front of cameras. I even titled her that in my port. Its a lower res scan for net use, so its grainy a bit.  Jul 01 06 01:04 am Link My first shoot this spring was at a deserted beach under the boardwalk. 300 shots later and the 6th change the Park guy gets out of his car and comes over to us. I thought he was just a lurker when he first parked but now he was getting too close and raised my dander. He wants to know why I'm there and 20 questions besides. By the third I'm sparring back 'cuz his tone is ex-cop now doing beach patrol for subs off the coast. Finally I tell him to go find his own bimbo's to spy on and call him a pervert for watching the model change. He get's on the radio and tells his dispatcher to call the cops for unauthorized photography due to the beach being closed. I tell him to F_Off and pack up my gear. I was done anyway and was too sparked to continue, plus I had the model to consider, whom by the way hadn't panicked since she scoped him lurking earlier. His claim to fame was that this was a professional shoot and my rejoinder was no tripod, it's personal for my/our use. Who was right? And is there any obligation to be nice to wanna-bees and homland security?  The model is Neena, and this is what we were shooting Jul 01 06 08:28 am Link i would have told them arrest me on the suspicion of being suspicious or to f- off Jul 01 06 08:54 am Link xandx wrote: I wouldn't say it is an obligation, but an innocent person has nothing to hide. I work for the Dept of Big Brother(aka Homeland Security), we are constantly investigating nothing, the smoother you make it for us, the qwuicker we can move along. When coming to investigate, we don't have a choice on what to do, we go where the call comes in for, so here I am thinking "lalala, this is nothing, just a few quick questions, id check and get on" then some guy cops an attitude, spouting off at the mouth, talking down to me, even if all my hunches tell me you are no threat, you want to bust my balls, I can REALLY bust yours. Jul 01 06 10:15 am Link An innocent person has nothing to hide? We could solve a lot of crime and problems if we just did home by home searches at random. If your innocent you have nothing to hide right? Strip search upon leaving the mall? If your innocent you have nothing to hide right? Random stops for drug and alcohol screens? If your innocent you have no problem with it right? How about presenting you ID papers upon entering or leaving any establishment or crossing city lines? If your innocent...? How about being able to be left alone? How about being able to pursue your life unmolested if you have committed no crimes? It's not a crime to be anti-social. Jul 01 06 12:10 pm Link Lazyi Photography wrote: "...an innocent person has nothing to hide..." Ah, the justification to end all justifications. If you don't have anything to hide, then why not provide your "papers" on demand? Why not let them search you? Why not let them listen in on your calls? Why not let them go through your bank records? Why not let them read your mail? Why not let them have a record of all the books you buy or check out from the library? Why not let them into your house for a quick check? Just make it easy for them because they just want to get through it and move on to the next guy, right? Jul 01 06 12:19 pm Link SKPhoto wrote: agree with all but the last..its not anti social....its called being free and independant....remember that ole land of the free and home of the brave thing???? i guess now its the land of oprah and montel and paranoid people who wouldnt know a terrorist if they handed them a business card from "WeBeTerrorist"....america has fallen from being a proud nation defending freedom of its citizens to one who is viewed across the globe as pathetic, terrified, paranoid wimps..... terrified of pissant terrorist with a cap gun and a bottle of skunk stink oil....i was on a shoot in the middle of absolutely nowhere....cows dont even want to live there....it was a hole in the wall with a population of maybe 6000.....and the local police had to "check me out" just in case i was a terrorist shooting a pic of an abandoned grain silo....ya never know when a suicide bomber might want to blow up billybobs dinette...........i just want to cry when i see how pathetic america has become....but we are all going to be "safe" arent we???????sooooo safe..........papers please!!! Jul 01 06 12:25 pm Link What I can't stand about the idea that "innocent people have nothinng to hide" is the implication that simply objecting to the harrassment may be construed as hiding something. How long before protest becomes probable cause? Jul 01 06 12:40 pm Link I was shooting in a park on Sunday, no nudity, but some sexy, leggy shots. The llama says, "Here come the cops." I turn around and there's a police car practically on top of us. It had come silently up one of the pedestrian paths. The cop who was driving says "What's going on here? Everything OK?" I say, "Yes, we're just taking pictures." The cop looks at me and says, "You kind of jumped when we came up." That was true. I say, "Yeah, you scared me. But we're just taking pictures." The cop looks at my gorgeous llama and smiled and says, "You're taking pictures of her, right? As long as she's not taking pictures of you. Not saying you're bad-looking, guy." I smile and say, "That's right, I'm taking pictures of her." "OK, enjoy the park," the cop says, and they roll on. Whew!  Jul 11 06 03:58 pm Link Somewhere in my files I have a newspaper report from more than 60 years ago about the San Francisco police raiding a whorehouse. The article goes on blah, blah, blah about the raid [and really funny] - part of which article details how the police had found a porn film being shown - but near the bottom of the article is an account of the preliminary court proceedings that notes that "the hearing had to be delayed because the police who weren't there [on the raid] hadn't seen the film yet" If I find it I'll post it. Studio36 Jul 12 06 04:10 am Link Yeah, the coppers are getting to be more of a pain all the time. About a year ago, I was in a public park taking some lifestyle shots of a model. Nothing provocative. Jeans and a top. Actually, very "senior" picture type stuff. Her boyfriend was there helping out. No big production...just 3 people in the park taking some pix. Well, all of a sudden, from behind me I hear this whiny, 'Welll hellooo folks...whaaatss happening heeeeere?" I turn around and it's a park district copper standing there with one hand on the butt of his trusty Glock and the other gripping his nightstick. I'm like, um...nothing is going on here. So then he demands that we stop what we're doing and that we stand in certain locations so that we could not look at one another. He demanded that I provide proof to him that I am a photographer (like having a camera wasn't enough). He wanted my EIN, a business card, business address etc. He then started pointing to vehicles in the parking lot, asking "Is that your vehicle?" To each, I responded "NO" and he tired of his game before pointing out my truck. So then he takes all of our ids and disappears to his squad for about 20 mins. Then he comes back and takes the model away for about 10 mins or so. Then he brings her back and says that we have to leave because there is no photography allowed in the park (despite the fact that the place was crawling with folks with pointy shooties.) By then my spirit for the shoot was killed so we got in our respective cars and left. He followed us for a couple of blocks in his car then did a u-turn back to the park. I met up with the couple a little later. The model, who was from out of state, said the cop tried to get her to make a statement that she was being held against her will and that we had kidnapped her. She wouldn't bite. Jul 12 06 06:21 am Link Westview Photographics wrote: DUH!!!! Jul 12 06 06:41 am Link Well if that doesn't make you think that every time you get twenny ques from a square badge or even a legit cop that these guys need a bash on the noggin with the models MUkit...  Jul 12 06 09:39 am Link |
