Toronto Fashion Week

While waiting in line for my Toronto Fashion Week media pass I quickly realized I was not appropriately dressed. Jeans, a white t-shirt and high-top purple Converse aren't exactly cutting-edge fashion. Instead, it seemed everyone was wearing fuzzy vests and leopardskin booties.

Ok, so time for a small photo rant.

While shooting tonight I watched lots of people take crazy amounts of (what I can only assume are terrible) photos on their phones or point-and-shoot cameras instead of actually WATCHING the show. I spend the whole show behind my camera but I only do that because I have to. It's my job.

I photograph a fair amount of big events and I see this happen a lot - members of the public experiencing entire events behind their camera/phone. It baffles me.

I can only assume people do this so they can post images on facebook, Twitter or their blog to make everyone jealous of their lives. So fine, take a pic, post it and then simply absorb the rest of the show. Instead, people sit there snapping away, puzzled why none of their photos are working, and then (I can only imagine the thought process) thinking that they just need to try harder or take more photos to miraculously produce something great.

It just seems like such a waste since - and this is going to sound snarky - their photos are so bad. You know you've seen it - the facebook albums filled crappy, grainy, blurry photos taken from so far away that you don't really know what the pictures are of.

Taking photos is hard, especially when light is dim, people are moving and you're trying to use your Blackberry. So just stop. Live life. Watch the event that is happening before you. Or get a decent camera and take some classes.

To be more specific about what upsets me about these phone-shooters, is that some of them like to shove their phone into my shots. Tonight they didn't even try to avoid getting into my frame. This is hugely frustrating while I'm working.

Now I understand that I don't have a monopoly on picture taking but if you want to take your crappy pictures rather than living your life then please stay out of the way of people trying to do their jobs.

Mainly though, please just watch the event. Stop trying to document every single moment. Experience it. It's your life.