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A guerrilla historian in Gotham
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TOOLS, TECH, SAFETY
 TOOLS AND GEAR - ENTERING AND BREAKING - PHOTOGRAPHY - DANGERS - GETTING CAUGHT

The Photographer's Assistant:


 Behind every great photographer is a great photographer's assistant.

 The good assistant will be a source of companionship and good cheer; unfailingly courageous; energetic and adventurous and ready for anything. They will carry your soda and your tripod-- because it's hard and thirsty work to press that shutter button-- and they will fetch film and lift lenses and will always have a pocket knife and a hairpin ready to lend out for prying at screws or picking locks. Most important, they always have an extra cigarette or fifteen. The best assistants smoke Camel filters.

Alas, it is a difficult and dangerous life. The darling assistant shown above-- I can't quite remember her name, but I remember quite clearly that she was a most helpful assistant-- sat down one day to rest in the darkness by the side of the tracks, and 750 volts zipped right up through her, until her curly little pigtails stuck straight out to the sides, like Pippi Longstocking's hair. She was never much good for anything after that.

The Photographer:


 The photographer is a noble, hard-working soul, who braves cold and heat and wet and dry and all sorts of dangers like barbed wire, hidden holes, electric shocks, radiation, asbestos, chemicals, rats, and that nasty oozing black mud that sucks at your feet and smells like raw sewage.

Setting up a tripod in water and mud:

Checking to see if I remembered to put film in the camera:










The Picture:


 It is a sad fact that most good pictures, even the most candid-seeming ones, usually are sort of posed.

That's easy enough with structures because they hold still for you. But people can be more complicated.

Posing a Jinx agent in the sunbeam: