Travel Questions
Bsimon
Registered Users Posts: 252 Major grins
Hey Guys, I wasn't quite sure where to put this so if it is in the wrong place, my apologies.
I am traveling to Rome in October and have never traveled with a dslr before.
I plan to bring my D60 with an 18-105 and a 55-200(mainly as a backup lens). I will also have a Sony P&S.
My question is for those of you who travel with your dslrs. I am concerned about security. I have seen some straps with built in slash proof cables; worth it? Furthermore, I plan to carry the camera by itself looped 'cross chested' the whole time rather than in a case leaving it vulnerable for prying hands.
Lastly, if you have been to Rome and have any suggestions about what to look out for etc. etc. it will be much appreciated.
Thanks guys!
I am traveling to Rome in October and have never traveled with a dslr before.
I plan to bring my D60 with an 18-105 and a 55-200(mainly as a backup lens). I will also have a Sony P&S.
My question is for those of you who travel with your dslrs. I am concerned about security. I have seen some straps with built in slash proof cables; worth it? Furthermore, I plan to carry the camera by itself looped 'cross chested' the whole time rather than in a case leaving it vulnerable for prying hands.
Lastly, if you have been to Rome and have any suggestions about what to look out for etc. etc. it will be much appreciated.
Thanks guys!
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Comments
i was in rome in june w/ my equipment. that was before purchasing my L lenses (much heavier than my EF-S lenses that i had with me at the time). i never had a concern about safety in downtown rome. police were everywhere and i don't tend to walk down lonely, dark streets (not that there were any in rome anyway...tourists EVERYWHERE). i didn't have my tamrac backpack at the time, so i even had an obvious canon camera bag on my shoulder, but my arm would rest on it.
my .02 is if someone (or multiple people) wants my camera so bad that they use a knife to cut it off my shoulder, i probably don't want to argue. i love my camera, but it's not worth fighting someone over, especially if they have a weapon!
anyway, i would go with the cross-shoulder idea (more comfy and you'll be walking a LOT there) and just use standard common sense as you would in any big city.
enjoy! it's a beautiful city.
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Sounds like a crappy experience.
Yeah, i'm not sure I'd chain my cameras to my person either. Though maybe you could hand cuff your camera bag to your wrist like you got some sort of important codes in there.
I'd just use common sense. The way I see it, you've got two kinds of theft to look out for.
Snatch and grab kind, so make sure you don't have really loose straps hanging down, and don't set your bag down and turn your back away from it. These guys are fast, and if they can't grab your stuff and run away, you should be ok.
On the other hand, you could just be attacked and robbed. With these guys the best defense it to just avoid places where you could get attacked or are likely to run into such people. I'm guessing they are fairly rare if the police are nearby.
I've never been to Rome, but I assume that it's probably much like the other European Capitals that I've visited, such as Milan. (Yes, I know it isn't technically a capital, but try telling that to the Milanese). I've never really run into problems with my camera. Had a few minor incidents in Budapest back in the nineties, but that was mostly wallet stealing attempts. It's a good deal harder to steal a camera from around someone's neck than it is to lift a wallet.
Here's my general advice:
1- get a lowepro or a crumpler rather than something that has "Canon" emblazoned on it.
It's true that when I see someone with a lowepro or crumpler, I think "Wow, that dude probably has an expensive camera with loads of great B&H swag in there. How I envy him." I, however, am not a heroin addled European junkie, but rather a photographer. (which means I only use heroin addled European junkies as models). The average smash and grab/snatch crimes are either done by junkies looking for smack money or by exceedingly small gypsy kids who immediately thereafter report back to Fagin, in the company of the Artful Dodger. These people (particularly the small gyspy kids, you seriously must watch out for them) rarely troll the net on sites such as these, and are thus unfamiliar with names such as Lowepro and Crumpler. I myself would suggest the Lowepro, as it is exceedingly unfashionable and happens to look exactly like the book bag I carried in eight grade, except that it is full juicy Canon-ness rather than unrequited love, despair, hormones, and physics textbooks. No one wants to steal that sort of thing. Crumplers don't look like camera bags, but they do make their owners look as if they might have interesting lives, or something passing as a girlfriend, or at the very least an iPod.
