Jimmie went to a bad part of Rio. Jimmie’s nice shiny camera got stolen.

Jimmie uglified his next camera. 4000 photos later, Jimmie still has his camera.

The moral: an ugly camera attracts less attention when you’re shooting in a rough area.

How to uglify your camera:

• Cover the shiny surface with artist’s tape or black photo tape, which come off without leaving residue on your camera.
• Color the tape with black and/or brown markers to make it look dirty.
• Use pieces of duct tape to make the camera look barely held together (layer the duct tape over artist’s tape to avoid sticky residue).

Using your ugly camera:

• Don’t carry a nice camera bag. Use a nondescript bag or a diaper bag instead.
• Turn off the LCD screen (or cover it up) and hold the camera to your eye instead. If thieves think you have a film camera, they won’t want it. Sad but true.

Urban Camouflage: The Uglified Camera
via Make

Photo credit: connors934

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