How many of us have these?

[tedwhite]

One day last week I was in my favorite sidewalk cafe, sitting at a table with eight friends - the usual morning kafeklatch - when a group of tourists at the next table asked one of us (not me) if she would take a picture of them with their camera.

Immediately all my friends pointed at me and said, "He's a professional photographer."

The tourists handed me their camera. It was the worst piece of crap point-and-shoot film camera I'd ever seen. I don't recall being able to find a name on it. Because they didn't look poor, in fact rather well-heeled, I was tempted to hand it back and say, "Surely you can do better than this."

But I'm a meek, mild-mannered sort of guy, so I said nothing and took their picture(s). Not without difficulty, as it was a supreme challenge to see anything through the viewfinder.

I believe, truly, that they would have been better off with one of those single-use cameras.

 

[Morca007]

Ah, yes. I enjoy seeing what people bring me back when I give them the camera, normally I'll just sit on the images unless they ask for them back.

Unfortunately, sometimes they don't ask.
A friend of mine swiped my S1 pro one day, deciding to go for a little stroll with it. Needless to say, I wasn't happy.

And, of course, when I got it back, I had a CF card full of silly pictures.
They're still on my hard drive.

 

[MelanieC]

None of my friends nor family know how to focus my film cameras, so I never ask them to take a photo but sometimes someone will insist, and then I end up with a photo that looks like this:

Of course, I kind of think this photo is better because it isn't focused on me and my brother. In addition to the focus problems, the exposure's terrible of course, but I'm still glad I have it.

 

[sepiareverb]

Wow Melanie that's a keeper! do you know Dr. Evil there in the background?

 

[pcfranchina]

Whats the best way to turn your RF or manual SLR into a P&S camera just for this reason?

 

[rbiemer]

Whats the best way to turn your RF or manual SLR into a P&S camera just for this reason?

If there's enough light, hyperfocal distance? Of, if the person you give the camera to is close enough, set speed, aperture, and focus on them first. Then just hand 'em the camera and let 'em frame and shoot?
Lovely tales and photos, folks!
Rob

 

[shadowfox]

Whats the best way to turn your RF or manual SLR into a P&S camera just for this reason?

This must be why they invented scale-focusing

 

[DavidH]

Of course, I kind of think this photo is better because it isn't focused on me and my brother. In addition to the focus problems, the exposure's terrible of course, but I'm still glad I have it.

That's great! What a superb shot! Brought a smile to my face...

 

[Welsh_Italian]

I visited my fiancee a few weeks ago and took my Fed 4 camera (and boy did she laugh when I first got it out!) and spent the time happily clicking away. But curiosity overcame her one day and she snapped a picture of me ("let's see how you like it!" she said!) having never used a rangefinder camera ever before - and it was perfectly in focus, exposure and framing! That lady's got talent.

But the best thing was that when she saw the pictures, she saw lots of lovely bokeh that made her clearly stand out as the subject of the photograph. "You take professional pictures. You made me look like a model!" she told me one day and asked me the secret.

So next time I visit, I'll teach her about depth of field and good glass...

 

[photophorous]

So Photophorus you've heard "I thought you were a photographer?" too?

No, nobody has actually said anything that rude. They just give me funny looks and you can see the dissapointment in their faces. Good times.

 

[Silva Lining]

I always ask my wife to take a shot or two if I am somewhere on holiday, just to prove I was there - she is not interested in photography one bit, but is actually quite a good photographer. I usually prefocus and set exposure on my M3 and say 'stand where I'm standing an press here' - I put pretty vanilla settings overcome and varience and have always got good pics. Occasionally she'll pick up my EOS20d and take some shots of our son, which are a nice surprise to find on the memory card

 

[mjflory]

On a big trip last summer I took my CL with 3 lenses and a tiny Sony digicam, a DSC-T5. While no one wanted to borrow the CL, everyone was fascinated by the digicam. My wife took it with her on days when I was stuck in meetings (this was a working vacation) and a colleague borrowed it for a couple of days. (They both took wonderful pictures with it, and four of my colleagues bought little Sony digicams after they saw mine!)

When we got back home we made CDs with all the digital pictures and movies we'd taken and exchanged them all around. It was alternately fun and mortifying to see some of the pictures my colleagues took of me when I wasn't looking.

Here's a fine picture of my bald spot by my dear colleague Sonia Ragir.

 

[haagen_dazs]

in touristy places, be on guard.
there are cases where you hand the camera to someone, turn, walk just 3 or 4 steps to the location where you want to pose,...
turn back and the guy and the cam are GONE..

 

[amateriat]

One of my favorite pastimes is grabbing someone elses unattended camera and making self portraits- weddings are great for this- they're out dancing- I grab and make one quick shot, replace the camera. Years ago it was often months later when they'd say "who the hell is this guy??" I suppose nowadays I'm just deleted the next morning...

I love this...too funny!

I'm usually reluctant to hand over the camera to just anybody...but there are exceptions.

(He knows his way around Leicas, and like-a-Leicas. His wife, Anne Jackson, took the snap)


- Barrett

 

[MelanieC]

Wow Melanie that's a keeper! do you know Dr. Evil there in the background?

Oh yeah, that's our bud Shrop.

I've given up trying to get these to come out right because even if I focus it for them they invariably move.

My mother does know how to use the M3 (it was our family camera) and would be capable of taking photos of me with it, but doesn't want the hassle and would rather use my Olympus Stylus Epic that she has kidnapped from me.