Have any of you had this situation happen to you? You are in a scenic area with other people who are using mostly point and shoot cameras and you set up for a shot with tripod etc. Next thing you know, there is someone standing in front of you to copy what you have set up to shoot. Most of the time they just stand behind me to copy what I'm doing and that only bothers me a little. Photographers should be independent, not followers. If shooters are not creative and just copy other's work, it would be hard to call them photographers.

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), January 12, 2002

Answers

Tony, thanks for the hilarious response! You're right, I don't photograph in areas with many people very often. The annoying behavior was at Yosemite National Park and I figured that mid winter would cut the tourist numbers down somewhat. Well, it did, but not enough to stop the copycating. The tropics are so nice to shoot.

-- Steve Rasmussen (srasmuss@flash.net), January 13, 2002.

Steve,

This is a common phenomenon worldwide. If you have not experienced it much before it is probably because you spend your time photographing in exotic or wild places! I cannot offer you a solution.

My most astonishing experience in this respect was in Europe a couple of years ago where I had carefully set up a sunset cover shot from the bottom of a motorway embankment. Although only 20 yards from this busy freeway during rush hour, I had had to lug the P67, tele lens and heavy tripod about half a mile to the position. I had been waiting (not at the location!) for 2 years for the exact lighting and cloud formation that I wanted at that spot. All was perfect and I stared to shoot an entire roll of film.

Suddenly, as I was on about frame 2, there was a screetch of brakes from the freeway and two people jumped over the barrier, leaving the car doors open and engine running during the rush hour on one of the busiest roads in Europe. They charged down the embankment and took up position on either side of me, each with a point and shoot camera. For a few seconds until I saw the cameras, I thought it might be more shoot than point.

Anyhow my photos were fine and I notice, thinking of another current thread, that they were on that much criticized competitor to Velvia. It was a free sample, all I had with me, and I have never used it since. The photos are very good, perhaps I should buy some and try again!

In cental China I have had as many as 20 (friendly and interested) people around me when using the P67. The only time I have ever taken any action was at a botanical gardens in Montreal. I had gone very early on a weekend morning and after about an hour completely alone I found myself being followed (hunted actually) by a group on one specific nationality. I had done what I wanted to anyhow, so I spent an interesting half hour by turning my camera on them. It was highly entertaining for a while.

-- Tony Cunningham (cmserv@wxs.nl), January 13, 2002.

Last spring Jerry Spence wrote an article in “View Camera” that noted this behavior, he was writing about the Tetons and wrote,”…those majestic mountains that proudly withstand the cruel assault of tens of millions of snapshots each year,” and “ … the next moment some passer-by will haul out his throw-away and mercilessly, without investment in the mountains, attack with it.”

So, yes I’ve encountered copycat/me too point and shooters, but only near popular locations.. Usually all it takes to get the copycats to move on is to talk shop, watch them panic, then get away from the “know it all.” The only thing that, will sometimes, “bug” me is when I hear “he has one of those cameras that take good pictures.” The only time this has not worked was this past fall in S.W. Colorado in one of the old mining ghost towns. A woman followed me all over the site while I looked for compositions and while she tried to stay out my way I could tell she was not going to go away. I asked if there was something I could help her with and of course there was, she respectfully asked what I was looking for and why. Rather than over react I treated it like a genuine question, told her what I hoped to convey and how I wanted to accomplish it. Strangely, her eyes did not glaze over and instead of point and shooting she took the time to ask, learn, then do. So, lady where ever you may be I hope you got some shots you are proud of and on that September day photography got another convert.

-- Arden Sampsel (marmutz@earthlink.net), January 13, 2002.

Now I'm pissed! No one EVER follows me around. If I never knew where I stood before.......

-- Patrick Drennon (sierraengineering@att.net), January 13, 2002.

I had a similar experience recently on a bus tour of Ireland. I had my hasselblad with me and when ever I would head off to get a different angle, several people with their P&S' followed. I guess they thought because I had a "professional" camera, that I knew what I was doing, which often times is not true at all!

-- Gene Crumpler (hassieguy@att.net), January 14, 2002.

It gets really annoying when all the (useless) p&s flash mess your 30+ seconds exposure...

-- Colin Barschel (colin@barschel.com), January 14, 2002.

This story is once removed from the theme here, but I think it still applies, as I think it “traces” the same sort of thought. While in South America, I stopped in Arica, Chile on several occasions. It is a beautiful beach town, surrounded my huge sand cliffs. On at least two stops there, I found Chilean photographers actually taking pictures of postcards (yes, set the postcard on something, and take a picture of the picture on it!). On one occasion, I asked a friend to ask the guys what, exactly, they were doing. My Spanish is rather limited and I didn’t want anything lost in translation; my friend was a native speaker. The guys (some of the many parque central photographers all Latin American cities have), were taking pictures of a postcard/photo of the famous Eiffel-designed Church in Arica. Well, if you looked about 60 meters over his left shoulder, you would see the Church itself. The conversation between my friend and the photographers seemed like something out of the movie, “This is Spinal Tap”. When asked what they were doing they replied, quite seriously, capturing a postcard photo. When asked why they didn’t just take a first generation photo of the Church instead of making a second or third generation pic by using the postcard, they seemed dumbfounded, and while staring at me like I was from another planet, responded: “Because this is a postcard photo”. The conversation, as dumb as it was, went on for a few minutes, in this same vein. Their assumption, I guess, was that a copy of a pic a “pro” had taken was in some way superior to one they would take. It seems preposterous, but it was the only explanation I could come up with, based on what they said. Needless to say, there is not a lot of copyright enforcement South of Texas (on the Chilean island Chiloe, I found a guy selling photocopies of another author’s book, right outside the author’s book store!). I guess if most all the electronics sold on the street are going to be “Soni”, “Sunny”, “Somy”, etc., (instead of Sony), there might as well be someone selling photos of postcards.

-- Michael Tolan (mjtolan@kbjrmail.com), January 15, 2002.

Steve: Sympathize with your complaint, but consider that 1) Your personal vision can not be duped, esp. w/point and shoot 2)Your powers of concentration, focus, and expertise should soon dissolve any annoying distractions and perhaps most importantly 3)We as serious photographers are continually excluding unwanted elements in our compostions. Consider them as merely harmless ground clutter!

-- (msmith@fayar.net), January 24, 2002.