2. Don't set your bag down, ever. Except in the hotel room of course.
Seems obvious, but I myself switched lenses in a junkie laden park in Portugal (there are more of them than you would think, unfortunately) and took only a few steps (like 2 yards) towards the peacock I wanted to shoot when out of the corner of my eye I noticed one of them sidling towards the bag. I gave him the hairy eyeball and warded him off, but I was lucky. When the bags on the ground, I always make sure it is in front of me now. Or better yet I jsut immediately remount it. Better to lose the peacock shot than all your gear.
3. Don't guard your bag like it holds thousands of dollars worth of stuff, even though it does.
Thieves are usually amoral, or at the very least have made a series of stunningly bad choices in life, but that doesn't mean they are stupid. If you clutch your bag to you and suspiciously glare at everyone around you, even the nuns (who are thick on the ground in Italy, and occasionally lightfingered, it's true), they are going to think "Why does that dude care so much about his textbooks? Perhaps he has gold in that bag!" Thieves are generally at least moderately good at reading people, else they make pretty pathetic thieves.
4. Try not to look like a tourist.
This isn't because Americans running around Europe looking way too American embarrass me (though they often do; no one in Mannheim is allowed to wear the red, white, and blue T-shirt with a picture of a Camaro that says "American Made" but me, thank you very much). It's a simple matter of security. It's not that thieves hate Americans, well, except in Greece, but everybody hates Americans there. They just love to rob tourists because tourists usually carry easily fenceable things such as cameras and hard currency. Because they are on tour. Aunt Mildred may think it a capital idea that everyone in the group wear matching day-glo windbreakers and baseball caps that helpfully point out your nationality by having a "USA" emblazoned on them (you don't want to get confused with, say, a group of Canadians who might have happened to purchased similar windbreakers) but this really isn't necessary. European tourists are unfashionable as well, but in totally different ways. For example, middle aged women , and occasionally men, dye their hair with unusual shades of red. Unusual as in "nowhere in nature does this shade of red naturally occur, except in a variety of scorpion found only on the outskirts of Kinshasa." The people that do this, however, are Bulgarians. You should make yourself look as Bulgarian as possible, because thieves know that Bulgarians are A) always liquored up on slivovice, although they don't look like it, and therefore capable of extreme violence and superhuman feats of strength, and
In sum: Dark trousers, regular looking non-flashy jackets, absolutely no baseball caps, and wear dark socks all the time, even if you have shorts on. Yes, it is painful, particularly the socks, but you'll thank me when you return home with all your gear.
5. Swagger, all the time
Rock it like you've got the biggest brassiest pair, all the time. Thieves pick people who look like victims. Not people who look like they are full of confidence or are bats&*t crazy. Often these two are hard to distinguish from each other. Walk around with this thought in your head- "Even though I am a tourist from Milwaukee, my Uncle is Vito Corleone, and anybody who steals from me is going to wake up, if they wake up at all, in a bathtub full of ice missing their kidneys." I don't mean that you need to put on a war face or anything. Just think it. Then an extreme Buddha like calm will suffuse your being, and theives will scatter from thee as Mayasura cowered before the Sakyamuni. Or something like that.
6. Worst Case Scenarios
Should all of this advice actually fail, and you are about to get jacked by a group of people, it is time to pull out the nuclear weapon of thief deterrence. Feign insanity.
This actually happened to a friend of mine in Paterson, New Jersey, which is far scarier than any neighborhood in Rome. She exited a factory she was visiting late at night through the wrong door, and found herslef on a dark street. A group of thugs began to tail her as she walked the several blocks to her car. About 5 of them. Did she cower, or run? No. She began to display extreme gesticulations, facial ticks, and shouted incoherently at a lamp post. The would be thugs paused, considered, and then took off like Jack Rabbits. Why? Because everyone knows nutcases are unpredictable. And thieves hate unpredictability because it usually ends badly; i.e. a night in the slammer, a swiss army knife protruding from their forehead, or waking up in the aforementioned bathtub full of ice. Insane people are often capable of feats of superhuman, Bulgarian style strength. No one wants to risk that. Particularly not for a Lowepro.
