On 9/10/06, Charles Robinson, discombobulated, unleashed: >It was actually drizzle/mist/rain, and it was just like that outside >my window. I don't like manipulating things to help a photo. Adding >mist would be cheating!
I'll tell you a funny story. Once, I was filming a story in a local graveyard where the council had decreed that large unruly bunches of flowers, zany colorful plastic toys, and all the other clutter and mayhem that people surround the graves of loved-ones should be banned! Council workers had waded through this cemetery sweeping all before them into neat Orwellian order. Hence, literally a pile of junk in one corner - the decree included allowing trinkets and possessions to be 'reclaimed' instead of binned. I was about to get some nice illustrative shots of some toys - I think there was some garden gnomes and Bambi-style reindeer figurines or something - and I swung the camera around to zoom in on the carnage. It was all basically dumped in a pile of turmoil - just the thing to tug the heart- strings of the most hardened viewer. At that point, along came a mourner and I was distracted as she engaged the reporter in conversation. Although disgusted with the council's heartless proceedings, she declined to be interviewed, and while she stood chatting in front of the maelstrom, I duly waited, not wanting to ask her to move on, biding my time until she would naturally exit stage left. I think I even went off and made a call. Anyway, after chatting and fiddling around with the pile of junk, she departed. I returned and carried on where I left off. I went into record, zoomed in to focus and zoomed out to find my shot - only to discover the old gal had unwittingly rearranged my shot by putting all the little keepsakes upright and tidied them like a good granny would. Ack, that's no good - I first encountered them all fallen and pathetic, so I nipped into the shot and knocked a few over - placing them as i had remembered when first encountering the shot. Nipping back, i panned about and hey presto, moved on to film the reporter trudging forlornly to and fro with a radio mic, bemoaning the council's attitude ad infinitum. I thought nothing else of it. Until I got a call later that day from the programme editor who berated me for arranging the scene into a convenient shot for filming purposes! "well....you see....no....it's not what you think......" you get the idea. My big mistake? I *left the camera running* while I arranged the shot back to what I originally saw. I had no qualms in doing so, but the evidence was on tape and convincing. Thug cameraman tampers with poor little Bambi in bid to secure exclusive footage ;-) I endured several days of quips and jibes, I can tell you. So, of course, the Scruples question is - was I right or wrong to interfere with reality? BTW great shot of the web, it's lovely. -- Cheers, Cotty ___/\__ || (O) | People, Places, Pastiche ||=====| http://www.cottysnaps.com _____________________________ -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net
