Detective Photography!

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Sean
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So I thought it might be interesting to see/hear/read about any detective photographer stories.

Catching somebody's missus up to no good?
Proving that the local hoodlums are stealing your milk?
Catching a dodgy deal between the mayor and a local drug dealer?

Always something that has interested me, the voyeuristic aspects of photographer. One might deem me nosey, even strange, but I just consider myself curious haha.

So, anyone know of anyone who is a private investigator?
Is there a market for it?
Etc etc etc
 
I could tell you, but I'd have to kill you :p

Apparently there is a market for covert photography - that is just based on reading the odd article here and there which mentions it though! How you would go about marketing it etc is another question entirely! Might be good to contact a PI...surely they advertise in the YP?
 
I used to work as a PI. The company I worked for had clients mainly in the insurance industry and our main job was investigating insurance claims with regard to people claiming illness or injury, when in fact they were OK (or at least not as bad as they said they were)!

We did not use still photography...........only video cameras (conventional and covert). This was because the evidence was then transferred to DVD and submitted to an independant medical expert who could give an opinion based on the way a person walked or moved etc.

Not a bad job.........pay was good........hours were horrendous (and mostly anti-social). Probably about 70% boredom and 30% adrenaline rush:lol:

I was often asked by friends and family whether I felt guilty "spying" on people. I used to tell them to ask me again when their car insurance or medical insurance was next due and they found the premium had increased (partly due to the large number of fraudulent claims) - it affects us all. I reckon about 80% of those we investigated either had nothing wrong with them or weren't as bad as they claimed!

Not sure there would be any demand nowadays for still photos.
 
:agree:

Brother-in-law was a PI for a while and they used video rather than stills, for everything.. Sorry :(

And he's already gone and bought the raincoat and hat....

rick_niebe_private_eye_i.jpg


:lol:
 
Should have gone for the even cheaper route..

Step 1- Grow huge tache
Step 2- Buy really unpleasant shirt
Step 3- Steal Ferrari

Result =
magnum-pi-selleck-5.jpg
 
Loads of instances I could quote you, but this is an interesting one...

A gaming machine company reported heavy losses from a machine installed in a pub. Takings were regularly down on what the machine meter showed they should be. I was assured the only person who had a key to open it was the licensee and that it was a very special key so there was no other way of opening it.

The licensee indignantly denied all knowledge, and subsequently money kept going at regular intervals so it wasn't looking good for him.

I contacted the dirty tricks dept who said they'd see what they could do if they could have the machine to play with, so we swapped the machine in the pub on the pretext of a fault and took them the machine.

After a few days, they succeeded in installing a video camera and recorder in the base of the machine with a pinhole lens looking out of the front of the machine. They asked if the machine was unplugged at night which I couldn't answer, so they even installed battery backup in case, and the machines were swapped back again by the gaming company.

Long story short... it filmed the licensee's 17 year old towrag son screwing the machine virtually nightly over the period of a week.

Better yet he came in with a gobby brief who was shouting the odds about his client being innocent and sat by him through the interview being generally obstructive and objectionable while he denied everything.

We then told 'em we had an interesting film for them to watch, which they watched in stoney silence with their gobs hanging open.

" Yes ... well if I could just have a word alone with my clent." :lol:
 
I have one. :D A mate of mine does some part time investigation work for a large PI company... I remember one conversation on the phone with her particularly.

"Eh, so where are you then?"

I’m confused as to why she’s so miserable...

"I’m lying in a ditch hiding under the hedge watching someone committing adultery in the pouring rain all over the patio furniture."

"Bloody hell are you," lol. "That'll keep you warm surely"

"No, not really ...she’s a bloody lesbian"

:lol:
 
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