7. Conclusion
Don't sweat it. It's Europe. It's not like your visiting The killing fields of Java or anything (though I would steer clear of the Reeperbahn after dark). Europeans are generally civilized, excepting as always the French, so just do what you would do in Manhattan, and you'll be OK.
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Rome is a big city like any other. Use your standard big city common sense and stay wary. Some one mentioned 'swagger' and I can't agree more: in any big city, walk with purpose. Walk like you own the city. Ignore those handing you flyers, flowers or asking questions.
From my experience, and 5 visits to Rome so far:
I find it as safe as any place else, and I have not seen gypsies or bands of pickpocket kids. In fact, I have never seen these in London or Paris either. I am not saying they are not there, only don't believe everything you read in travel guides. I suspect much of it is cut and paste among travel guides over the years. That being said, I carry my camera in a basic camera bag or my camera backpack and if backpack I put a travel lock on the main zipper, because, well, I can't see it on my back.
I do see, however, many other 'bad people' of many different persuasions that have other routines you should beware of:
- Don't ask strangers to take your picture with your camera. Yes there are bad people hanging around tourist areas waiting for this scenario.
- Don't respond to people speaking english to you asking for something. They will NOT leave you alone if you give them an inch. This is a sophisticated beggar, don't be fooled. First, they have no reason to know you are American, unless you are wearing shorts, a Nike t-shirt, and white running shoes, then EVERYBODY knows you are American. And sorry, but, not to be a poor example of a friendly American, but there is no reason to be suckered into a scam because someone is speaking english. Let someone else be nice for a change. My recommended method: simply act as if the person is not there. Do not respond, do not take anything, do not acknowledge them in any way.
- Don't wear shorts, Nike t-shirt and white running shoes. You will be a dead giveaway as a prime tourist and foreigner. In Rome, you will want to visit many of the churches and museums, and you will not be allowed in churches with shorts, and frowned upon in museums. I know it is comfortable, but people in Europe wear such things to the gym, not out in public. Put on a decent shirt, khakis and some comfortable leather shoes. Try to blend in a bit anyway.
- Plan your day before heading out. Excessive map reading will tag you as a tourist mark. When in doubt, hail a cab, or duck into a shop. Rather than studying a map for 10 mins on a curb, find a nice park bench or a shop, or better yet, spend a few euro on a cab, and have the driver figure it out for you.
Ok so my recommendations of good photo areas:1) Forum/Palatine Hill: My favorite site, it is an amazing collection of Roman ruins and artifacts, offering incredible architectural and landscape shots. Circus Maximus is just over the Hill, and is impressive for size but sadly un-preserved. I can spend half the day or all day here with my camera.
2) Colosseum: Huge tourist trap, but great architecture photo ops. also right next to Forum (so you might as well)
3)St Peters/Vatican. Go early, before the crowds get crazy. Enjoy St Peters, and be sure to get tickets to climb to the top of the dome for great photos of the City. If you have the time, wait in the glacially slow lines for the Museum/Sistine Chapel tour. If you have shorts on, you will not be allowed in any of these.
4)Trevi Fountain: ok everybody has to go see it, but I recommend going at night, and bringing your tripod.
5)If you are into Dan Brown, just at the outskirts of Vatican City is Castle Saint Angelo, which is just neat to see, and impressive as architecture. I believe there is a museum there, but I have never been. There is a bridge back into Rome across from the Castle that provides good angles for shots of the Castle and Vatican City.
6)Appian Way. Just outside of Rome proper there are parts of the Appian Way preserved, and here you will find incredible landscape shots of 'ancient rome' You can get to this place via a bus pass from most major sites in Rome. Search google for appian way park.
Have a great trip. Rome is one of my favorite cities, because the antiquity and history are literally on every street corner. Items that we would build a park around here in the US are just old buildings in Rome.
hahaha..well said
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