Project 365 – Day 111
November 24, 2009
“An Escalator Ride”
I took this in “The Westchester” mall, where photography is apparently prohibited. A security guard let me know about it as I was doing a test shot. He then left. What was I going to do? Not take that second shot with my family in the picture? Let me point out why such a rule is absurd anyway.
First, there are areas in the mall where they have props set up for Christmas to pose children. Are they supposed to sit still on a box, smile and go away? Not really… parents do take photos. Are those areas less sensitive than where I was standing? Ever heard of wide angle lenses? Second, if I really wanted to videotape the whole mall, I would, and this without attracting any suspicion.
Yet there are those rules that security guards have to abide by… which are completely nonsensical to me. If somebody has a clue, please enlighten me. So many of those rules have been put in place after 9/11, so I am assuming it’s stemming from that. I may be wrong. If I’m right, all it really does is give people a distorted feeling of safety all the while adding a new set of restrictions.
As for the photo itself, I obviously didn’t spend a lot of time shooting after that incident. Hence, very little thought went in the composition and I had to crop it in post. I elected to crop Caroline out as well in order to better focus on Jasmine, which in my opinion made the end result stronger.
As a side note, minutes before I took this shot I was very tempted to take a photo of another security guard coming down that escalator. He looked completely goofy, chewing on his gum, slouching on the ride down with his belly sticking out, his hat on the side… a real cartoon character. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time to take it. Or maybe that was fortunate… I’ll never know. Oh snap! I just realized why they don’t want people to take pictures.
Firstly, super shot. Rupe is enamored with it.
It’s too bad things have to be put in place such as these doofus rules. Rupe has the tendency to be obstinate and do what he needs to do, regardless off asshats that may be asserting their false need to supervise.
Again, super shot …..
J’aime beaucoup le commentaire .. J’avoue que je ne comprends pas pourquoi les photographes sont parfois pris pour des bêtes curieuse. On peut comprendre certaines règles élémentaire de sécurité mais prendre des photos dans un centre commercial n’est quand même pas spécialement gênant. Que des personnes ne veulent pas apparaître sur la photo, c’est bien leur droit mais pour le reste .. Le pire c’est que prendre des photos à l’insu des autres est très simple.
M’enfin l’important c’est que tu as fais et réussi ta photo !
Vivement la prochaine 
!
@Ruprecht
Thanks Rupe. It doesn’t fail to amaze me how some of the shots I don’t particularly like are others’ favorites. Thank you for your continued feedback, it encourages me to propose a diverse content. I would agree that meaningless rules are meant to be transgressed when they get in the way of a more meaningful pursuit.
@Aurélien Desmars
Tout à fait. Le centre commercial étant une propriété privée, ils étaient dans leur bon droit, mais ça n’en est pas moins ridicule. Effectivement, le principal est que j’ai quand même pris ma photo