>William Robb> When Glenn stops posting, it will be because he has pissed off
>William Robb> the wrong people. I admire your ethics, I am not so sure about
>William Robb> your sense of self preservation.
While I am taking some precautions, it is possible that my
self preservation instinct is miscalibrated. There's a
certain amount of frustration pushing on the opposite side
from the self-preservation though. Yeah, I should think
this through.
>Bob Blakely> This is why (one reason) I listed a 1911A1 Colt .45 Government
>Bob Blakely> Model 70 Mk IV and 2 ea. 8 round clips in the "What Do You
>Bob Blakely> Carry" thread.
Yah, my sword isn't going to be useful at any real distance. :-(
(I do not own (or have training/experience with) any firearms yet.)
>Ken Waller> I'm not familiar with either lens, but for my money, I'd
>Ken Waller> definitely go with the 400. I can't imagine softness out
>Ken Waller> weighing the inreased magnification. The choice of film
>Ken Waller> would IMHO have more of an effect on softness. After you've
>Ken Waller> got the image you might be suprised what they can reveal in
>Ken Waller> Photoshop.
Ah! An answer to the technical question I asked -- thanks. Yeah,
I might well be surprised what someone skilled in that sort of thing
can reveal in Photoshop. I'm only a basic-level user of that, and
I know I only scratch the surface of what it can do.
>Shel Belinkoff> Use the 400mm lens on a tripod and you'll be fine ... until
>Shel Belinkoff> you have to testify in court. Then use a 9mm.
I'm really hoping to use these as "here are the people you want to
investigate if you decide to follow through" information for the
police, and had not thought about the possibility of my photos
being used in court. Hmm. Bleah.
Maybe tomorrow afternoon I'll set up the tripod and look from across
the street to see how visible it is. If it's easily seen, I'm in
trouble.
>Paul Jones> Just out of curiosity, where do you live?
Baltimore, Maryland, USA. West side of town (halfway between
the inner harbour and old-town Catonsville). If you know Baltimore,
I'm a few blocks west of the B&O Railroad Museum (and a block
north, 'cause I'm on Lombard and it's on Pratt).
Until a month or two ago, I described my neighbourhood as, "not
a good neighbourhood, but not as scary a place as it looks; the
_bad_ neighbourhoods being a few blocks away." Recent events
have left me feeling that it's gone down a couple notches and
is no longer a place I can try to reassure my friends about when
they think about coming to visit. I am not happy about this, and
I hope the publicized police plan to dramatically increase police
presence and visibility on the west side of town does some good.
>Mark Cassino> I think you should ask the cops to come over and shoot this
>Mark Cassino> with _their_ gear. They are better equipped if the drug
>Mark Cassino> lords decide to shoot back...
Not sure I could get police into my house without the neighbours
noticing and figuring something's up, but I'm sure they've got
their own ways of investigating local goings-on.
>Dan Scott> I admire your enthusiasm for doing the right thing. However, I'd
>Dan Scott> like to seriously suggest you contact the police before you go
>Dan Scott> any further with your plan. Please consider these points:
>
>Dan Scott> 1. a photo of someone handing money over to someone else is
>Dan Scott> simply a photo of someone "repaying a loan" (not prosecutable);
>Dan Scott> 2. even if the photo contains a baggie changing hands, baggies
>Dan Scott> are not against the law and baggies full of white stuff are
>Dan Scott> baggies of laundry soap,divinity, or coconut flakes until proven
>Dan Scott> otherwise;
True -- as I mentioned above, I'm thinking of these as aids to an
investigation, not courtroom evidence. And, if the area actually
gets cleaned up, reportage. I don't think I have the guts to
publish 'em while the subjects are still active though.
>Dan Scott> 3. you regularly lean out your apartment window taking photos
>Dan Scott> (remember, a sizeable portion of your photogear "wandered off"
>Dan Scott> not too long ago);
*nod* In fact, I was about to lean out my window to photograph
something innocuous that had caught my eye, but decided not to
make the camera visible when I saw funny business going on nearby.
Folks do know I have a camera, so if photos suddenly started showing
up in random places, they'd probably figure out who took them.
(I'm hoping I can trust the police not to make my life more interesting
than it has to be by letting the wrong people know about the photos.)
>Dan Scott> 4. quite frequently, the people who burglarize apartments and
>Dan Scott> homes in a neighborhood are also active buyers and sellers of
>Dan Scott> narcotics in that neighborhood;
Buyers I'd considered, but I hadn't thought that burglars might
also be dealers. Hmm.
>Dan Scott> 5. if you are seen by your subjects, they won't have any doubts
>Dan Scott> about why you were photographing them;
True. When I saw a dealer being even more conspicuous _behind_ my
house last week, I could not get a shot of him without his seeing
me doing so. I passed up what could have been a pretty artsy photo
of him reaching for his stash, for exactly that reason. I did not
want him to even _think_ I was photographing him.
This is why I was shooting from well back in the room, rather than
the easier angles from near the window.
>Dan Scott> 6. you don't have eyes in the back of your head.
>
>Dan Scott> By contacting the police first, you are still doing the right
>Dan Scott> thing. By letting the police decide if and how they want to
>Dan Scott> follow up on your information, you let them obtain the evidence
>Dan Scott> in a way that is most likely to be useable to them. Please
>Dan Scott> reconsider.
I called the police general non-emergency number first, and took
some photos while waiting for the police to send someone around.
On the phone, they suggested I contact the vice squad for my
precinct.
I am _not_ going to make this some sort of superhero, vigilante
crusade. I just want to give the police enough to make their
efforts more effective, and to document life in my part of town
with photos to hold onto until I feel safe showing them.
(First shot on that roll, by the way, is an Arabber (produce seller
using a horse-drawn cart) heading home at the end of a day.)
>Robert McGraw> Personally, I would use the camera mounted on a Celestron
>Robert McGraw> telescope . . . from three miles away.
:-)
>Chris Brogden> Sell them [the police] some prints, then sell the negs to
>Crhis Brogden> the dealers. :)
I like it! Except for not feeling safe having any contact with
the dealers...
>Bill D. Casselberry> Don't do it yourself, Glenn!
Folks, I thank you for your concern for my safety. I thought I
was being clever and cautious, but I'm going to think about it
some more. I don't harbour any illusions of being able to haul
the neighbourhood baddies to justice by myself, but I do want
to do what I can to convince the police that my block is one they
should spend time and other resources on cleaning up.
I live in a "depressed area", which therefore doesn't attract a
lot of attention from City Hall. Not a lot of wealthy taxpayers
right around here, after all. Certain public services are handled
kind of haphazardly out here, and some things that would get taken
care of immediately in the nicer parts of town are overlooked here.
I want something done.
Of course, according to my friend who owns this house, the only
way to get the city to do something is to get the _Baltimore_Sun_
to write an article about it first, but I'm hoping this recent
"West Side Initiative" will work in my favour. (The initiative
to step up police presence on the west side was, unsurprisingly,
announced after a string of television news stories about violent
events out thisaways.)
And I promise I'll give the safety issue more thought.
In the meantime, thanks also for the advice to go with the 400mm.
-- Glenn
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