Sorry but I've recently been on the other side of this. It's a world where at some events it seems that everyone is becoming a photographer and as a member of the audience I recently got very irritated at the photographers becoming so obnoxious. Interestingly enough the few pro's there were very considerate and managed to seem invisable compared to the others.
It got so bad that I wanted to throw rocks at a few of them, One man got so mad that he shouted at one photographer to get the he'll out of his families view. The photographer ignored him so he went out on front of her and blocked her view and kept ranting on her until she went down the way to where she was obviously in someone elses way. It was an amazing parade that draws people from all over to the tune of about 35,000 people into this neighborhood and it's simply delightful.
I have taken my camera once in the past but now take a point and shoot or use my iPhone get what I want from the audience position without disturbing anyone. I have been also shooting in other venues where just the loud clicking of the shutter caused people to become annoyed.
But back to this parade, there was one photographer with a 5D who was running around in a pannic, litterally running over here to click the shutter and then running 50 feet back and forth but not appearing to have anything in particular in that he was shooting. He had a Think Tank belt with three of those quick change type tubes but when he ran over and stopped right in front of our view, I could barely see he had no other lenses, just water bottles stuffed I side of all of them, but it sure looked like the getup if you didn't know. Everyone around us started watching him, a total distraction he seemed almost as if in a panic.
People like this abuse it for the rest of us and now with the proliferation of digital photogrraphy making it more available to so many more people, which I am all on favor of, there will have to become some kind of better behavior, or our opportunities will continue to be taken from us. If they have a no photographers without press permits on the parade route next year, I'll be all for it.
The irony of it is, the darn photographers are getting in the shots of all the people who are just trying to get a picture from where they sit, so the photographers were blocking the amateur point and shoot definitely non pro shooters too. The photographers were walking right out there in amongst everything that was happening.
Actually this has me thinking about talking to the parade organizers about what might be able to be done about this in the future, this is an incredibly fun event and I have to admit that this photographer thing is getting very irritating.
One reason I wanted a MKIII was for the ability to set it up with a quieter shutter for certain situations. With huge cameras like the pro bodies though, it just makes us as obvious and irritating as that person who sits behind you in a theater who talks through the whole show. The problem is and I've seen this first hand, once someone has become irritated with photographers, their legacy continues to every event and every time that same person even sees a photographer coming. This happened right in front of me last month, a professional photographer showed up with just one camera hanging around his neck, he wasn't doing anything but walking into the space and the man next to me started swearing - oh blankety, blank, here comes a damn photographer, there should be a law...
The rules will continue to become stricter and the most offensive people who attack moviestars with their cameras and then are shown in the act on TV simply make many of us seem to the public as no better than them. Our Individual behavior sets the standards for how want to work, but the public is watching everyone.
I think it's probably in the end, going to change how we shoot and what we shoot because of the public's concern and irritation. I took a picture of something at a street fair because I liked the composition, obviously no one in the shot and a woman started in on me, who are you shooting for, why are you shooting, how do I know that what you are shooting which is mine, isn't going to be put on the internet, she was very concerned. I looked at her and said you're right, you don't know, I just liked the look of it and that's why I took the picture but since you are concerned, I turned the camera screen towards her and showed her how I was deleting the image. She said thank you. There was another person not ten feed away taking a photo with a point and shoot and looked like a tourist. I was shooting my MKIII. Point and shoots currently are viewed as innocent, big black pro cameras are not viewed as innocent. People with point and shoot's seem to be there for the enjoyment and see something really neat so they take a picture, people with big cameras seem to be there to get something they can use, there is a huge difference as to how this is perceived. This is also why I am so excited about the new Panny, Olympus, Sigma, Leica larger sensor point and shoots and even the horribly expensive Leica M9, they just do not look so formidable. There is a big difference between appearing to be an person who just happens to have a camera along and a person who is there to take something away.
In the past when I was shooting motion, I was back in Lake Placid with a whole team and we were photographing World Cup Skiing for one of the ski manufacturers. There were some pretty obnoxious photographers, most of them pros, but it was hard to tell, but some were walking across the course and being pretty offensive. Our team worked with the event organizers, we all wore matching jackets and everyone knew why we were there and all of us would come to a place where there was a course guard and would ask where it was okay to stand that day and ask if we could move beyond the restraints. They figured out quickly that we were working with them and what they said would go (once we were in place, we would not abuse it and try to go closer and they didn't have to worry about watching us) and we always got in the prime positions and we were not the main show, ABC seemed to dominate the situation but we managed to work with that and stay out of everyones way. Every cameraperson on our team was able to get everything they needed and there were hundreds of photographers there. No money was paid, no special favors other than our group started by working with the organizers way before the event. Sometimes it takes that.
Events are for the paying spectators, what freedom we have now seems to be rapidly diminishing and it's up to us to make that different by our own actions and I believe not just showing up with a camera in some instances but to present ourselves to those in charge and get permission. Otherwise it will continue to get worse, opportunity for us does not consist of being a distraction for the public or paying spectators. There's too many people with cameras and too many photographers and we still have to make our own opportunity but it's going to be more and more a situation where we can't just barge in and do it and then get out. That does work when you can get away with it but now with so many being so obvious an pushy and people see photographers on the news not as artists but as takers and offensive sometimes and that is depressing. That's why for me it's so refreshing to see someone like Art Wolff do his Travels To the Edge on public TV showing the wonder of the world still as an art, I do think he is helping the image to some degree.
