Photography as a contact sport
Last weekends experience of the LAM / Skin Two Expo and the Rubber ball were pretty good with both events showing a real professionalism in their staging. I had heard many complaints about the Rubber Ball before going and with my own personal stance on Fetish vs players events, the likelihood of me stumping up real money for that would be slim to non-existent. However there were two reasons that I decided to do this, first I was asked to be a Dungeon Monitor for the dungeon space and secondly and vastly more importantly, cass had been given a photographers pass for the event.
Cass already had been promised a photographers slot for the LAM / Skin Two event but the addition of the Rubber Ball was something else entirely and allowed her access to a wider variety of subjects for her photographic skills. The problem was that the whole idea of doing such a widely publicised event filled her with trepidation, especially the idea of competing with other photographers. I reassured her that there would not be a problem. So much for my prescience!
On the whole, photographers are a competitive lot and will often sidle up to someone, even if they may never have met them before, and attempt to disparage their equipment in subtle and unsubtle methods. Wielding camera bags bristling with tripods, lenses and assorted paraphernalia they stride purposefully around events "looking for the shot". The more advanced of these blusters will have two or more cameras slung about their person. The result is that when they see a shot they push their way past anyone that is below them (which to their mind is everyone and even moreso other photographers) hitting them with their bags and poles of varying weight and sharpness.
Now let's add more of the same to the mix. Now add the magic ingredient - the photographers pass. All of a sudden photography becomes a contact sport. During the LAM Skin Two fashion show I was astonished to see the array of cameras lined up at the front with lenses ranging from the obscenely phallic to the pathetic. cass was horrified as male photographers jostled her (pretty much intentionally) for every shot. I make this distinction because as far as I could see, cass was the only female in this community and the only one to behave in anything like a civilised manner. Every shot taken at that time must have been identical to every other shot bar a few degrees because the various photographers fell over themselves to make sure they were not gazumped on any shot. It was a sad uncivilised scrum.
This didn't change when the fashion show had ended. A few photographers went off to compare battle scars and trophies but others waited hungrily around for opportunities. cass had already been asked by a few of the designers and models to take some photos so she hung around. Then she stopped one of the show organisers about using the stage as a backdrop for the photos and was told it was no problem. Taking one of the models on stage she started to pose her for photographs. All of a sudden there was a realisation amongst the shark photographer population on the floor level that someone had used (shock horror) initiative to take the photographs they wanted. While cass was posing the model one of the breed clambered over his fellows to mount the stairs behind cass and start to snap using the long lens, desperate to have the shots that cass had! Not only this but as cass and the model descended the stairs, chatting to each other the desperate shark thrust the camera back in the models face to show that he was a good boy and took shots too. You could almost see his tail wag at thinking he had outsmarted someone else.
What a fuckwit!
These imbeciles have no clue how to put a shot together, so they wait until someone with real talent stages the event and then jump on the bandwagon. They climb over each other spitting fury to get the shot created by others. These are just pond life. No talent no hopers.
This proved itself at the Rubber Ball where two photographers followed cass around, deliberately taking the same bloody shots as cass did when she had finished.
I mean what is this? Is this an admission that cass has the talent and they are bottom feeders?
I would say that is categorically so! So now my estimation of the male fetish photographer has now descended below pond life. Of course this does not include the studio photographers whose skill and talent means that people flock to them to be snapped nor those whose photographic works mean that people seek them out but the desperate hopeless wannabes that crowd the bulletin boards 'looking for models' and 'offering fetish photography' with no credible portfolio.
So if you are a photographer at one of these events and you bump into me on your way to get a shot (particularly if it is someone else's shot) then I shall take great pleasure in tripping you or otherwise impede your way so that you can go and compare and disparage your DIY camera pieces (no glue included) with others who have affected me similarly
Cass already had been promised a photographers slot for the LAM / Skin Two event but the addition of the Rubber Ball was something else entirely and allowed her access to a wider variety of subjects for her photographic skills. The problem was that the whole idea of doing such a widely publicised event filled her with trepidation, especially the idea of competing with other photographers. I reassured her that there would not be a problem. So much for my prescience!
On the whole, photographers are a competitive lot and will often sidle up to someone, even if they may never have met them before, and attempt to disparage their equipment in subtle and unsubtle methods. Wielding camera bags bristling with tripods, lenses and assorted paraphernalia they stride purposefully around events "looking for the shot". The more advanced of these blusters will have two or more cameras slung about their person. The result is that when they see a shot they push their way past anyone that is below them (which to their mind is everyone and even moreso other photographers) hitting them with their bags and poles of varying weight and sharpness.
Now let's add more of the same to the mix. Now add the magic ingredient - the photographers pass. All of a sudden photography becomes a contact sport. During the LAM Skin Two fashion show I was astonished to see the array of cameras lined up at the front with lenses ranging from the obscenely phallic to the pathetic. cass was horrified as male photographers jostled her (pretty much intentionally) for every shot. I make this distinction because as far as I could see, cass was the only female in this community and the only one to behave in anything like a civilised manner. Every shot taken at that time must have been identical to every other shot bar a few degrees because the various photographers fell over themselves to make sure they were not gazumped on any shot. It was a sad uncivilised scrum.
This didn't change when the fashion show had ended. A few photographers went off to compare battle scars and trophies but others waited hungrily around for opportunities. cass had already been asked by a few of the designers and models to take some photos so she hung around. Then she stopped one of the show organisers about using the stage as a backdrop for the photos and was told it was no problem. Taking one of the models on stage she started to pose her for photographs. All of a sudden there was a realisation amongst the shark photographer population on the floor level that someone had used (shock horror) initiative to take the photographs they wanted. While cass was posing the model one of the breed clambered over his fellows to mount the stairs behind cass and start to snap using the long lens, desperate to have the shots that cass had! Not only this but as cass and the model descended the stairs, chatting to each other the desperate shark thrust the camera back in the models face to show that he was a good boy and took shots too. You could almost see his tail wag at thinking he had outsmarted someone else.
What a fuckwit!
These imbeciles have no clue how to put a shot together, so they wait until someone with real talent stages the event and then jump on the bandwagon. They climb over each other spitting fury to get the shot created by others. These are just pond life. No talent no hopers.
This proved itself at the Rubber Ball where two photographers followed cass around, deliberately taking the same bloody shots as cass did when she had finished.
I mean what is this? Is this an admission that cass has the talent and they are bottom feeders?
I would say that is categorically so! So now my estimation of the male fetish photographer has now descended below pond life. Of course this does not include the studio photographers whose skill and talent means that people flock to them to be snapped nor those whose photographic works mean that people seek them out but the desperate hopeless wannabes that crowd the bulletin boards 'looking for models' and 'offering fetish photography' with no credible portfolio.
So if you are a photographer at one of these events and you bump into me on your way to get a shot (particularly if it is someone else's shot) then I shall take great pleasure in tripping you or otherwise impede your way so that you can go and compare and disparage your DIY camera pieces (no glue included) with others who have affected me similarly