Guy on the right was probably praying for my safety! They were actually doing some kind of oriental "dance" for lack of a better word. She was quite hostile when she came at me with the plastic sword. But, the evil eye through the glove worked I think. Happens to me all the time shooting in NYC.
p.12 #3 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
No big lenses here, but I've had questions of the type "does this camera do both film and digital" from an old film SLR user. Apparently she'd only seen compact digital cameras and didn't quite grasp the concept of a DSLR; she kept asking whether I had to load some kind of digital film.
I had read a post here by someone else who had apparently gotten similar questions, and I remember thinking to myself "get out of here" when I read that... guess it really does happen.
p.12 #4 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
All we have for "whites" at this point are a pair of 300/4 IS, a 400/5.6 and a 70-200/4 but the 500/4 IS is on the wish list so hoping for comments someday
p.12 #5 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
"They were actually doing some kind of oriental "dance" for lack of a better word."
probably a type of tai-chi. very slow, meditative martial art, not unlike yoga in some ways. Traditional Chinese do it every morning. One of the styles involves using a wooden or dull metal sword to strengthen the arms and shoulders.
p.12 #6 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
Walking thru customs in asia, I was asked if my 1Ds and 1D were still cameras or video camera's. Expecting the usual harassment typical of corrupt customs officials, I replied they were still camera's - like 35mm SLR's, and did not shoot video, the customs official looked thru the viewfinder, looked over the lenses I had in the bag, and then asked me to go right ahead thru the channels and was not charged customs duties or have to declare items in my bag worth just under $19k. In most cases, they usually take $100-$150 bribes even though I declare the items. This time, thanks to the fact the customs personnel did not see the difference between a digital SLR and a film camera, the level of harassment was less.
p.12 #7 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
rayross wrote:
I was shooting my grandaughters soccer game from the end of the field with a 300 2.8 and a mother came up to me and asked why I was taking photos of girls. I explained to her that I was photographing my grandaughter. Se walked away and sat next to my daughter. During the period break i walked over to my daughter and asked the woman if she had met my daughter.
Heh, I was at Wellesley's (an all girls college) graduation ceremony taking pictures of a few of my friends receiving their diplomas on stage when I realized I probably looked pretty shady with the 70-200
p.12 #8 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
I have been asked a miriad of questions while shooting with my 300 f/2.8L IS and 500 f/4L IS but recently I decided to use my 600 f/4L IS at a sporting event rather than its usual wildlife usage.
The looks were definitely interesting and then this one guy comes up and asked me. Do you work for the FBI or CIA?
You see my 600 has a camo cover on it. Not you usual look at a sporting event where white lenses are abundant.
p.12 #9 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
100-400mm IS Muscogee, Oklahoma: 2 girls come up and one says
"Are you a professional?"
"No"
"Wanna trade your gear with mine?" And smiles.
Once, I was at the State Fair Grounds in Oklahoma City. I had a Canon G3 (left my DSLR at home, since it was too conspicous) and saw someone with a Rebel - it was newly released around that time. Since he returned my smile, I asked him if he liked the Rebel and he told me briefly about what he liked and disliked. Right then, another guy and his friend came up - he had a Sony F828. He asked the guy with the Rebel
"How many Megapixels is that?"
"6"
"This one here is a 8"
Smiles, looks proudly at his friend and leaves, smirking. The Rebel guy and I look at each other and laugh.
Entering a baseball stadium to watch OSU vs some other team. The lady at the entrance asked me to open my bag. She said "Long lenses are not allowed inside." I had a Sigma 100-300mm f/4 at that time. She asked me how long it was and I said "300mm". She looked confused and asked
"How much zoom?"
"3 x"
"Thats alright then".
I didn't lie, see. 100-300=3x zoom, right? Anyway, the game sucked, so we left at half time.
p.12 #11 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
Speaking of retail, I work at Wolf Camera part-time and once a customer asked me to come over to the kiosk and said "I dropped my CD on my way in, is that why my photos are so blurry?"
p.12 #12 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
kalieaire wrote:
And people seem to hit on me more when I'm walking around w/ my camera. Girls seem to like grabbing my butt or something.
Nothing to do with the camera. Girls were grabbing/slapping my butt before I got into photography. Must just be the butt or who (whom?) it is attached to.
*sigh* just enjoy it while it lasts...
And my favorites this past holiday season with my relatives:
Brother in law: "Your flash didn't fire."
