Dealing with the obnoxious

Some of my favorite photographs come from long exposure shots. Typically, there are two general situations in which long exposures deem appropriate: night shots and moving water. Of course, there are plenty of other reasons to use a long exposure, but as an beginner, these are the two situations that are blatantly apparent to me. Having no easy access to rushing water, I usually try my luck with night shots.

Traffic at night is fun to shoot. But I hate doing it around Morgantown because of the obnoxious (students?) kids roaming around all night. Yesterday, I was in the mood to go take some pictures and play around with what I had (hopefully) learned about long exposures. Without considering the interstates, I thought three main places to be appropriate: Beechurst¹, Pateson, and High Street. In the summer, Beechurst at 10:00 pm is somewhat bland, and I had been to Pateson a few nights before. That left High Street. Even without too much traffic, the street/traffic lights would be enough to get a reasonable shot (they tend to glow like stars at 15 seconds and up).

I was on High Street for about 15 minutes before deciding to leave. I took about 10 pictures or so. With nearly every picture, I had to listen to ridiculous comments being shouted out of passing cars and “townies” out roaming the streets. Of course, none of it made any sense. Examples include: “Are you shooting a porno?”, “YEAHHHHH, TAKE MY PICTURE!”, “Whooooooooooooooooooooooo”, and so on. Probably the most uncomfortable, though, was when these three guys were walking by. One of them said “Dude, he’s taking a picture—[to me:] Are you taking a picture of the East Coast?” Then his strung out friend, standing about a foot from me, starts going nuts “[looking at me:] F*** yeah this is the East Coast. F*** you, F*** you, and F*** you [pointing at his two friends and myself]. This is the F***ing East Coast B****!” Since Amie was with me, we left. The last thing I want is to get into an altercation with a strung out heroin addict because I was taking a picture of High Street, especially with Amie with me. I guess deep down stuff like this weighs on my mind. It makes me choose to leave rather than deal with it. I’m just tired of the fact that I have to make the choice.

¹ I say Beechurst mainly because of the walking bridge above the road by the PRT station. There’s also potential going up the hill toward Evansdale, but I’ve yet to try it.