Reenactors and Cameras

[brindle]

I know on the Shiloh page they say they are not "hard core" but they also specifically forbid modern things where the public can see them. If we want battle scenes, esp. of a particular solldier in that battle, could we do that during the non-spectator events? And be really sneaky around camp? I don't want to be lugging around an obvious anachronism, and I will sew a pocket on apron or have a purse to carry it in. But I know I want pictures of myself in period dress, so I can see wanting to have those.

What do you do? Advice welcome!

[reddcorp]

Be discrete, very discrete. For some of us reenactors, the non-spectator battles are our way of really getting back in time and nothing spoils the moment more that somebody openly and obviously taking photographs. You may be preserving a moment for yourself, but you've killed it for others. Just saying.

Andy Redd

[hanktrent]

What do you do?

If I want pictures of myself in period clothes, I have someone take them before or after the event. If I want them during the event and there are modern spectators, I invite somebody I know to come as a spectator in modern clothes and take them. If there are no modern spectators, that's a wonderful opportunity to try to increase the accuracy of one's experience, rather than lower it.

But that's what I do. Other reenactors just pull out a modern camera and snap away, maybe even asking other reenactors to pose. If that's within the rules of the event, then you're well within your rights to do that.

Hank Trent
hanktrent@gmail.com

[Spinster]

It's like this.

Everybody's Special.

Everybody thinks they are being discreet. It's a camera and you have it up to your face, or waving it about in the air. Covering it with an apron makes it look like you have an apron wrapped around a camera in your hand.

This is just as ludicrous as when I got stuck with the EMS contact radio and had to direct traffic. Yes, I ran the box and wire down the back of my dress, hung the mouthpiece over my ear and covered the whole mess with a slat bonnet. I still crackled and talked to folks who were not there. Yeah, I was Special and had a job to do--I was also Stupid Looking.

Youll see others doing the same thing with cameras, thinking that they are Special Too. It's likely nobody will say anything to them, but folks will be annoyed, and they may be the very ones who won't invite you to an event you'd like to go to.

There will be a number of fine wetplate image makers on site, ready to take your image and hand you a nice period piece for a reasonable fee. There will be spectators with lenses in your face. If you hand them a card with your email on it, I bet they will send you one. There will be videographers from Wide Awake Films getting viewpoints from parts of the battlefield to which you will not have access.

Those videographers will sure work to avoid having folks with 'discreet' cameras on film. Just like the guy with the cellphone, or the one with modern glasses, or the one too lazy to pour a soft drink into a tin cup.

You'll be behind a viewing line for those battles, albetit in a reenactor section . The ladies who brought their chairs and got there early will get cranky at the ones who just have to stand up and be in front of others in order to get a picture. Because they are Special.

If Everybody's Special, then nobody sees a period scene.

Take your pictures on Wednesday-Thursday, right after you get set up. Or do it on Sunday after the battle when you are taking down camp. Folks will think better of you if you are a Common Everyday Person rather than somebody who is more Special than everybody else.

Terre Lawson,
Civilian Governor, Blue Gray Alliance.

[maillemaker]

You could always embed the camera into the side of an object to hide it, especially a video camera. You could embed one inside of a canteen with a tiny aperture for the camera to see out of. Where the canteen around your neck and it is "seeing" everything you see.

Steve

[johnduffer]

"You could always embed the camera into the side of an object to hide it, especially a video camera"

No doubt that's what they did at the time and hence the few surviving mentions of cameras on the field.

[lincolnsguard]

I've been to events were one or, at most two participants were designated to take pictures. All other cameras werer confiscated(put that back in your car!) at check in. Then of course, the photos are made available to everyone. Works pretty well, but it's not perfect. But, I'd suggest re-reading Mrs. L's post.

[Spinster]

Yes Eli,

I was not aware of your event photographer but one time in four days. The designated route is one avenue to use, especially whèn conditions are such that a wetplate can't work.

All that said, I've not carried a camera to an event since Chickadusty 1999. Still, there are plenty of me around, and Not one of them shows me with a camera in my hand, being Special.

[Pvt Schnapps]

The day will soon arrive, if it hasn't already, in which there will be no reenactor photographs of reenactments that do not include other reenactors taking photographs of the photographer. The illness seems especially prevalent among the dead.

[PaperPusher]

using the camera to snap pics during a good "moment" ranks right up there with an infantry line that is in the middle of a heated battle and half the guys look like they are listening to the blue collar comedy tour...howling and laughing it up at gettin to shoot.