In her comment on my tourist weekend post, Lil mentioned “the photographers clambering over each other trying to get ‘the perfect shot'” that helps make up the atmosphere at Asakusa’s famed Sanja Matsuri festival. This couldn’t be more true, and one of the “images” from my Saturday at the festival that struck me was the sheer amount of photography that was going on.
From the professionals with multiple camera bodies dangling from shoulders and battery packs fastened to their waists, to the serious (and I do mean serious) amateurs with camera lenses out to here and Lowepro backbacks, to the tourists with all manner of digital and point and shoots, to the students with their Pentax K1000’s and Nikon FM10’s, all the way down to the camera-equipped mobile phones being thrust into the air (mine included), there was a lot of imaging hardware in action. I saw a couple of guys toting around step-ladders (complete with shoulder straps) even.
Speaking of the serious photo-hobbyist contingent, this particular photographer that I’ve captured above had what I thought was an ingenious solution to the I’m-not-tall-enough-to-get-good-shots problem, which was to mount his 2 ¼ Kowa Six camera onto some sort of SLIK clamp/bracket which he then hoisted in the air. It didn’t even dawn on me until later when I looked at this photo that he has mounted the camera upside down so that he can look up into the Kowa’s waist-level viewfinder to compose his shots, which I’ve captured him doing. (He snaps the pics via a long cable release). In the end I’m not sure what’s more bulky to carry around, a step-ladder or this homemade stanchion, but this guy definitely wins the award for otaku creativity.
Interestingly, early on in the day, when I realized one of the day’s “sub-themes” was going to be all the photography going on, I snapped a picture of this guy with his rig, and he flashed me one of the more vitriolic “fuck off” looks I’ve received in a while. (It never fails. These guys can’t take what they have no problem dishing out to others.) So a couple of hours later, when I noticed he was right behind me, my juvenile juices kicked in and I couldn’t resist taking another pic of him. However, I don’t think he noticed me, so engrossed he was with his viewfinder (makes for a better picture at any rate). I find it funny though that a couple of others were staring me down on his behalf, as it were.
What a classic image, Kurt! There’s nothing that these breed of hard-core amateur photographers hate more than being photographed themselves! At these kinds of festivals, I can accept they might might want to bring along their assortment of a hundred different lenses, monopods, back-up cameras, etc, but that damn stepladder really gets me! That’s just not playing fair. It’s hard enough to get a decent view–why can’t they they just jostle it out with everyone, instead of removing all possiblity that the rest of us might have of seeing anything at all! One example I can think of is the fire-walking ceremony at Mt Takao (late winter/early spring), where thousands of people were crowded around the giant pyre of flames, and the entire back row was made up of these funny little otaku photographers balancing precariously on their stepladders blocking the view entirely for EVERYONE behind them. What’s fair about that?! Then again, I’ve never been elbowed, pushed and shoved by other photographers while trying to take photographs *anywhere* else in the world quite the same way that happens in Japan!
Same genre, Tokyo, early sakura season.
What this made me think about:
1) I seem to remember hearing somewhere that someone got sued for publishing the photo of another person without permission. The plantif was just a bystander in a crowd, not even the subject of the photo.
I don’t really take it seriously, but sometimes I wonder. In cases such as you mention, does the “subject” have a case (in US or Japan)if you are taking his photo but he is unwilling?
2) I am trying to be less reserved about taking photos of people when it is obvious, but still I find I have a lot of photos of the *back* of peoples heads because I hesitate if they look at me.
3) I often spend my time on the train sketching the people across from me. If people notice, they are generally more curious than angry, but I always have a generic sketch in my sketchbook of the train door, or window, or gripping pole in case someone seems angry. I can always flip to that page and claim that I was just drawing the window.
I forgot… great photos from the festival!
i was wondering around ueno last year during the cherry blossom time with my old junk store twin lens and became the subject of all the pro-am photogs who wanted to take pictures of the weird gaijin with the weird camera. thems weird guys.
my favorites are the older guys who hang out at the gap in harajuku.
Kevin — I’m not aware of any court cases, but then I’m not a lawyer. I know American amateur photographers, however, who always have “model releases” on them when they carry a camera: that’s basically a contract their “models” sign after being photographed, and in which they a) give clearance for the pictures to be published and b) relinquish any and all rights: they (or their legal heirs) won’t be able to sue for damages, modeling fees or anything else.
Take a look at iStockPhoto, which is a great resource: their terms of service state that they won’t accept any photos of recogniseable people unless those photos come with a model release. If you poke around a bit on that site, you will find the actual (horribly legalese) wording of that document.
It was raining during Aoi Matsuri in Kyoto (May 15th), but that didn’t keep the photographers from leaning over police barriers to snap the perfect shot of the plastic-covered-mikoshi and ¥100-umbrella-toting-court-nobles. That was quite a strange day.