No face shots.

This past weekend, long after we had left the carnival in our town that afternoon, I ventured back to take some of my favorite photos---night shots. It’s amazing how the carnival transforms from one feeling to another once the sun goes down. At night the darkened skies make the complete focus on the rides, games and people. During the day, it seems much more vast and larger---I know they don’t reduce the carnival’s size at night, so I assume the darkness creates the mystery that I enjoy so much when I return.

This is the 4^th time I have done this, missed one year, and I have never walked away disappointed. However, this time I walked away with seed of doubt planted in my head---and it was not a good seed I might add. While I was walking around snapping pictures, I could see someone watching me from a distance; this has happened before but it usually ends with, “No I am not going to publish any of these pictures they are for my personal usage.”

This time was different. A man, who in a line up of which one of these people would be a carnival worker came up to me and said, “No face shots.” I said, “ I am taking photos of the rides.” He said, “No face shots.” I indicated that would not be a problem and even offered to show him the photos to prove there were no face shots in my camera. He was not interested in looking. Although I knew there were no face shots, this did not squelch the feeling I had in me after he left. My thought, “What was the motive behind this?” I am sure it was innocent, but as I looked around the crowd it became even more of an odd statement. (The night demos usually are a lot different than what you see at the carnival during the day---after the sun goes down, they are comprised of kids between the ages of 11 and 16.)

I couldn’t drop it, so as I was taking pictures of the Ferris wheel I casually mentioned this man’s comments to one of the police officers standing right by me. They are there from the start of the carnival on Wednesday to the closing on Sunday. She was a female officer, very nice, and said, “He said that to you?” I said, “He did.” She went on to explain that they do random background checks, as does a private service employed by the village, and yes they have exposed some less than desirables in the past. She felt he was probably concerned these photos might end up published. I said, “they won’t be, but that doesn’t make me feel any better especially with 4 girls at home.” Then the conversation turned to all of the drunken adults she will be encountering at the “taste” adjacent to the carnival. She didn’t seem too excited.

After taking more photos I left for home; part of me was relieved, part of me was still uncomfortable with what had happened. I thought, “this is a good blog for ‘Snap.Shot.’” and today, you have it.

The photo above does show faces but from a distance; I am reasonably sure when anyone looks at this picture they will see the colors and blur before they even realize there are 2 workers at the ride. Funny thing about it is…there is a man at the carnival who I see every year; this year he gave me his card and asked that I send him the photos---you can be sure, there won’t be any face shots!

Thanks for stopping by.