Last week I went to a rather secluded part of the city to take photos. It was a beautiful day and I was the only one in that area.

Just before sunset as I was taking photos suddenly i felt a sense of fear and dread, I felt chills running down my body and had to run and leave the area. lol

Now, I'm a pretty rational human being and I think there is an explanation for everything, but what happened to me there was scary and funny at the same time because I don't know why it happened... And I have never experienced anything like that before in my life.

So, has anything 'unusual' happened to you on one of your photography trips?

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Wali in Toronto

Sounds like the potential of an X-File for Scully and Moulder . Your intuition may have been kicking in and perhaps for good reason and you just didn't see it. I would trust your intuition.

Mel
Nikonian in Virginia
My Nikonians Gallery

Mel is spot on.

I am a career student of Gunsite and Blackwater. Something I often hear in class lecture is that people often become victims when they fail to listen to their internal alarm. They then try to rationalize their emotions and deny that something is not quite right. By then its usually too late.

As a resident of Los Angeles I get that in many parts of our fair city when the sun goes down.

6am the bad boys go to bed, wake up at 4pm, and hit the streets at dusk. Come to think of it, so do muscisians.

I grew up in Detroit so Im always in a state of situational awareness so, no I dont get that strange feelings. About the only thing that got me to jump was a Javelina or, wild pig here at a canyon I was hiking in. But then he was just a startled as I was. It was funny.

I shoot therefore, Iam.
http://joves.smugmug.com

I shoot a lot late at night. I was under a pier in the San Simeon State Park around 10:00pm. I'd walked in from the highway, as I'd been told earlier that day (when I was spocking out the pier) that the parking lot closed at 7pm.

I was in the middle of a 5 minute exposure, when a policeman shone a light on me from up on the pier. He said "you have to leave, you can't park here at night". I yelled back up at him, that's not me, I hiked in.
He spent a few minutes looking around and left.

I started to think, well whose car is it, and where are they? I've got to tell you, under piers late in the dark is NOT a friendly atmosphere at best. So.... I packed it up and went back to my campsite.

I set my alarm in my tent for 4:00, went back, feeling fairly safe at that time (figured the drunks and bad guys were asleep by then) and actually got some pretty neat shots before, and at dawn!

Carolyn

"No matter how slow the film, Spirit always stands still long enough for the
photographer it has chosen" Minor White

www.carolynguildphotography.com

I guess as a photographer one becomes intuitive by nature since its essential to concentrate, observe and look. sometimes one can even enter a zone or sorts - or hyperfocus when only the subject is of interest and nothing else.

The same intuitions can sometimes inform us if something is not right. I usually feel very comfortable shooting a street festival when there are a lot of people. I know there could be drunks and thieves around but the 'herd instinct' sort of puts me at ease. on the other hand when I'm in a secluded park in the city, or the beach when there are hardly anyone around i feel a little more tense. And worst of all, the shots always turn out unsatisfactory when one is not really relaxed and focused so its a tricky situation whether one should calm oneself and stick around or take some shots in a hurry and leave.

I guess fear is an enemy of the photographer, but how to deal with it is a complex problem.

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Wali in Toronto

Have to ask Wali,

As someone who lives just outside the TO area....What part of the city were you in?

Garrie

Dear Wali in Toronto,

You may have sensed the approach of a pixel-peeking Canon owner who was about to reproach you for purchase of a "noisy" Nikon.

This photographic equivalent of the "flasher" has been stalking me lately too, although he can flash nothing but his noise-free shots of the sky and has nothing else to offer while he gasps at the quality of my glossies taken with the D300.

Seriously, we ought to take these things - well - "seriously". Several times in my life I have been productively warned by irrational feelings. You never know. People ought not to make fun of this sort of thing ... within reason.

Best wishes,
JH (in Calgary and cranky at -30C)

>Dear Wali in Toronto,
>Seriously, we ought to take these things - well -
>"seriously". Several times in my life I have been
>productively warned by irrational feelings. You never know.
>People ought not to make fun of this sort of thing ... within
>reason.
Well, if it's -30C, you sure aren't going outside soon, So tell us your stories! Come on! I won't laugh!

I have shot in several places that are supposed to have ghosts, but I never had any "feelings"

Chris
Broussard, LA
http://www.eaglewheel.us/Photo%20Index.htm
My Nikonians Gallery

Robert Thurman wrote in an article about fear recently in Shambhala Sun, that there's nothing really wrong with fear; it's just that sometimes, we may be afraid of the wrong things.

Always trust your gut feelings. There'll be another picture out there, that's even better. Be there to take it.

- Chris

Hi Chris,

>>Well, if it's -30C, you sure aren't going outside soon, So tell us your stories! Come on! I won't laugh!

I am thick-skinned. Laugh all you like and I *do* go outside. We have been to LA and lived/worked in San Francisco for awhile. We have friends in Napa so visit there. You California softies have no idea how brutal it can be here for a couple months of winter. At -30C it is a weird sport to toss a glass of water up in the air. The water instantly freezes and the droplets explode from the stress of expansion, creating an ice cloud that drifts away. Exposed flesh will freeze solid within a couple of minutes.

In the summer/fall I would not be anywhere else. The temperature is perfect, it seldom rains, evenings are cool and the scenery is fantastic. I just wish the season lasted more than 2 or 3 months.

At this link you will find my efforts to "make the best of it" with some help from my wife. Despite the conditions we still go down to the beach every day (meaning a 1 hour brisk walk).

www.wolfwillow.com/Photo/Public/Beach_Weather.htm

I put this together for friends in Grand Cayman who probably will not believe it.

We are way off-topic here but as it is the Cafe so what. I you or anyone else manages a laugh that is my reward

Note: the "Lush Tropical Vegetation" is found in our livingroom.

Enjoy,

JH / Calgary / Alberta

>Hi Chris,
>You California
>softies have no idea how brutal it can be here for a couple
>months of winter.
It's worse than that, I live in Broussard, Louisiana. Not Los Angeles. I am a real cold weather softy all right. We stop riding our bicycles when the temperature goes below 50 degrees farenheight!
And we get an average of 57.5 inches of rain per year. With only 18 inches in the months of June, July and August. That's about half a meter for you guys. You can set your clock by the 1 o'clock thunderstorms in the summer.

Chris
Broussard, LA
http://www.eaglewheel.us/Photo%20Index.htm
My Nikonians Gallery