As noted in a thread in the Lounge, the Northern Lights are visible here tonight. A friend of mine is out in the boonies and let me know they were raging by sending some pics. I jumped in my truck and ran over to a linear park with a small parking lot (40 cars) that overlooks a river and has no lighting around it. Sure enough, pretty good pictures for being in a city.

I ran home and grabbed the Corvette and took it back. As there were only 2 other cars there, both dark and parked opposite the river, I swung in and angle parked across a few spots backed up to the river to take pictures. I have a spotlight to illuminate the vette and my phone set to night mode to take pictures. I'm standing in a great spot, holding the light high over my head (I'm 6'4) to get a good down cast as I take the pictures.

Twice.... I had someone pull into the lot and right up behind the vette. Not only did they ruin the shot I was taking, but they apparently felt that was a great spot to park and just got out to walk around. One lady even left her headlights on, pointed right at the people sitting in the dark at the opposite end of the park. Someone asked her to turn them off and her response was "I need to see where I'm walking"

They left and things got quiet again. Then just as I'm taking a shot a Sheriff Deputy drives by and turns on ALL of his LED scene lighting, again... ruining the shot.

Sky got quiet for a bit and I was about to leave and it flared again. Just as I'm setting up to snap a shot a local Police vehicle pulls in, all lights on and pulls around behind where I am standing... again ruining the shot. I even heard a male voice in the dark say "Dude....seriously???" Now granted, the park does close at dark, but this is a pretty rare event and it was clear with everyone standing around with their phones pointed at the sky what was going on. He was close enough when he passed he could have reached out and touched me but never slowed and said nothing.

The last straw was a guy that pulled in driving a jacked up keep with all sorts of LED lights on it and turned them all on as he cruise through. At that point I was done with it and just went home.

Sounds like a crowd best avoided.

Frustrated sure, but…if I read this right, people were using a public parking lot, which is closed after dark, yet you were in after dark, and you’re upset the police checked on said occupied yet closed lot multiple times. All of which ruined your photo.

And the title claims those people are selfish?

Sounds like people complaining of folks at the gym ruining their tik toks by walking in front of the camera.

The sheep will see if one person is doing something, and herd in. All you experienced was sheep doing what sheep do. And they are dumb animals.

The world doesn't revolve around your setting up that perfect camera shot, especially in a place none of you technically should have been. You take your chances. This is like complaining about noise at a gun range.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

Hmmmm perhaps I didn't describe this well. This was a decent size parking lot as it is a recreation area. There were only 3 cars there, two parked at opposite ends of the east side (say spots 1 & 20), and me (vette) parked on the west side to take pictures.

The people pulled right up to the car being photographed. Granted, I was angle parked across two spots, lets call them 10 & 11 of 20 spots on one side. Both times they pulled into spots 8 & 9. 18 spots available on the East (2 taken), and 18 available on the West side. They chose the 2 right behind me, in the line of the shot. Both did it while I was in taking the shot, with the spotlight in my hand (held as high as I could pointed down to cast the ground not people around me) illuminating the Corvette, phone in the other taking pictures. I'd have understood if the lot was half or more full. This would be like finding this line of 10 boulders in a park and realizing that for a moment, if you kneel down, you have just a few seconds to get a perfect shot with clouds in the background of the middle one. Just as you go to snap the picture, a guy walks past you and sits on that one boulder you're trying to shoot, facing you.

As far as the police, the County Deputy I can sort of understand. That was just bad timing when he flicked his lights on. This was ALL over the news for days, and people were even advised to find parks without lights and keep all lights to a minimum. This shouldn't have been a surprise for people to be in a dark park, in the dark from 2130-2230hrs at the peak time trying to see something many have never seen in their lives.

The one I don't get was the one that cruised through and came almost close enough to reach out and touch me. This park borders 2 cities. One has black patrol units with gray graphics, the other has gray patrol cars with black graphics. County are always black with gray and gold graphics. State Police are very recognizable here with special blue paint and gold graphics, its rare to see them around here. The next closest city are medium gray with gray/black graphics.

This cruiser was white with blue reflective graphics. I have no idea who this was or why that unit was trolling that park or why he felt the need to get so close to me with half the lot behind me (no cars). I was lucky I had my back to him, the 2 people watching me shoot the pictures took his lights right in the face and were not happy.

The Jeep guy... pissed everyone off as he blinded all of us. There was no reason to do that other than to be a total dick. Almost everyone else who pulled in (except the 2 that parked behind me, the white patrol car and the jeep) turned their headlights off and just kept their marker lights on, more than enough light to navigate and park.

Poor decision makers, all of'em
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quote:

The Jeep guy... pissed everyone off as he blinded all of us.

That one, I'll spot you. This is the type that never leaves the pavement - no mud caked on, no scratches down the side from brush, etc.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: egregore,

Did you manage to get your TikTok uploaded?

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Originally posted by ridgerat:
Did you manage to get your TikTok uploaded?

I don't TikTok, Instawhatever, or anything else. I was trying to get a few cool pictures of the Corvette under the northern lights similar to the one below. Not a lot of open fields in the suburbs and where there are, fences keep them private.

The foreground lighting from the jacked up keep is awesome.