Do the general public think we're nuts?

[KeithHC]

The simple answer is Yes. But then thats the general public any minority will be seen as not sane etc etc. Its just not only photographing railways but using a DSLR in general. Yesterday I was out with my latest zoom lens (a slightly bigger one than normal) and had a few comments oh thats a big one. Only thing I did not get a photo of a train! Got close with a part picture of a class 14 at the Vale of Berkeley shed.

 

Oh and for me I wear at least four different anoraks - Trains, Planes, Buses and Ships. So there is no hope for my sanity...................... but I just could not care less bring it on.

 

Keith HC

[New Haven Neil]

Like Phil, one of my hobbies is driving real steam trains - a bit smaller than his, but still full size.  Many work colleagues when I was in (edit WORKING in....!) the criminal justice system found the thought of trains of any kind highly amusing - yet when they came to ride the Santa trains with their offspring, and found me driving or as a guard, they thought the whole thing was brilliant and really enjoyed themselves.  They just 'hadn't realised'.  There's nowt o funny as folk.

 

I wouldn't care less, I don't have a rucksack and I shower regularly.....

[leopardml2341]

 

I wouldn't care less, I don't have a rucksack and I shower regularly.....

Me too!

[Peter Kazmierczak]

Is it worth it?

 

I think so.....

 

 

[rockershovel]

I took a sound-equipped loco and a metre of track to Baku and had it in my desk. The survey techs wired it up to a power supply and it attracted visitors from all over the building to see and hear it chuff to and fro, whistle and ring its bell. It was a huge success, the sort of toy that engineers rather like ... of course this is an industry where models and animations are commonly used for testing assembly, demonstration and training, and most offices have models in glass cases somewhere about.

 

I didn't do much photography there, mind. Like most FSU countries, things tend to be regarded as illegal unless definitely legal, and photography falls into that category.

[leopardml2341]

Is that a laser cut plywood bridge?

[Revolution Ben]

 

 

I'm a steampunk (amongst my various other hobbies), which involves 'dressing up' in pseudo-Victorian garb and having fun (usually involving goggles, gin, cake and corset-clad lasses) and that's possibly the only one of my hobbies where I've not (yet) encountered any mickey-taking - only smiles and interest (bemused or genuine)*. 

 

Now that sounds like a proper hobby!

 

cheers

 

Ben A.

[Ron Ron Ron]

.....which involves 'dressing up' in pseudo-Victorian garb and having fun (usually involving goggles, gin, cake and corset-clad lasses).......

 

 

I didn't realise we had a Member of Parliament on here !

 

 

 

.

[Geoff Endacott]

Quite possibly, but who cares?

 

Geoff Endacott

[chris p bacon]

I'm a steampunk (amongst my various other hobbies), which involves 'dressing up' in pseudo-Victorian garb and having fun (usually involving goggles, gin, cake and corset-clad lasses) and that's possibly the only one of my hobbies where I've not (yet) encountered any mickey-taking - only smiles and interest (bemused or genuine)*. 

 

* even whilst wearing a pith and kilt and carrying a replica SMLE on Watkin Path, half-way up Snowdon in early March

In August last year we had a day out to Lincoln to see Magna Carta, it co-incided with a large SteamPunk event which made the day more interesting, as you say there were a lot of Corsets and bulging parts to be seen. As well as some most unusual dress/outfits of which the goggles were a common theme.

 

That wasn't all that made it a strange day, as members of the public we thought we'd exercise our right to sit in Crown Court for our 15 minutes, As we sat there a grey haired chap came in as defendant and I whispered "I bet it's traffic offences".......Nope....turned out he'd been swept up with operation Yew Tree and they were adding 3 more charges to the existing 18 of kiddy fiddling in the 1970's. As we couldn't leave we had to sit there as the charges were read out in great detail of what he'd done and to whom. Our neighbour and friend who'd travelled up with us leaned over and she said "Well he sounds a rum one doesn't he".......Just a little bit of understatement..

[Ozexpatriate]

Been out photographing railways these past few days in West London. 

 

Is it just me, but are the general public less tolerant of those with a minority hobby? Do they see us as nuts (or worse.....)?

Had you been taking a photograph with a mobile phone no one would have said a thing.

