Paparazzi?

 

“We are the crowd

We're c-coming out

Got my flash on, it's true

Need that picture of you

It's so magical

We'd be so fantastical.”

Last year, according to the trustworthy internet, more than 1.4 trillion photos were taken.  Obviously they were not taken with film cameras, but by doing the math—and this was in the article—-I read, if you took one photo every second, it would take you over 45,544 years to take the number of photos taken in total last year! Wow.

Before covid, if I was in downtown Chicago, you would see people taking pictures everywhere. It might be near a landmark, selfie, or families smiling at the camera, photography was omnipresent. If you are familiar with Vivian Maier, you know she was a very active street photographer. If you don’t know her, look her up; she did what photographers should do—she was pretty much invisible in both her photography and in life. No one knew her, her work, anything…yet she left us with a treasure.

Then there’s the flip side of photography; the picture takers who do not realize that they are being obnoxious and feel entitled to do whatever they want. I have seen it, and I am sorry to say, I have likely gotten in people’s way. I will say this, if I do it, I will apologize. We are invading space if we do this. 

If you recall there have been many famous intrusions of privacy. Celebrities who have a love/hate relationship with photographers, are the ones who are most likely invaded upon. It’s a tough debate however, a photographer whose profession it is to take photos would say, “they are in public and I have a right to take their photo.” I am really glad this is not my profession.

When I am shooting football, you have to be very aware of where you are standing, or kneeling, to take a photo. You certainly don’t want to get in the way of the game, but of equal importance you want to be respectful of the other photographer who might be very close to you. Because I shoot from some pretty crazy angles, I will often say to the photographer near me, “I’m right below or next to you.” They appreciate it. One time, and I am sure I have told this story…I had a couple of photographers tell me to “stay out of their way” because they were the professionals on the field. Obviously I was not impressed—-it’s high school after all—-and I still remember the story from many years ago, so it left an impression on me.

The photo above was taken at a BLM march. I turned around to see this photographer standing up in his car, his camera well balanced, with a great vantage point. The one thing I can assure you is, he was parked in the “No Parking Zone” and was lucky to not have gotten a ticket!

Thanks for stopping by.