Overhead Photography in Confined Spaces
| Date | 01 January 1952 |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X5202500106 |
| Published date | 01 January 1952 |
| Author | L. S. Clausen |
| Subject Matter | Article |
OVERHEAD
PHOTOGRAPHY
IN
CONFINED
SPACES 29
was sentenced to five years' imprisonment. So
ended
a
murder
enquiry
which dictated its own pace, never revealed a motive and might never
have come to issue
but
for two scraps of
evidence-the
locking device
and the electric bulb, neither of themselves conclusive
but
which, when
brought together by a vigorously led police investigation, forged a
ring of inescapable logic around the culprit.
Overhead Photography in Confined
Spaces
By
DETECTIVE-CONSTABLE
L. S.
CLAUSEN
West
Sussex
Constabulary
WHEN called upon to take interior photographs at scenes of
serious crime the writer has often experienced great difficulty
owing to the fact that the offender frequently chooses the smallest room
in the building in which to commit his crime.
There
can be no doubt
that police photographers in other Police Forces experience similar
difficulties.
It
is on these occasions when a wide-angle lens can often be used
to a great advantage,
but
this has its limitations when used from the
perpendicular. Acertain amount of distortion is to be expected when
it is used in this manner,
but
when it is used in such a confined space
that the camera has to be tilted this fault is violently magnified.
On a recent occasion, in the case of a brutal murder in this county,
the victim was found lying full-length diagonally across the floor of a
scullery measuring approximately 9 feet square. An amount of floor
and viewing space was occupied by articles, the largest of which were
a gas stove, a table, a sink, a draining board, acupboard and an upturned
bath.
It
was not possible to open the communicating door more than
about 14 inches as it opened into the scullery and failed to clear the
victim's head.
It
was only with extreme difficulty that the door was
removed from its hinges to enable a not wholly satisfactory photograph
to be taken.
It
was this incident
that
prompted the writer to devise the equip-
ment
that is the subject of this article.
It
is realised that equipment for
overhead photography is on the market but, of course, the cost would
be prohibitive for other than the largest Forces, and it is also a fact that
such equipment as is obtainable would not appear to be able to over-
come the difficulties encountered in the foregoing example.
The
Photographic Department in this Force had recently acquired
an "
Envoy"
wide-angle, fixed focus camera, and it was this that
had
been adapted for use.
It
suited the purpose admirably in size, lightness,
and in its general features, being also synchronised for flash, and using
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