Well it was bound to happen. A couple of new experiences for me and my GX-10: run-ins with nice wet weather and nice law enforcement. Yeehaw!
I got my camera pretty wet after a very recent snow here in Chicago. I "knew" in my head that the camera would be fine, but I still had the old worries as I watched big fat flakes land on my camera. When I got to my train I looked down and watched as the snow melted into all the nooks and crannies on the top and back of the body. (I kept it pointed down since the lens is not sealed) I even took a couple of pics with my poor quality Razr camera phone:
Eh, nothing happened. I got a paper towel and mopped up the biggest spills. Ignored the rest. Everything was just fine. Of course.
The next day I ran into the law. Walking into the train station with my camera on, I was looking around for interesting things to take pictures of. Saw some icicles hanging on the train, especially a couple hanging on the underside of the train. Then I took one of a switch inside the door and sat down. 2 minutes later this very stern and vaguely frightened man comes up to me asking me if I was taking pictures of the train and why. I started to explain but then he asked me to the vestibule to talk about it. I saw where this was going but I went along, stepped through the door and met 2 police officers, 2 conductors and the man who turns out to be the train master. "Uh, hi guys!"
I get grilled about who I am, why am I taking pictures of train equipment, am I from around here, am I from out of the country, what am I going to do with these pictures, etc. etc. ("I'm an amateur photographer.... just practicing with my new camera..... taking pictures of things that catch my eye...") I even heard the train master at one point say that someone on the phone he was talking to recommended that I delete all of the images from the camera. One of the cops looked at him and said "You can't do that". (at least someone was calm other than me!) The other cop "accused" me of being a "rail fan", not that there is anything wrong with that. ("Uh no more so than anything else, officer")
After a few minutes of this and looking at my drivers license and the images on the camera (which conveniently included a picture of my newborn son) they explained why they did what they did ("the way things are nowadays"), apologized (sort-of) and told me to tell someone official next time I want to take pictures of a train or anything around a train. Nervous train master-guy even shook my hand on his way out.
I stayed calm throughout, was happy to explain things, showed images, smiled (it was actually hard not to smile/laugh observing all of the bluster and attitude of one of the questioning officers). Being polite is certainly the way to diffuse nervous people. I was tempted to ask if I could take a group picture of them all when it was over, but thought that would be pushing my luck.
All-in-all an amusing- if somewhat disturbing- encounter. I wonder when or IF we will ever move past our current climate of fear and distrust in the US.
The most troubling thing in it all was that the icicle pictures were all too blurry (even with the SR turned on) to keep! It was really dark so I knew it was a crap shoot. Oh well, still learning!
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John