[brianusa]

And how often have we heard the comment "Oh, you're playing with toy trains then" when we're asked what hobbies we have. They usually fall silent very rapidly when I tell them what my "toy trains" cost

 

My standard answer to such a question is, I have a train set.  No need to tell how much it is worth or go into further details as they aren't  interested anyway.

 

Brian.

[johnarcher]

My employer encourages home working, and allows flexi-time, so after my monthly meeting with my manager last week we parted with me saying "While I'm in town I'll pop to the model shop, then head home, so that'll be a late, longish lunch" just so he knew my plans for the rest of the working day. His reply was "you see that's what my kids miss out on, making things. When I was young I made dinosaurs from kits, painted them all up, had the usual Airfix aircraft, but it was the dinosaurs I really liked. I don't know why kids don't do that now?" and he wasn't suggesting that model railways are only for kids, but lamenting the fact that his children don't have an interest which will last into adulthood.

 

 

 

Anyone I'd actually want to talk to has expressed nothing except amazement and being impressed when I've shown them the stuff I am building. From retired metal workers, the local coffee shop owner, workmates, my financial advisor, the blokes in the steel and fabrication shops, and the mums and dads at the train park they all think it's great to see someone building something, and even if they're not interested in trains they appreciate the workmanship and skill behind it.

 

Every person who has seen my shed has basically given the reaction "wow, I wish I could do this!", or "my husband would love this!" I can't recall an adverse reaction when I've said I love trains and build them.

 

Regards,

David.

To summarise a passage from the book that, long ago, got me interested in archery - 'most people have played with toy bows and arrows, so if you just talk about them they remember those and see you as "a child babbling about his toys", when they see the real thing it's different'.

As in the posts above I've found several times that when people see/understand the creativity and craftsmanship involved, that it's not just 'playing with toy trains' (not at all in fact), then attitudes do often (not always) change.

I suppose that doesn't help much if you're out taking photos though.

 

It's true too that some people can't accept anyone departing from their norm - a friend of mine mentioned at work that she was going to a concert that night. When it came out that the concert was of cello sonatas and she had no interest in pop most people were amazed, one was quite hostile - words like 'elitist' cropped up.

[Edwardian]

I'm a steampunk (amongst my various other hobbies), which involves 'dressing up' in pseudo-Victorian garb and having fun (usually involving goggles, gin, cake and corset-clad lasses) and that's possibly the only one of my hobbies where I've not (yet) encountered any mickey-taking - only smiles and interest (bemused or genuine)*. 

 

 

Took my son to a war-gaming show a few years back. He was very taken with the steampunk stuff.  On asking 2 costumed participants what the difference between Victorian Sci-Fi and Steampunk might be, we were told that in the former the ladies wore their corsets on the inside, and in the latter, on the outside.

 

Subsequently went to a great Steampunk day on the Nene Valley.  A nice crowd.  But, then, I tend to view the whole gamut from Trekkies to Train Spotters as among the glories of human eccentricity, to be indulged in and cherished.

 

I think there are other issues with photography.  People feel threatened by people poking around with a camera for an unknown purpose.  I stopped to photograph a perfect little gothic shed that was an adjunct to a cemetery.  A chap came out of the house across the street, very suspicious and full of ill-concealed hostility.  it turned out that he prized the building for its merits, feared that the Council was allowing it to decay so they could get rid of it and had rebuffed his offers to rent it out and put it in repair.  He thought I was about some nefarious Council business.  I explained myself and we had a very friendly chat in the end.

 

The other bugbear in the 'Neighbourhood Watch' culture, which, though doubtless valuable, I suspect can be a net-curtain twitchers' charter. But then, we are all encouraged to spy on one another in Britain today and encouraged to assume that everyone is up something. Once, in Norfolk, I was photographing some village scenes from the middle of the street  when I became aware that I was being watched.  Behind me, in a nasty (in terms of my aesthetic) '70s bungalow, the one building in view that I was not taking a picture of, was an old lady of malignant aspect.  When her making it obvious that I was being watched with disapproval failed to remove me, she entertainingly mimed 'phoning, presumably, the police, and when I was still to be found loitering, the petulant window rapping and rabid shouting commenced. Of course, I may have got it all wrong, rather than a member of the criminal classes, she may have simply assumed I was a floating voter and been shouting "vote UKIP!"

[bike2steam]

 

The other bugbear in the 'Neighbourhood Watch' culture, which, though doubtless valuable, I suspect can be a net-curtain twitchers' charter. 

