gawd! LOOK at them!!!

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Photo  © p.{Haque} – All Rights Reserved

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Nope.

Not the disinterested and jaded Chinese opera musicians in the foreground.

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Nope.

Not the Chinese opera actress on center stage.

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But… but… yeah, those people at the center – back part of the photo.

Those people with some black box with glass attachment slung over their necks!!!

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OK.
So, what do I have against them? you asked.
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Nothing.
Seriously nothing other than the lack of basic human decency and civic mindedness.
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I mean, seriously … look at them. Hoarding the center stage.

Blocking the view of others – well, noted, the number of audience to any Chinese operatic act today is nothing more than a handful, if lucky, but still?!?

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And trust me. The situation got worse backstage – for those who managed to wrangle their way in. I guess the entire objective for the night was to ensure that no one else got a decent shot, if you yourself weren’t successful at securing one yourself.

And how is this done? you asked.
Well, either stick your entire unappealing body, or any body part, or even your camera, lens, mono-pod, tripod, whatever!!! into every other photographer’s frame.

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How?

Simple. Just stand near every opera actor/actress backstage. It ain’t matter if you are done shooting him/her, babe. The idea is to stay put. Stand there. Deprive another person from taking it. Simple as that.

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See, as most of you know, I generally am rather empathetic to those with a camera slung over their neck. I usually put up with the unfounded competitiveness and assertiveness, occasional lies they tell to get the subject to participate, to gain access, etc … I tell myself:

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“aiyah, these folks need to cari makan”
“it’s their rice bowl”

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Heck! I make excuses for them ALL the time when they* constantly and repeatedly disappoint NGOs they agree to work for either pro bono or for a pittance.

But recently it has been bugging me. A lot.
Whilst admittedly I had a good laugh at the lovely and talented Travel Photographer – Tewfic El-Sawy’s recent blog entry POV : WTF! This Is My Photo Shoot! on similar experiences during his Bhutan photo expedition – and frankly (sorry Tewfic), I thought he was being a bit over-the-top (in a nice way, like I do too :p), gawd! was he RIGHT!!! And while I took deep breaths controlling my rising anger and concentrating on his words, I managed not to elbow any of the photographers – mostly wannabes – backstage.

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I mean, it annoys me a lot when I took the trouble to do research, tracked the troop down, made proper polite approaches and finally get access to deal with gatecrasher monkeys! who were solely interested in self gratification by like minded folks in tasteless forums and the likes, with a few building up their stock photo collection.

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So, with the paparazzi frenzy going on with a medley assemblage of cameras, I will have to continue following this troop to hopefully an obscure location next to complete the project of documenting the lives of the Chinese opera troop members in the interest of preserving our culture … though there’s still time, but bummer! I’ll have to take time off work {which I am preserving annual leave for Ethiopia} and it will incur unnecessary costs on my part. I guess this is part and parcel of doing things pro bono.
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\* there’s exception to the rule here … I adore some of my professional friends who are absolutely angels
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