Don’t strike a pose, Rose!

Posted by Gordon King on Jul 14, 2011 | Comments Off

Some people are natural hams.

They see a camera coming and, like insects to a light, they gravitate towards it, hover around it and stay there as long as they can.

Unfortunately for photojournalists, this is a huge problem.

Photojournalists are documentarians. We want everything in our photos to be as real as possible. We’d rather photograph someone tying their shoes rather than take their portrait at their desk.

But every now and then, a subject sets up an activity specifically for you to photograph. Or, like some of the other photos I took of the girls above, they see you coming and strike a pose. Or they try to assault you with a marshmallow (using my press pass as a metaphorical shield, I was able to dissuade her).

There are two ways to deal with a Strike a Pose Rose. The first way is to just take their picture doing the set up activity or their pose, and then suggest something different or tell them not to worry about the camera and to continue doing what they were doing before you got there (or what they were about to do).

The second way, if the first option fails and they keep posing as you shoot, is to walk away and wait until they get bored and move onto another activity, thinking you’re done in their area. Then you sneak back up to them paparazzi-style and shoot away (if you’re really sneaky, use a long lens!).

 

There is one more way to deal with a pose-striker: walk away and find another victim.

–Katharine Lotze