Why I Love Photography?
I do love the taking pictures part of photography but what really trims my sails is having to deal with certain people. They can make the simplest things become so annoying. Here is an example:
A few months ago I got an assignment to photograph some machine tools on display at a small convention at the Brown Convention Center here in Houston. I had done work for these people before and they were easy to work with and accommodating. Furthermore, the assignment was a no-brainer. Show up at the convention center, take some photos and leave. No art director. No graphic designer. No account exec. Just a couple of good-old-boy sales types to deal with who could not care less how I did my job.
I always hire an assistant when I have to lug lighting gear, which I did in this case. The assisto has an SUV so we take her vehicle and arrive a the center. We pull up in front, meet the contact person and begin to unload. Then up walks a "barney" (my terminology for a rent-a-cop with about as much snap as Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith Show) and tells us we cannot unload there and must go around to the loading dock in back. Now this was a really small show as conventions go and there was absolutely not another vehicle within 100 yards of where we were, but rules are rules: no unloading in the passenger area. So around back we go.
Once around back, again there is not much going on. Nobody indicates where we can or cannot park. No visible barneys. So we park near the loading dock, unload and go in to do the assignment. Takes about a couple of hours at most and we pack up to leave. We roll our dolly up to the loading dock rolling door nearest our SUV and ask one of the attendants nearby to open it for us. He motions us to roll our gear over to the rolling door nearest him. He just does not want to walk the extra 30 feet over to open the door where we first pulled up. We oblige and after some grunting and huffing he musters up enough energy to press his thumb into the red button that ultimately lifts the door.
Now this guy's attitude is just the sort of thing that really chaps my backside. I have run into dozens of these "turf Nazis" in my career who rule over their minuscule little kingdoms as if they were Napoleon or Adolph Hitler. So I have come to expect this sort of thing but it still breaks my otherwise cheery mood. Anyway, I put this behind me and we wheel our gear out the door and out to the SUV and prepare to load up. Just as we begin loading, up pops another barney and informs us that we cannot park there.
I love it when someone tells me I "can't" do something that has already been done. I explain that we are leaving and that nobody stopped us from parking there two hours ago and that if parking were so precious there, certainly someone would have enforced the restrictions back then. Of course barney is not impressed and further informs us that he has called a wrecker to have us towed. Well, it is one thing to smart off to a barney, but wrecker drivers are a completely different breed of animal. One does not want a confrontation with a burly wrecker driver. So I tell the assisto to get in the SUV and start the engine and be prepared for a fast getaway. Meanwhile I start tossing all the gear into the back of the SUV, reflecting all the while that the very reason I hire assistants is to avoid lifting heavy objects. My mood is not getting cheerier.
Once the barney realized what we were about to do he mandated that we wait for the wrecker to arrive and allow ourselves to be towed. I am not sure if I actually said anything in response to this or not but my body language and expression on my face pretty much made it clear that this was not about to happen. I tossed the last piece of gear into the SUV, slammed down the hatch and jumped into the passenger side. I told the assisto to get out of there as fast as she could and we did just that. The barney just stood there in amazement and did nothing. I resisted the urge to flip him off as we sped out of the parking lot.
The assisto and I did have a good chuckle over this at lunch later and I think we both enjoyed the adrenaline pump that we got from fleeing the scene. But it is just this kind of crap that makes me cringe every time I am about to embark on another assignment. Life would just be so much more pleasant without all these a**holes scattered about for one to stumble upon.
Otherwise, I really do love photography.
A few months ago I got an assignment to photograph some machine tools on display at a small convention at the Brown Convention Center here in Houston. I had done work for these people before and they were easy to work with and accommodating. Furthermore, the assignment was a no-brainer. Show up at the convention center, take some photos and leave. No art director. No graphic designer. No account exec. Just a couple of good-old-boy sales types to deal with who could not care less how I did my job.
I always hire an assistant when I have to lug lighting gear, which I did in this case. The assisto has an SUV so we take her vehicle and arrive a the center. We pull up in front, meet the contact person and begin to unload. Then up walks a "barney" (my terminology for a rent-a-cop with about as much snap as Barney Fife from the Andy Griffith Show) and tells us we cannot unload there and must go around to the loading dock in back. Now this was a really small show as conventions go and there was absolutely not another vehicle within 100 yards of where we were, but rules are rules: no unloading in the passenger area. So around back we go.
Once around back, again there is not much going on. Nobody indicates where we can or cannot park. No visible barneys. So we park near the loading dock, unload and go in to do the assignment. Takes about a couple of hours at most and we pack up to leave. We roll our dolly up to the loading dock rolling door nearest our SUV and ask one of the attendants nearby to open it for us. He motions us to roll our gear over to the rolling door nearest him. He just does not want to walk the extra 30 feet over to open the door where we first pulled up. We oblige and after some grunting and huffing he musters up enough energy to press his thumb into the red button that ultimately lifts the door.
Now this guy's attitude is just the sort of thing that really chaps my backside. I have run into dozens of these "turf Nazis" in my career who rule over their minuscule little kingdoms as if they were Napoleon or Adolph Hitler. So I have come to expect this sort of thing but it still breaks my otherwise cheery mood. Anyway, I put this behind me and we wheel our gear out the door and out to the SUV and prepare to load up. Just as we begin loading, up pops another barney and informs us that we cannot park there.
I love it when someone tells me I "can't" do something that has already been done. I explain that we are leaving and that nobody stopped us from parking there two hours ago and that if parking were so precious there, certainly someone would have enforced the restrictions back then. Of course barney is not impressed and further informs us that he has called a wrecker to have us towed. Well, it is one thing to smart off to a barney, but wrecker drivers are a completely different breed of animal. One does not want a confrontation with a burly wrecker driver. So I tell the assisto to get in the SUV and start the engine and be prepared for a fast getaway. Meanwhile I start tossing all the gear into the back of the SUV, reflecting all the while that the very reason I hire assistants is to avoid lifting heavy objects. My mood is not getting cheerier.
Once the barney realized what we were about to do he mandated that we wait for the wrecker to arrive and allow ourselves to be towed. I am not sure if I actually said anything in response to this or not but my body language and expression on my face pretty much made it clear that this was not about to happen. I tossed the last piece of gear into the SUV, slammed down the hatch and jumped into the passenger side. I told the assisto to get out of there as fast as she could and we did just that. The barney just stood there in amazement and did nothing. I resisted the urge to flip him off as we sped out of the parking lot.
The assisto and I did have a good chuckle over this at lunch later and I think we both enjoyed the adrenaline pump that we got from fleeing the scene. But it is just this kind of crap that makes me cringe every time I am about to embark on another assignment. Life would just be so much more pleasant without all these a**holes scattered about for one to stumble upon.
Otherwise, I really do love photography.
posted by Ron Scott, Photographer at 2:36 PM
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