Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
As you know, my gear was stolen in broad daylight as the camera was rolling two weeks ago in a public San Francisco park.
Another photographer got hit this week near San Francisco and way worse than I did. He was parked near Battery Spencer Park in Sausalito, in the Marin Headlands, which offers one of the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge, and thieves bashed in his SUV windows and fled with multiple cameras, computers, hard drives, and more.
Call this a Stand-up Robbery.
But at least there was no gunplay.
This week I was in San Francisco, one of the most beautiful cities in the world, on a video shoot, in Crissy Field, one of the premier spots in town, at the foot of the majestic Golden Gate Bridge.
Thursday I was doing what they call in the trade a “stand-up,” at around 5:30 p.m. Tripod extended, camera mounted, microphones plugged in, and there I was, talking directly to the camera about great places in San Francisco for the best photography.
That’s when this young teen came running towards me, faster than you can imagine, with a giant grin on his face. He somehow was able to grab the entire tripod and camera operation, and shove it within seconds into the getaway car, a blue Honda.
One night two years ago, someone stole $10,000 of my camera equipment. Just recently, I found one of my more iconic lenses — a pink Handevision 40mm f/0.85 Mark II — for sale online. The police are slow to respond, and eBay won’t help until law enforcement is involved.
My name is Nathan Cowlishaw, but my business and brand as a professional tour guide are Nathan Arizona, LLC, and Talking Tree Photo. I’m a professional Southwestern Interpretive Tour Guide of 17 years, a landscape photographer, and an avid traveler of the American Desert Southwest. I run a small Instagram account where I post recent images of some of these travels.
On December 31st, 2019 — New Year’s Eve — I was just wrapping up a commercial tour I had conducted to Antelope Canyon, in Page, Arizona — which is one of the most popular photography destinations in Arizona on the Navajo Nation — when I went into the office to clock out for the evening and head home. As a creature of habit, I never leave my expensive gear in my vehicle and it was routine to take it into work.
That night though, for some strange reason I can’t explain and still regret, I left my camera gear in my Jeep Cherokee 4×4 on the front seat of the passenger side just long enough to clock out. In that short time frame, someone came along, smashed the window of my SUV, and stole $10,000 in camera equipment.
It’s the kind of cruel irony you see in a scene from a movie or a TV show or something. Don Ford, a reporter for KPIX 5 News was shooting a story on the rise of robberies in San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighbourhood since certain roads were closed off due to the pandemic. These roads had previously led to tourist attractions, but with local thieves’ main targets no longer visiting that area, they’ve restored to robbing the people that live there instead.
Ford was interviewing nearby homeowners about the robbers when a “white luxury sedan” vehicle pulled up outside one of the homes, three men stepped out, with a fourth remaining in the vehicle, and robbed Ford at gunpoint, proclaiming “we’re taking the camera”.
Only a day after two photographers got robbed while stuck in traffic, another incident happened in California. While two men were doing a photoshoot in a San Diego park, six people tried to steal their gear. When the duo fought back, the thieves shot one man and hurt the other.
Along with online shopping getting more popular than ever, it seems that online scammers are also getting more widespread. Photographer Scott Kelby nearly had his $1,450 Canon EOS-R stolen due to an online scam. So, he shared his story as a cautionary tale to help you avoid these kinds of frauds.
It’s every photographer and filmmaker’s worst nightmare. You pop your bag full of gear down on the ground, turn around for a moment, turn back and it’s gone. Just missing. Well, that’s exactly what happened to YouTuber and filmmaker Chris Hau. On Friday the 13th, of all days.
While out on a shoot, he had his bag stolen from right behind him containing his Sony A7S III, 16-35mm f/2.8 GM, 24-70mm f/2.8 GM, 24mm f/1.4 GM and Zeiss 50mm f/1.4 lenses along with a bunch of other accessories with a total value of a little over $17,000.
It happens that gear theft gets caught on security cameras. But a very weird footage was captured at an anti-racism rally in Toronto this Sunday. A thief was caught on camera while stealing a backpack full of camera gear – and it was all filmed by the gear’s very owner.
National Geographic Photographer and speaker Joel Sartore recently had his luggage stolen at an airport in Bali. He’d spent three weeks photographing some of the world’s rarest animals, And sadly, among other things, his stolen bag contained hard drives with all photos from the trip.
Here is a video pushing my faith in humanity just a bit int he wrong direction. Greek photography site, PTTL, shared a story and a video showing a person borrowing a Sony camera and a lens from the photographer’s bag.
You can find out more about John on his website and follow his adventures on YouTube.
His videos have over a hundred million views, have been extensively published by news outlets, and has even received recognition from a few film festivals, such as International Ocean Festival
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