Re: [Leica] 'this is how the photo business works....

[Ted Grant <tedgrant@shaw.ca>]

Hi Guys,
Seeing many of you were interested in Kyle Cassidy's assignment here's a
shoot I just finished and developing film in a few minutes.

Well it wasn't bands and dancing girls or anything exotic, but it was little
kids having an operation. A few under five years and some a wee bit older,
but scared never the less. After all being operated on for eye repair and
the likes in ophthalmology isn't going to the circus!.

So we have little kids scared to death in an environment not of their
liking, parents who carry their child into the OR and attempts to calm them
until sedation takes effect, some parents tearful... And for Alan's
benefit.... not the least bit aloof!

Then watching and shooting a very skillful eye surgeon do her wondrous
things with little bitty tools to straighten a child's eyes, clear really
really tiny tear ducts and lots of other stuff. This was interesting and
amazing to watch, let alone photograph.. And given I've seen and shot an
amazing amount of OR activities, it's the first time for little kid eye
fixing.

The old emotional jerk here couldn't handle the little folk crying in their
fear of the unknown, strangers, lights and this very odd place. The first
one I handled the crying while they got him organized. I choked a bit, tears
welled but didn't happen and I got though it. However, the next, about two
years old, a pretty little girl and she was in sheer terror of what was
going on.crying out, "mommy, mommy!" And with those plaintiff little cries I
couldn't hold it any longer and lost it as tears clouded my eyes making it
impossible to focus and I left the OR until the child was sedated. Oh yeah
and I regained my composure.
And so it went for 5 hours of operations one right after the other. To make
it through the morning I stayed out of the OR until the child was "down and
out" it sure made the shoot easier.

Being a photojournalist isn't being a hard nosed ass kicker with no
emotional feeling for our subjects, quite often we're the direct opposite
with great feeling for our subjects and people in general. Which in many
cases allows us to feel the scene as opposed to shooting it by numbers.

Mean while the good ol' M7 crapped out from battery failure, but I quickly
switched to manual continuing shooting as it seems there's enough power left
to operate the metering, if not the automatic shutter speed selection. Like
it's no big deal and you just carry right on until you have a break to
install new batteries which of course we always have right there in your
pocket  for every type of battery required camera you use. ;-)  Yeah right!
;-)

So it wasn't all the jamming bands, drunks and hop heads, nevertheless it
was a very important shoot under tough conditions. That is unless you're
just a cold hearted bastard! Which I'm not!  Just thought you folks might
like to know it isn't always Hollywood! ;-)

ted





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