Me: "I didn't wan't it to"
Brother in law:"What?!"
Me: "See?" -shows LCD
Brother in law: "Wow..."
Sister's b/f looking at a pic taken with a 400/5.6: "How much zoom is that?" (actually the first time I've heard that)
Cousin looking at 5D/grip/70-200/550EX/LS2: "That thing is rediculously huge. How much was that?"
Me: "How much was your car?"
Cousin: "Really?"
Me: "Really."
p.12 #13 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
I've got nothing but nice reaction using this lense, the closest non nice reation i got are just the curious and confused look.
I had a shoot at a winter day, and a couple of people look at me and tell me how wonderful the snowing was, people would greet me. People on the 2nd floor of a house would ask me to take a picture of them as i was walking on the street. Then as i wondered around the street at night, people would ask me if i am lost, and offered their help. New year, drunken girl ask me to take picture of them... etc
The down side is that, 70-200 2.8L is too damn heavy to lugg around.
p.12 #14 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
the comments on the lenses are always the same. but what irks the hell out of me when they compare my 1d mark IIN with a point N shoot.
the one I get a lot which bothers me: Does it shoot video too? the looks on their faces when I tell them no, it just shoots pictures.
p.12 #16 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
I hardly use my 70-20mm F4 and its not really big, but it still has some advantages to shoot with a bigger than standard lens.
At the zoo, people tend to get out of my way and they even tolerated me sticking infront of a terrarium for 20 minutes with my Sigma 150mm macro mounted. I did get a nice shot of the reptile though Link to the pic
In Switzerland most people are quite reserved, so comments usually don't go beyond: "Did you get some nice pictures ?". Ocasionally a fellow photographer greets me with a wave of his his hand an i return the greeting. All very relaxed here...
p.12 #17 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
I don't have any big gear and I haven't really encountered any strangers asking me or commenting on my gear but the last two weekends were the first time my friends had seen my camera and I got a lot of things from them.
- The common "How much did that cost?" - I reply "How much did what cost? The body? The lens? The tripod? The bag? etc etc" They usually lose interest after the 5th thing listed. :P
- "Wow look at that lens"... refering to my 28-75 - I reply "Eh..."
- "Why is it so big?" - I reply "Didn't you know bigger was better?" :P or I actually get down to it and list everything that makes the camera bigger than P&S's and they just get lost and tell me to stop.
- "Damn, that's a nice camera" - I reply "There's nicer out there"
- "Is that digital?" - I reply "Does it look like I live in the '30s?" (film guys might not like that one :P )
- "Can you see that house from here?" pointing to house about a quater mile away - I reply "Sure... But so can you."
- "Why did you spend so much on that? Looks like a waste of money to me should have bought a smaller one" - I just put the camera on small jpeg and burst mode and click off 30 pictures at 5fps to shut them up.
Then I had a friend of a friend come up and ask "Wow, what Canon is that?" and I replied "20D". Then we struck up a conversation about photography. It may be just because I'm new at this, but it was a HUGE relief to be asked questions by people that actualy knew even the slightest bit about what I was saying back to them.
p.12 #18 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
foxbat wrote:
I'm set up at a beauty spot with 300D+17-40L on tripod with cable release when a lady and her boyfriend walk up and ask me to take a picture of them together. She hands me a Nikon D70 and starts to explain to me that it has autofocus and that I need to half-press etc... I shot her one of those looks...
Thats when you compose the picture at arms length and say that there is no picture on the screen.
p.12 #19 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
Agreed that it isn't necessarily the color of the lens, nor is it always telephotos. Large wide zooms will do it too sometimes.
Last weekend I was stopped by the side of a local trail shooting some mushrooms and moss; camera was on a tripod with a cable release and lens was 17-40 L with hood. A boy and his mother came down the narrow trail and as they passed the boy asked, "Are you a photographer?"
Oddly enough, I didn't really know how to answer that one! ("Well, duh!" didn't seem like it would be very polite.)
p.12 #20 · What Are Some Reactions You've Gotten When Shooting With A White Lens?
Some time ago I heard about a photographer who was been shoot and injured in Iraq by soldiers because they thought he was holding a rocket.Now that is a really bad reaction about big white lenses.
They were actually doing some kind of oriental "dance" for lack of a better word. She was quite hostile when she came at me with the plastic sword. But, the evil eye through the glove worked I think. Happens to me all the time shooting in NYC. 
Link to the