Street (Violence!) Photography

krazyklown

When i was picking up the girlfriend last night we witnessed a fracas break out. I happened to have the aul 400D at arms reach and managed to get a few shots. However i was too afraid to be seen photographing so i was restricted to 'stealing' from my car window by just holding the camera without lining up the shot (thats why they are brutal).
I was just wondering has anyone been in a situation where they felt vunerable when taking a few shots? Especially with street photography, i would love to do it but i find it very intimidating and i hate the attention you can get when you are trying to get a good shot. How do you deal with going into a crowd and doing your thing?

BTW i uploaded the worst of the images because i dont want the people in them to be recognised albeit theres little chance of that. (if they are unsuitable or anything mods please remove)

mehfesto2

I saw two 'ladies' fighting on Dame Street last January. One of the women was swung by her hair onto the road. A young female photographer, who I imagined must have been shooting a gig, popped out of nowhere and started shooting them. With her flash and everything! A crowd had gathered by that stage and it really got a bit heated!

One of the girls took offence to this and tried to take a swing at the photographer, but that's when the police showed up. She had balls of steel, but I'm sure it paid off for her in the end!

Tactical

I wouldn't have been one bit afraid to get the action.

Personal safety must always come first, all the better if you have someone you trust to watch your back while you shoot the action.

Keeping the camera in arms reach is brilliant and well done for making the effort to take the shots and post them.

Having a fast long(ish) lens is one way of staying back a little from the action, unless the party are surrouned by a crowd, in which case it'd be difficult enough to safely shoot.

Oh yes, if you have equipment insurance all the better.....

Dodgykeeper

Couple of weeks a go was walking into Dalymount Park for the Bohs V Rovers Game and saw about 50 Guys walking in formation down the road before breaking into a run and attacking some other guys! Camera stayed firmly by my side!

Tactical

Now that I think of it, I was walking in London last year and I spotted a rather loud demonstration across from Downing Street that included a lot of people dressed in camouflage gear.

As I was walking towards them a group broke through the police cordon running. My first instinct was to raise the camera. I felt perfectly safe in doing so and reviewing the shots I seen hat there were women and childeren well in front of me. The crowd were actually well behaved and there appeared to be no mal-intent by the break away group.

I guess what I'm saying is that it really depends on how you feel and judge the mood of the situation and how confident you feel in raising the lens.

Pigwidgeon

me and my friends were driving home from the cinema the other night through bray at around 12 and there was four little 12 year olds absolutly killing another lad, with a girl trying to stop them. the car behind us stopped and broke it up i think, we were going to stop but what use would 4 teenage girls have been...
was quite a scary situation. didn't have my camera handy though!