I'd finished shooting Blondie and Little Fish and was walking out of the o2 complex..
...it was still light'ish and I wanted to see how much of the dome I could fit in with the Sigma 8-16mm that I have at the moment, within moments of pointing my camera at the dome, this is what happened..
Sec. "You're taking a photo?"
Me. "No doubt"
Sec. "You're not allowed"
Me. "Why not? You've not stopped me the last ohh, THOUSAND times..."
Sec. "Who are you?"
Me. "Nobody... Why don't you stop that girl? *points*"
Sec. "She doesn't have a professional camera, she won't sell the photograph"
Sec. *on his walkie talkie* "Would you please check out the guy at the main doors, he won't stop taking photos"
Me. "I've got my shot, bye bye"
Sec. *looking deflated* "Tell me your name"
Me. "You don't need to know my name"
By this point, a young lad has wandered over and has asked me "do you want to know what they did to me in there tonight?" of course I'm interested... The venue security at o2 leave a lot to be desired - I'm talking the general mob, not iNdigo2 who are actually brilliant... Just the general venue security.. So, he shows me his arms [where you would be carried by security if there was one on either side of you] both bruised... The young lad claims that after some sort of emotional outburst, they were ejected (His GF's mum had died and Jack Johnson's music reminded her of old times.. so fair play) the lad and his mate had words with security and after a minor scuffle in the lift (no cameras!) and some bruised arms, they were ejected...
How does this all tie in?It actually doesn't..
But, by this time "security guard number one" had called his boss who was now standing next to me [with four others] I was talking to the beaten kid... security guard number one, let's call him SG1 was trying to get his words in "he's given beaten kid his business card!" ..over and over... Yeah, I did? does that bother you? Do you have something to hide?
So Security Boss asks what the issue is, I tell him there's no issue with me, I know it's private property and I've stopped taking photos, but, that I have taken about a thousand photos here before and have had no issues - he actually remembers me and has no issues... we move on to beaten kid - I look at the kids arm, then back to security boss and say "This isn't on, what are you going to do about it" to which he replies "I don't know, I didn't see it" convenient, wouldn't you say...
I don't think that's the end of beaten kid's story - the security boss took him away to [I hope] sweeten him [This is after he spies my press card] with [I think] a refund... [at least]
That's not the end of my story though... What I'd like to know is what made me different from the girl that was taking photos? She was using a Canon G11, I was using a Canon 30D ...hers had more MP than mine, the potential to take as good a shot as mine (obv depending on the user) but mine was black and bulky... I certainly didn't whip my press card out and say "hey, back off scumbag" but after him stating "You have no idea what the rules are" I showed him my press card and explained that I had some idea what the rules were and that I was on private land and that he was right to ask me to stop - but what he couldn't answer was why it was OK for the girl with the slightly smaller camera to take almost the same photo I was taking? - I will never get an answer and no doubt I'll take photos there again...
For those of you that want to know where o2 security can't touch you any more... see below (get out of the green bit before you take another photo)
