Please, Don't Blame The PhotographerWriten by Eric Hartwell
If things can go wrong, they will. And they will go wrong in the most distressing of circumstances.
A local press photographer was covering a school shoot. The schoolchildren were putting on a stage play. All the parents were there together with a few school dignitaries and the inevitable grandmothers, aunts and friendly neighbours.
The star of the show was an 8 year old girl. She performed magnificently and received due credit from the gathered audience. As this was the last night, it seemed prudent for the local press to run her picture as a commemoration of her success.
Enter the photographer at the end of the show. It would be nice, or so he thought, to have the starlet standing stage front in a suitable pose. Up steps starlet.
However, stage front is covered with false snow (as part of the show) and the beautiful starlet slips on the snow, bounces on her bottom and ends up in the orchestra pit.
No serious damage a few cuts and scratches but enough to make her burst into floods of tears and run to her mother. Bruised egos, bewildered audience and gasps of incredulity.
Consequently, the photographer is left standing without a picture and with a good proportion of the audience staring across at him. After all, if he hadnt asked her to pose there, at that time, none of this would have happened.
But, dont blame the photographer however guilty he looks.
Eric Hartwell runs the photography resource site http://www.theshutter.co.uk and the associated discussion forums as well as the regular weblog at http://thephotographysite.blogspot.com