Parkade Madness
This is the second joint post with Melinda Green Harvey. We are taking turns posting photos we took together (hers is the top one, mine is the one below), and writing the post to go with them. We went to this parkade where I have taken photos several times without incident. Never did I imagine that one of the best stories of our time photographing together would arise in a seemingly innocuous place such as this. In Melinda’s companion post to this one (check it out) she tells the story:
“It’s been interesting to compare our shots, many of which were shot when we were almost literally shoulder to shoulder. A lot of the time, Ehpem was using a full frame DSLR and a wider lens than I had, a combination which made a surprising (to me) amount of difference in how much of a scene he could capture. He’s also noticeably taller than I am, which also had a larger-than-anticipated effect on the images.
“Anyway. The parking garage. Ehpem has been here before and was happy to return so I could have a look around. We were inside 20 or 30 minutes, and nothing very exciting had happened (other than making dozens of photos, that is). All of a sudden, a hulking monster of a security guard burst through a door and approached me. Much aggression on his part – not to mention how he was practically spitting on me when he
talkedyelled – as he let us know that we were on private property and we had to leave. It was a little surreal, actually. Ehpem said, “I thought this was city property?” and the man said, “NO. IT’S BEEN PRIVATE PROPERTY SINCE IT WAS BUILT IN 1961.” (Yes, he spoke in all caps.) (Also, he’s apparently the Official Historian.)“So, we left.
“Later, we talked about how the parking garage’s security wasn’t all that great: we were there for sort of a while before getting yelled at by the guy.
“But enough talk about the rude Canadian. Here are some photos.”
Photographing shoulder to shoulder (side by side might be more accurate, given height differences) is a slightly strange sensation for this normally solitary shooter. Despite proximity, our photos are noticeably different, like with these ones where Melinda has made a much more three dimensional shot than mine.
The morning after we had prepared this post (that means yesterday morning) Melinda had a similar experience in Lubbock and we have amended our posts accordingly.
“UPDATED INFORMATION:
It’s not just Canadian parking garages who object to being photographed! Look what I just found in my hometown in Texas:”
The only thing missing from that sign in Lubbock is “This means you, Melinda Green Harvey”. How does she do that?
EDIT: over on comments section of her companion post Melinda just confessed that in fact there was another time she was asked to stop photographing a parking garage and she wasn’t even inside it. She has a real way with parkade security. I wish I had known before I invited her into this one – I would have been better prepared. For instance, a waist level very wide angle ultra-unflattering shot could have been taken of a very tall gesticulating security guard.
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For others in our collaboration see this link.
My photo – Canon 5Dii, 16-35/2.8 lens @ 34mm; Melinda’s 1st – Nikon D7000, 28/1.8 lens; her 2nd – iPhone 6
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I’ve never been yelled at, but I’ve been ‘spoken to’ on numerous occasions and told to stop shooting – usually after I got all the shots I needed! (So I had the last laugh!). I was speaking about B&W photography last week and one of the points I made was how a small amount of colour can be disproportionately important. That comment was made with reference to deciding which images to convert from colour to B&W. Seeing these two images side by side, and as they are very similar, the thought occurs to me as to the ‘significance’ of the trace of colour. And this is the point at which it all comes down to personal preference – and I prefer the colour version. Those tiny hints of colour, ?rust on the back wall, add that little bit extra. On the other hand if you looked at the ‘mood’ of the scene – then the B&W would win. Tricky isn’t it!?
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Would either of you believe me if I tell you that I have serious memory and behavioral problems due to an old war wound?
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No Ken. Playing the war-wound card won’t work, sounds too much like the fakers panhandling downtown. Now, if you said it resulted from the implosion of Kodak, I would definitely cut you some slack.
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Yeah, that’s right, implosion at Kodak. I did say I had memory problems.
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Nice try, but no.
But it occurs to me that neither Ehpem nor I know what you look like – is it possible that YOU were actually the security guard?!
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Could be. I just renewed my passport.
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Once again, your photo is far superior to Mel’s. Don’t ask me why.
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Well thankyou Ken. Now I’ll just hop over to Melinda’s blog to see how she is reacting. … Wait a minute! How could you?
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Ken – I feel so…betrayed, somehow!
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Strange – I feel the same way, somehow. Sniff.
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