Friday morning. Jasper Ave, downtown Edmonton. A car gets closer to me on my left. A lady on the passenger’s seat looks at me and points the side of the road: she wants me to pull over.
Have I a flat tire? Is there a problem with my car?
The driver of the car fishtail me. He parks just in front of me, blocking my way. This is not looking good.
A small East Indian guy gets out of the car and walk toward me with an angry look. I crank down my window. He tells something to the lady in the car behind me. She gets closer to me. Now, I can’t drive back either. This is now looking good.
He gets closer to me. He leans down to get to my eyes level.
-Why where you taking a picture of me?
At the previous red light, I took my Mark II equipped my 70-200 and a 550ex flash (that looks pretty impressive) to adjust the white balance. I now realize that I must have pointed the camera toward his car while doing it.
- I did not. I was adjusting some setting on my camera.
- Why where you taking a picture of me? You can’t do that. You have to ask permission first.
- Sir, if I had wanted to take a picture of you, I would have been in my right to do so. But I did not. I was adjusting the setting of my camera.
He begins to speak louder.
- What was the picture for?
- I did not take a picture of you!
He starts yelling. He is pretty angry now.
- You KNOW you can’t take a picture of people like that!
- Sir, I work for the Edmonton Sun, so I know what I can and cannot do. If I had wanted to take a picture of you, I would have been in my right to do so. But I did not. I was adjusting the setting of my camera.
- I want proof!
I show him the back of my camera.
- Here is the last picture I took. It’s a portrait I took this morning.
- That’s not enough. I want a written statement that you did not!
- OK. Go get some paper and a pen in you car, then!
-No! It’s not enough! I want the card!
Yea. I’m going to give a CF card that worth 100$ that have my assignments’ pictures of the day in it. Sure.
- Sir, I did not take a picture of you.
- Why did you take a picture of me?
-OK, this is going nowhere. I got to go work. Bye!
I try to get my car out of this mess, but the guy grab it and put his hand into it through the open window.
I stop. I know his wife jotted down my license plate number. I know that if I hurt him while trying to escape, this can escalate. Against me. I know I did not do something wrong, so let’s try to settle this down without getting into prison or without having blood on my hands.
- No, you don’t leave! Why did you take a picture of me?
I try to crank up my window, but I squeeze his hand. Again, I don’t want to hurt him, so I stop.
- Sir, I’m going to call the police!
- No problem, call the police!
I try to crank up my window, but I squeeze his hand.
I dial 911.
- 911, how can we help you?
-There is guy that thinks I took a picture of him. He fishtailed me and now a car behind me is squeezing mine. I can’t move without running over him. He is very menacing. Can you send someone?
He still has his hand into my car. I try to crank up my window, but I squeeze his hand.
He tells something to his wife and she grabs the phone. She calls the police too, I guess.
-We have the lady on the phone with another agent. Let’s see if we can settle this without sending an officer.
He still has his hand into my car.
-All right! I just want to him to go away so I can go back to work!
He still has his hand into my car.
- Why did you take a picture of me?
- HEY! I’m talking to the police!
I explain the whole story to 911, and she probably does the same. As he continue to yell at me, the guy forgets for a brief moment that his hand must stay in my car, so I crank up the window and lock the door.
He is VERY mad.
I continue to chat with 911.
The guy goes back to his car. He gets into it. He moves his car away, the lady still on the phone on the sidewalk.
- The guy has moved. I will try to escape. I hope he will not try to chase me. I don’t want a high-speed pursuit in the city.
- No, this should be OK. We talked to him.
I guess they told him something like “You are blocking a street, you are holding a citizen against his will, and if he took a picture of you, he had the right to do so. So get the f*-out before we arrest you.”
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Photojournalist - a Dangerous job.
by
Francis Vachon
on Fri 21 Apr 2006 10:44 PM EDT | Permanent Link
Comments
Re: Photojournalist – a Dangerous job.
by
Patrick
on Sat 22 Apr 2006 03:36 AM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Tu aurais pu lui dire que tu connais des lutteurs :P
Sérieux ça m'arrive jamais à moi des situation comme ça, j'aimerais tellement pouvoir envoyer chier le gars en lui expliquant que par le fait qu'il me retiens contre ma volonté il risque pas mal plus de problème que moi pour avoir pris ça salle face de crétin et avoir gaspillé une pause de ma précieuse carte mémoire. Mais dans le fond ça va te servir ce leçon, il ne faut pas ajuster son "kodak" en conduisant :P. Re: Photojournalist – a Dangerous job.
by
Moine
on Mon 24 Apr 2006 09:15 PM EDT | Permanent Link
Salut,
Hmmm. Ouais. Ton histoire est croustillante... La question n'est pas là, je sais "because you didn't take his pic", mais il reste que même si dans le reste du Canada, on peut peut-être prendre des photos des gens sans leur permission, il existe un truc qui s'appelle le droit à l'image. On peut prendre autant de photos qu'on veut mais on n'a pas le droit de les publier sans la permission des intéressés. À ce que je sache. Ce n'est qu'une question de temps pour qu'une cause comme l'affaire Duclos se retrouve de nouveau devant la cour suprême et s'applique à tout le Canada. http://cyberie.qc.ca/jpc/2005/09/droit-affaire-duclos.html Quant au type, soit qu'il faisait du power trip, soit qu'il venait d'un pays où la police et les militaires sont omniprésents et te rende parano, soit qu'il est arrivé ici réfugié, etc. Tu ne précises pas trop de quoi il avait l'air. En tout cas, n'oublie pas d'en parler à tes boss, because là les autres ont pris ton numéro de plaque... Re: Photojournalist - a Dangerous job.
by
richardj7
on Tue 03 Jul 2007 09:27 PM EDT | Profile | Permanent Link
Tu aurais dû prendre la photo du gars avec sa main dans la voiture et lui dire que tu vas l'utiliser contre lui pour aggresssion.
Re: Re: Photojournalist - a Dangerous job.
by
LM
on Fri 19 Oct 2007 10:12 AM EDT | Permanent Link
You probably took a picture of the guy with his mistress! Oups! :-)
Re: Photojournalist - a Dangerous job.
by
Jerrel
on Thu 13 Dec 2007 11:34 AM EST | Permanent Link
Wow... thats a little scary. Im trying to become a photojournalist myself... I hope I dont ever have to deal with something like that, I probly would have been far less calm.
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