Throughout the planning for this assignment I have had in mind the need to approach it carefully and avoid as much as possible attracting unwanted attention. Today I got out for a further shoot (on which more anon) and had an example of just the sort of thing that I am wary of.
Having decided after the first foray to drop the war memorial and look at some alternative additional sites, I decided today to include the recently revamped “Village Store” (not to be confused with the local Spar). Rather than my Leica, this time I used my old Canon with a zoom lens and mounted it on a tripod. Although I was on the opposite side of the road, as soon as I set up the shopkeeper came straight out and ran across the road to ask why I was taking pictures of his shop. He was not at all unpleasant or challenging but he was clearly anxious. Once I explained what I was doing he was fine and said that he was worried that his landlord had decided to sell the shop and had not told him. Not quite the sort of response that I was expecting. He then went back to the shop looking relieved.
When I go back to shoot with the film camera, which will be even more conspicuous, I think it would be sensible to go into the shop first and tell him what I am doing, if only to keep him calm.
It never ceases to amaze me that most people today do not seem to bat an eyelid if you take pictures on a phone but react when you use a proper camera. At one end of the spectrum I have attracted friendly curiosity, particularly when using my old film Leica, through nervousness, as today, suspicion, to outright hostility. In the latter case I have learned simply to walk away and avoid any confrontation. With luck, when I get out again with the 4×5 it will be curiosity rather than anything else that is generated. I do not doubt that the sight of a large format camera on a tripod and my head underneath the focusing cloth is going to raise some eyebrows!
Mark Robinson's OCA Landscape, Place & Environment Blog 