mrsparky opened this issue on Jun 07, 2009 · 14 posts
mrsparky posted Sun, 07 June 2009 at 8:23 PM
Like how he missed a tree [2], his chute deflating [3] (taken while running), retriving his chute chute from a yukka tree by hanging upside down supported by people [4], and the crowd cheering him on [5].
Obviously it's not all the shots, I've not shown the ones where he's being snapped by the guy from the local paper, being surrounded by kids on their mobiles, and trying to avoid the attentions of the St John Ambulance bloke looking for business :)
All pretty exciting stuff, but it was after this it got really wierd.
Helping a lady climb over the fence in the gardens. There was this guy carrying an old SLR, who drops a small heavy black object in front of me, the sand bag used to weigh down the flag, I help him over and then passed him the sack.
Not excepting anything untoward, I'm a bit surprised when angrily asked if I was a pap.
Flashing a small yellow plastic badge saying 'press or media' thats hanging off his bag. One that clearly wasn't the same as the event ones, but looked old like it been ripped off something, he started going on about how photographing service-men is illegal, he's ex-services and how anyone there faces arrest.
I didn't say anything just thought he was a twat.
Then about 10 minutes later a big fat security guard came up and demanded our menory cards. Obviously we refused and said call the cops. He radioed in and someone blasted him out. But just before he apologised [we made him] he told us how most of the people he asked where willing to hand over their cards and details 'without making a fuss'.
Sure security is important these days, and I can appreciate the average yellow jacketed stormtrooper doesn't know about these things, t but when you have fellow snappers trying to cause grief, whats next?
Fortunately not everyone is like this, I met a few other photographers and it was nice to have a good old chat about kit, share some tips and camera prices :)