Re encounters with jerks
Two weeks ago I was capturing images of people dancing to the wonderful sound of a live swing band outdoors at a local open-air mall near my house, in its central open-air courtyard. One of the assistant managers of the mall, a female in her 40s, stopped dancing at the end of a song and approached me and asked, "Did you successfully get anything?", she assuming I was using a digital camera. I was not; I was using my Leica R8, so I said, "I know that I did, based on my experience level, but I can't show you what I captured since this is a film camera". She merely said, "Oh!" nicely and walked away. Ten minutes later, a short, young, thin, hyperactive additional assistant manager, a male, walked up to me and asked, "Are you photographing the swing band?" I responded, "No, I am photographing the people dancing." He said, "Well, get some images of the swing band as well because I want to use some of your images in some promotional literature we will be creating shortly." I then said, "Since these are my artistic creations, I'm certain you can expect me to quote a price; is that correct?." He said, "We don't pay the public for shooting photographs on our property." I said, "And do you intend to affix my name within the publications pages as the creator of the images?" He said, "Yes. Anyway, e-mail me the photos tomorrow. Hurry, because I've got to get this project going." He obviously assumed, just like his associate did, that I was using a digital camera. Two days later, having developed the two rolls of film but not having printed them yet because of excessive work hours, I went back to the mall and captured images of people again dancing to the wonderful sounds of another swing band. Guess who "swung" into my space at one point, ala Spiderman? Yep, the same male associate who belligerently asked, "Where are my images???" I said, "Work hours have prevented me from completing them." That was a test of his character, his attitude, and his demeanor. His next response? Oh, boy, what an asshole! "You better get those images to me immediately or you're not going to be allowed to photograph at this location ever again!" Mind you, my mate and I have been going to this open-air mall for almost 30 years to dine and see movies in its theaters. But that doesn't matter in the here-and-now because management has obviously hired a moron who clearly doesn't know how to positively interact with good people and doesn't have a clue about acknowledging film property rights and credits. And I'd not exhibited an attitude at all! To date, I've kept to my decision to not give him any images since it is clear to me that he is not trustworthy. My mate has suggested that I give him what I've been able to print since then, but I told him that I clearly cannot discern any assurance that this jerk will either pay me or give me credit in any publications as the author of the images because of his personality and attitude. Now, about him stating I will be forbidden from capturing images on the property? I could give him a few prints and state that the other negatives from a second roll were no good because the lighting was so low and the film speed was too low, so nothing printable was captured. What do you think?