In our village the same people have an occasional metamorphosis with high-viz jackets, and become the - 'traffic-watch', now known by normal people as the village gestapo, to whom, as I go by, I give a sardonic wave.

[Nearholmer]

If you want to really annoy people with a camera, try taking photos in a market, not the "organic, hand-knitted", faux-French" sort of market, but yer everyday veg, phone-chargers, and rip-off-designer jogging trousers kind.

 

I was naive enough to click-away, trying to get some arty "local atmosphere", to be printed in B&W, and nearly got an SLA rammed down my throat. The working-assumption was that I was from some Stasi-like combination of the immigration authority, the tax office, the public health department, and whatever body monitors the footprint of market stalls and perennially hikes the rents. Both the stall-holders and the customers were deeply, deeply twitchy.

 

Lesson 1 - it might be legal, but it is both polite and safer to ask first. Once I got the message across that I was a simple twit, everyone was happy, but stopped being natural and started posing!

 

K

 

PS: Google around - naturalistic pictures of real markets are pretty rare, because all the photographers were invited to leave!

[chaz]

One of my other interests is to photograph wildlife and as I live not far from the River Itchen I often walk a few hundred yards along a very busy road to the footpath that used to be the towpath to the old Itchen Navigation. I usually keep the camera (a DSLR with a big lens on the front) tucked away in its bag until I am on the footpath. I will admit I feel conspicuous in a busy public place with it. It just seems sensible to keep a low profile until I am where I want to be. Once I am on the riverside if I meet anyone they only show a genuine interest in what I might be photographing.

 

It is a shame that some people are rude, agressive, ready to mock etc etc but I have to say it has always been so.

 

Chaz

[clecklewyke]

Some posters have stated that railway modelling is a minority interest but I am sure I have heard somewhere that model railways is very highly placed in the list of popular participant hobbies, after football and fishing. Or am I nuts?

 

On another tack, I don't recall anyone being given a gong for "Services to model railways", although Ian Allen got one for book publishing and Alan Pegler for preserving 4472.

 

Ian

[railsquid]

I wouldn't care less, I don't have a rucksack and I shower regularly.....

 

No worry, I have two rucksacks, however to keep up the average we now need to find someone with no rucksacks and who doesn't shower regularly.

 

[Reorte]

I don't usually get the sort of reply I'd expect when talking about model railways, although I suppose I'm not likely to talk about it with people who would laugh. Don't think I've ever had any unpleasant sort of reply to mine exploration (other than "you must be nuts because it sounds dangerous"), not that I've done any of that for a few years now.

[bike2steam]

- I am sure I have heard somewhere that model railways is very highly placed in the list of popular participant hobbies,-

 

Ian

If it were, the model railway manufacturers would be a lot happier.

[Edwardian]

I 'grew up' on 1950s Railway Modellers, so I naturally assume that railway buffs and modellers are all eccentric vicars, men in the City using pseudonyms, and retired Colonels, as, I expect, you all are!   

 

Seriously, I think that the perception of a nerdy minority remains, though this merely proves that such perceptions are rarely in line with reality. 

 

I have been very struck how Steampunk has become so more mainstream, people are aware of it and it's an OK thing to do.  Glad about that, but I find it hard to see railway buffs or modellers being out in the sun to the same extent without sniggering.

 

I have 'come out', as it were in that I now do not conceal my interests from my wider social acquaintance.  It would hardly help the social acceptability of the hobby were I to hide in my shed counting rivets like the nerd of the stereotype.   

[Mark Saunders]

I suspect wielding a camera these days, and probably a DSLR in this case, separates us from the rest of mankind, which has long lost interest in anything so cumbersome, and whips out the smartphone instead.

 

A smartphone is something that can be kept hidden and so avoid having to be seen taking part in a minority activity!

 

Mark Saunders

[leopardml2341]

A smartphone is something that can be kept hidden and so avoid having to be seen taking part in a minority activity!

 

Mark Saunders

But why should anyone have to?

 

What's wrong with live and let live?

[Mark Saunders]

But why should anyone have to?

 

What's wrong with live and let live?

 

Agree, it is a perception and why lots of people do not readily admit to their hobby, plus the current paranoid state of many of the public that anyone with a Camera in a Public place is a potential terrorist!

 

Mark Saunders