Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/04/05
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It is true that street photography is becoming more difficult, at least
here in New York
City. A few years ago I was out shooting general street scenes (documenting
the changes
in the Times Square area since the late 70's) when I noticed a young "street
kid" (about 10 or
11) flag down a police car. The car stopped and I saw the kid talking to the
cops while
turning and pointing to me. . .I walked over and the kid was yelling that I
had been taking
pictures of him. . .The police drove off. (. . .the kid wasn't even in the
print!)
For a short period, I tried shooting with a N*8008 with a 24mm lens
hanging from my
neck. An electronic release went from the camera, through my belt and into
my pocket.
I also put a hotshoe-mounted level (Hamma?) on the camera so I could glance
down and
assure that the camera was horizontally level. The motor noise, while
audible, was not too
noticable in a busy street environment. The system worked very well, but I
soon
abandoned it (too easy and mechanical - might as well walk around with a
35mm movie
camera loaded with tri-X and shooting 24 frames per second!) and went back
to my
Leica M's. While getting good people shots was more difficult this way, the
ones I did
get were more rewarding.
Ironically, I have found that I don't like it when I see a tourist
pointing a video camera at me !!