IT COULD BE A CLEVER BIT of reverse psychology. Threaten fans, the strategy might go, and make them think their David Beckham photos are worth something. Maybe they'll post them on Flickr. But the suit who approached me at tonight's LA Galaxy game probably isn't that clever.
One would think that the LA Galaxy would take time to realize: a) it scored the first genuine soccer star in three decades, b) it brought him to a city obsessed with photography, c) the future of Major League Soccer may depend somewhat on DINKs with $120 to blow on back-row seats, and d) these very same DINKs could have half-decent cameras and blogs with only slightly less of an audience than the "accredited" media willing to have every shot micromanaged from a sideline pen.Suit: Getting good shots?
Me: They're OK.
Suit: I'm have to confiscate that camera. You're not allowed to have that kind of camera here.
Me: What kind of camera?
Suit (pointing at the D50 on my Nikon D50): The number means that it's professional.
Guy in front of me with a cheap-ass camera being no help whatsoever: Yeah, it's nothing like my camera.
Me (knowing that D50 is strictly an entry-level consumer digital SLR and calling the suit's bluff): This is a personal camera. I'm on vacation.
Suit: Are you media accredited?
Me: No.
Suit (giving up): Well, keep the camera pointed at the field.
Or maybe it is all reverse psychology. Ha! I guess the joke's on me.
Here's the complete gallery on Flickr.
9 comments:
Well, you certainly handled the confrontation better than I would've. I'd have said something along the lines of "You'll confiscate this camera when you pry it bleeding and broken from my cold dead fingers" and then the idiot suit would have had me arrested for threatening him and I would have missed all those wonderful and plentiful action photo opps that "football" presents.
In contrast my wife brought her decidedly entry-level but pro-ish looking new Digital Rebel with a 300-mm lens to the July 4 Dodger game and got no guff from anyone in the stands, suit or otherwise.
Cool, we have a Dodgers game today. Our first.
If the Dodgers get it right, it makes me think the Galaxy won't have what it takes to foster future generations of fans.
The Galaxy management should contact you, apologize and offer you season tickets. I know I'll never go to a game if this is their standard operating procedure.
The Dodgers encourage you to take pics willy-nilly.
It reeks of monarchy.
++++
I would have cried.
At a Beck show a guy made me wipe my camera of ALL photos, not just photos I took at Beck. And I cried. No dice.
Okay, I give. Who are they?
Looks like they put their dickishness in writing: from the LA Galaxy web site, a "partial list" of "prohibited" camera equipment:
* Flash photography
* Monopods or tripods
* Cameras with interchangeable lenses
* Cameras with lenses greater than 3.5 inches in length
Yeah, similar rules at Staples Center for cameras.
Yup, an AEG rule, not just the Galaxy. In fact, I've been to many arenas around the country that don't allow SLR cameras.
But by all means, Will, blame soccer. Enjoy the "plentiful action photo opps" of guys adjusting themselves for three hours.
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