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03/23/2007 04:46:21 PM · #1 |
I work for a local university and this week is spring break. Yhe employees were given Thursday and Friday off. It just so happened that my wife received a mailing for a free night at the Borgata Hotel & Casino in Atlantic City, NJ for last night. We love the Borgata and it was free, so let's go. (the Borgata becomes important later in the story).
On our drive along US Route 40 through the "Garden State", we approached a large open field (which we came to figure out was a sod farm) that was cover with literally THOUSANDS of Snow Geese. I guess they were stopping for a rest on their migration north. So I found the next place that I could turn the car around and did so. As I approached the spot where i wanted to pull off, I told my wife, "Watch, they'll fly away as soon as I pull the car over." There were two other men on the side of the road. They were bird watchers. They had no camera's, but their big honkin' scopes on tripods. I pulled the car over jumped out, opened up the back, pulled out my camera bag & tripod bag, and started to mount my telephoto on the camera. Just then, a man pulls up on a little orange golf cart type vehicle and says...."Sorry to do this to you guys, but I gotta get those birds off my grass." Fair enough, it's his livelihood to grow nice grass. I figured that would take him a few minutes, so I'll get what I can when I can. But no time for a tripod. I get the teleconverter and telephoto on the camera, and hit the power switch. DEAD BATTERY. Grab the extra battery out of the bag. Excellent. I have power. Just then he starts spooking the birds. What a sight it was. THOUSANDS of white geese, taking flight. Noisy, too. Why is this this taking so long between shots? Oh yeah, it's set to RAW. I get off about 15 shots in a three minute period. The geese are all gone. That was fun. Even if I didn't get ant decent shots, it was an interesting experience. I've never seen so many birds in one place.
Time to repack the camera. OH CRAP! Yes, literally. One of those buggers did what geese alway seem to do. Right in my bag. In my haste, I had left it on the ground. Open. Luckily most of it hit the fabric. I kinda got lucky. I left the rear cap off of the lens I had pulled off the camera. They missed the glass. My 50mm 1.8 probably susstained the most direct hit, but that appears to be mostly on the cheap fold up lens hood, so nothing on any glass or movable parts. One of the bird watcher guys had a roll of toilet paper in his car (??????). Thanks Mr. Bird Watcher Guy.
Off to the Borgata. One of this week's challenges is "Spinning". Cool. We've statyed at the Borgata about 4 or 5 time and we always get a room on the back side of the hotel, overlooking a marsh. In the marsh are several large electricity generating wind mills. I'll set up the tripod at the windows and do soom long exposures to get the wind mill rotors spinning. We get our room key. Of course, on our room is on the front of the building this time. No view of the wind mills. "Okay", I say, "I'll go to the top level of the parking garage as the sun starts going down." So later on, I leave Donna in the casino, go back to our room on the 22nd floor, get my camera & tripod, go back to the lobby to the garage elevator and head up to the roof. I hike all the way over to the far corner of the lot. I pull out my camera, take a test shot. Wrong lens. Swap lenses. take a test shot. Need my ND filters to get a longer exposure. Up pulls a security chick. "Do you work here sir?" "No." "You can't take pictures here. They saw you on the security video." "Okay, great. Do you need me to delete my pictures?" "Yes please. We don't really think you are a terrorist. You just can't take pictures here." "Thank you. I didn't realize." I only had to delete two pictures. I think I spent less time on the roof than I did with the geese. So there won't be any photos of the Atlantic City wind mills from me in this week's challenge.
Message edited by author 2007-03-23 16:47:59.
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03/23/2007 05:31:19 PM · #2 |
| Very nice of you to delete the pics - I don't think I would have! |
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03/23/2007 05:34:40 PM · #3 |
| Take pictures out of your room. *g* |
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03/23/2007 05:41:16 PM · #4 |
Originally posted by NathanW:
Take pictures out of your room. *g* |
He said his room wasn't facing the windmills.
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03/23/2007 06:02:14 PM · #5 |
I'd ask for a different room (say the next door people are too noisey) or buddy up to the people across the hall if they seem nice.
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03/23/2007 06:05:39 PM · #6 |
| You offered to delete them? I don't think I would even have acknowledged the guard at first. Certainly wouldn't have moved along so easily much less offered to delete photos I'd taken. |
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03/23/2007 06:14:29 PM · #7 |
When I was kicked out of a cemetary a couple weeks ago, I saw the guard coming and immediately knew what I was in for, so I put on a big smile and greeted him first. I think that went a long way. He didn't ask me to delete my photos and I didn't offer. I wouldn't ever ignore someone who looked like they were coming for me, even if all I did was smile and wave in the hopes they are merely passing by.
Message edited by author 2007-03-23 18:15:30.
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03/23/2007 06:17:41 PM · #8 |
| Why did they kick you out? |
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03/23/2007 07:28:21 PM · #9 |
Originally posted by Rebecca:
When I was kicked out of a cemetary a couple weeks ago, I saw the guard coming and immediately knew what I was in for, so I put on a big smile and greeted him first. I think that went a long way. He didn't ask me to delete my photos and I didn't offer. I wouldn't ever ignore someone who looked like they were coming for me, even if all I did was smile and wave in the hopes they are merely passing by. |
Why would they ask you to leave a cemetery unless it was time to lock the gate. I've never heard of this before. You didn't have a can of spray paint in your pocket did you ;) LOL |
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03/23/2007 08:37:09 PM · #10 |
Originally posted by PhantomEWO:
Originally posted by Rebecca:
When I was kicked out of a cemetary a couple weeks ago, I saw the guard coming and immediately knew what I was in for, so I put on a big smile and greeted him first. I think that went a long way. He didn't ask me to delete my photos and I didn't offer. I wouldn't ever ignore someone who looked like they were coming for me, even if all I did was smile and wave in the hopes they are merely passing by. |
Why would they ask you to leave a cemetery unless it was time to lock the gate. I've never heard of this before. You didn't have a can of spray paint in your pocket did you ;) LOL |
Apparently, because it was a Jewish cemetary, and I gathered from the confrontation that they see it as trespassing upon private property. Each plot is privately owned, after all. lots of tiny pieces of real estate considered to be private property. Yeah, I'd never heard of it either, but I respected it and he pointed out that the older section across the street was fair game since it was a historic landmark - just not the newer portion.
Message edited by author 2007-03-23 20:37:48.
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03/23/2007 08:38:26 PM · #11 |
Originally posted by TechnoShroom:
You offered to delete them? I don't think I would even have acknowledged the guard at first. Certainly wouldn't have moved along so easily much less offered to delete photos I'd taken. |
He was on private property.. they have every right to forbid a person from photographing *on* their property. Working with security in this instance is a good thing. (Although I wouldn't have offered to delete photos, I'd delete them if asked). The last thing we need as photographers are people that put up a fuss or break rules when they are enforceable. We have enough problems being told not to do something when we have every right to do so, that going around creating more problems by doing what we don't have a right to do doesn't help anyone. |
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03/23/2007 08:47:51 PM · #12 |
| This story would be much more interesting if you told him you had a bomb and would blow up the hotel if you couldn't take pictures of those windmills. :P |
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03/23/2007 10:00:06 PM · #13 |
| I was watched by a law enforcement official the other day. I took my shots. He watched. I started picking up some trash around what I was shooting. He left. I took more pictures. :) |
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03/25/2007 09:03:56 PM · #14 |
Originally posted by KarenNfld:
Originally posted by NathanW:
Take pictures out of your room. *g* |
He said his room wasn't facing the windmills. |
True, but he wouldn't have gotten bothered. *g* |
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