Monday was a good reminder to me to always carry a camera. It was a day that started badly, got up late, rushed to get out, looked at the camera and decided I couldn’t be bothered carrying it as i would be too busy to use it.
Wouldn’t you know it was a day full of photo opportunities. One of the events I was working at had several Olympic gold medalists, three MPs and the FA Cup, the REAL cup, not the copy that is held by the club. In fact the cup was sat about three feet away from me most of the night and nicely lit by my spotlights.
And just to add insult to injury as I was about to pay, the extortionate, the car park fee, stood in front of me and gently cursing the machine for being difficult with his ticket was a very high ranking minister, without his usual police escort. It would have mad a super photo and probably got me arrested, the posse of police were waiting outside (why he was paying for his own parking or even why he was not being chauffeured I cannot imagine).
The following day I did have my camera with me and was stopped and questioned by the police as to what I was up to with my camera. It was all very polite and I had just passed the same checkpoint to the secure area of the Labour Party Conference twice (I went to the wrong car park and had to come back, it was two in the morning and I had been working since seven the previous morning). I was referred to as “a man with a big camera” when he radioed in!!! I’m pleased I was on my way home when I was stopped and not on my way in to work late, I may not have had as much patience then. Unfortunately the other officer on this barrier had a rather different attitude with his “What are you up to” as he swaggered up to me, I have to say I was not quite as polite to this officer as I was the the other.
Mike