Safety while on a Photography Outing.....

[Soocom1]

I have had several run ins with "two legged" critters where a perssueder was brandished.
A Colt anaconda 6". (My backup)...

And have had to give off a couple of shots to one a rather clueless brown bear, and a filthy hungry coyote that thought he could get a nibble of human.
both took off when a 9mm went off. Luckily I have never had to take out anything.


As for the the armed aspect in the UK I know your two legged types can usually be placated with a pint. (its a joke.)

But in the US in the wild it is something that you MUST be fully aware of, especially in the west where the elk grow to 9 feet and during rut, don't give a whits backside if you are or are not another bull.

Then we still have the Breaking Bad wannabes with their hidden labs and no appreciation for photographic endeavours.

 

[Warhorse]

I'm kind of surprised that so many here carry, thought I was one of the rare ones.

 

[snowbear]

Only once, but it my have been nothing. Walking around a pond nearby, and shooting. Teen-ish male walks by, smiles and keeps going. I walked over a small bridge - probably 75 yards behind him. He stops, then turns back in my direction, and walks, but not quickly. I'm thinking it's odd, so I take a quick fake shot of something, then start back towards the car. Now, my walking pace is normally pretty fast, so I periodically act like I'm looking at something on the side of the path and glance behind me. He's not going any faster, but I realize the entrance to the pond area, closest to the car, is not where I am. Once I exit the pond / park, I turn towards the closest houses, and go up the cul de sac, to a house with a car in the driveway, ans stand at the end of the sidewalk going up to their door. Again, I half turn around and act as if I'm pixel peeping, while watching the entrance to the cul de sac. The person walks by, glances up towards me, but keeps going.

Now I go with someone else, or make sure I have the urban melee weapon tripod.

Maybe limit the comments on firearms to keep the thread from being locked. It happens.

 

[webestang64]

Safety while on a Photography Outing......I bring my friends with me......Smith and Wesson.

 

[smoke665]

@AlanKlein Liquid Fortitude has caused many a man and woman to temporarily lose every ounce of intelligence. The flip side of that is sometimes the best defense is a good offense brought on by that same liquid courage booster.

Maybe limit the comments on firearms to keep the thread from being locked. It happens.

Sadly you're probably right, though many of us feel that it's no different then discussing any other equipment we might carry.

 

[AlanKlein]

Isn't dragging another 4-5 pounds along with heavy camera equipment too much? I suppose that's OK if you live in cougar territory. But aside from animals, do you really feel threatened by people?

 

[SquarePeg]

I go out with my camera alone in the city all the time. I’m not afraid of people. My biggest concern is when I’m out taking landscape pics or hiking. I worry about falling/getting hurt when in a remote place or getting lost in the woods if I’m on an unfamiliar trail.

 

[AlanKlein]

I go out with my camera alone in the city all the time. I’m not afraid of people. My biggest concern is when I’m out taking landscape pics or hiking. I worry about falling/getting hurt when in a remote place or getting lost in the woods if I’m on an unfamiliar trail.

Get a small handheld GPS with an extra set of batteries. When you leave your car, you mark a setpoint into the GPS that stores your car's location (coordinates). The GPS will keep a "breadcrumb" track of your route so you can follow it back to your car. Don't depend on a cellphone for this. The battery could go dead and the cellphone is not as water resistant or drop proof. Plus signals might not work as easily on the phone as a dedicated GPS. I've used Garmin GPS's for 20 years and they're very reliable.

 

[JBPhotog]

I had a similar experience as @Derrel back in 1982. There was me and my F3 with MD-4 and 105 mm f2.5 out doing some photos in the downtown of a medium sized city. Two guys past me and one said "hmm, nice camera" as they both had a long look at me. I am a bit odd in that a neck strap is always wrapped around my hand so if I let go of it the camera it just hangs there. However it makes a great bludgeoning device should a haymaker hit its target. I think they saw in my eyes I was convinced I wouldn't make it easy for them and they moved on.

North of the 49th carrying any sort of personal protection, knife, sidearm, pepper spray etc. will get you a visit to the poky.


**I deleted the political statement - SquarePeg

 

[smoke665]

But aside from animals, do you really feel threatened by people?

I didn't until the last few months. From NYC June 2020. A New York man with 100 previous arrests is behind bars again after police said he randomly attacked a 92-year-old woman last week. He just attacked and kept walking. Or the case of a 28-year-old Sun Prairie, WI man was beaten and robbed by demonstrators after he inadvertently turned into their path as he was driving to the hospital to pickup his girlfriend. Or the July 4th shooting death of the little girl in Atlanta who was killed after gunmen opened fire on her mother’s SUV as she attempted to turn around in a parking lot. The list goes on of random attacks by bad people of all races.

 

[SquarePeg]

Please do not let this post become a political debate or it will be shut down. Fair warning. I'm deleting all political references. That discussion can be had freely in the Subscriber's forum as long as you keep it civil. Thank you for your cooperation.

 

[webestang64]

another 4-5 pounds

Empty my hand gun weighs 14.6 oz.

 

[480sparky]

another 4-5 pounds

Empty my hand gun weighs 14.6 oz.

Mine is 1lb 6.8oz........ with the holster.

 

[Overread]

I go out with my camera alone in the city all the time. I’m not afraid of people. My biggest concern is when I’m out taking landscape pics or hiking. I worry about falling/getting hurt when in a remote place or getting lost in the woods if I’m on an unfamiliar trail.

Get a small handheld GPS with an extra set of batteries. When you leave your car, you mark a setpoint into the GPS that stores your car's location (coordinates). The GPS will keep a "breadcrumb" track of your route so you can follow it back to your car. Don't depend on a cellphone for this. The battery could go dead and the cellphone is not as water resistant or drop proof. Plus signals might not work as easily on the phone as a dedicated GPS. I've used Garmin GPS's for 20 years and they're very reliable.

In addition to this idea you could also do what my sister has recently started using; a mobile phone tracking app that lets you add people to track your position on the phone. The idea is that if she or her BF are out riding alone and get bucked off/fall off/something happens then two things can happen:

1) People on her tracking list can see that she's not moved for a long time and can message/poke her and basically start the whole ball rolling on "Shouldn't she be back from riding etc..."

2) There's a rough (depending on reception) idea of what general area she's in if a search starts. The important thing here is that even if its just the general area, it tells other people where she is without her having to remember to do it in advance. This means that, long as she's got her phone on her, she can just go out for a ride on a whim and still have a degree of safe backup in place.


Now if you're more regularly further out in the woods I'd wager there must be some higher end GPS systems that allow a similar function for mobile phone reporting and tracking, whilst offering a greater amount of reception range than your typical mobile phone offers. There's also GPS systems that have built in emergency pings for, again, altering others that something has gone wrong and you need help.

These are all ideal options for someone who might be concerned about falling or injury whilst out in the wilderness; where time can be a critical factor in survival as can awareness of where a person is so that any search and rescue can focus its attention on the most likely area.

 

[pez]

Back around 1980 I was shooting some landscapes in downtown Atlanta one Sunday morning. Two guys walked up really fast and I was robbed at gunpoint... but they let me go (not common in today's world, I know). Other than that one photography related incident, there have been other situations, mostly related to work, when I have been threatened with weapons. I try hard to avoid these problems but I know there are no guarantees in life- which is why I practice defense and maintain a carry permit.