Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2009/12/13
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]This terrorism lark has made the world paranoid. I was in Bologna, Italy in Nov 08 and had the Rolleiflex and flash with me when we were all (camera club) heading back from dinner to our hotel for a post prandial drink. I spotted a couple of security men walking up the (public) street and one had a fag in his mouth. I whipped up the camera and took the shot and he went ballistic. Luckily I was with three others at the time as it got nasty. He wanted to arrest me when I refused to give the film and there was a lot of shouting in Italian and a lot of counter shouting from me in English. We waited around on the street for 10 mins for the police, and eventually, fed up, I stumped off to my hotel telling him to follow me and if he wanted he could bring the police there. It helped that he was about 4 inches shorter than me!! We went into the bar and just had a drink in front of us when the police arrived. Suffice to say, I wasn't arrested and kept the film <grin> The police were amused about the whole episode and were quite disparaging about the little complainer. When I was in Frankfurt last weekend, I went off on my own to go up the 200 metre high Main Tower with its viewing platform over the city. Security is very tight and it's like going onto an aircraft. A lady searched my gear at the entrance before I went through the detector and up in the lift. Having shown her the Rolleiflex in my bag, I forgot I had the little plastic Olympus SP320 in my coat. She looked at me queryingly & said "Camera...?" in a doubting tone. I quickly took this shot, showed her it, and said it was indeed a camera. I suppose most people in this world only carry one camera..... Here's the shot. http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/DouglasBray/Frankfurt/frankf13.jpg.html Douglas _________ Douglas Barry Bray, Co. Wicklow Republic of Ireland