V Is For Violence
The Alphabet of Photoblogging is an A-Z 26 day long series about what to look for when doing nightlife photography and what to do to get your photo taken. For the rest of the alphabet and more info click here.
Once in a while you are going to be at a party and a fight is going to break out. This makes for excellent photos if you can get the shot right. The thing is, that is not always a good thing to shoot. Bars don’t want anyone to know there was a fight there. Fight complaints go a long way to fucking up a liquor license renewal. Bouncers hate it too. Because of legal issues no one should want photos of them fighting on the internet, and I am positive the person who lost the fight doesn’t want those pictures online. With all this in mind I try not to put up photos that people don’t want up. I always take down anything that I get complaints about, and I don’t want to piss off bars and promoters who are paying me to shoot their parties. So, if a fight goes down, I put my camera away. I might miss some good shots, but in the long run it is probably the better idea.
That being said, if people are play fighting or wrestling on the floor, get that shot, those are always great.
And FYI if you ever see me in a fight and you have your camera… take photos, I want copies for my myspace page… but I am funny like that.
