Hypocrisy

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One of the things I always hear about when it comes to Columbus and it's downtown area is the business attitude. If a new restaurant moves into town it's treated like the enemy that will take money away. We don't want you.  A new antique store?  OH MY we can't have a new store as it will ruin business for all other stores. Go away.  Let's not have any NEW stores because all they will do is take away from us.

Vibrant communities such as Cambridge encourage arts and craft  stores to come to town because they understand that more stores actually bring in more people. The business owers embrace new stores and help them.

I bring this up because I've sort of fallen victim to this old small town type of thinking when it comes to photography.

I paid my $10 for the opportunity to view beautiful antique sleighs at the Columbus Sleigh Rally.  I thought this would be a wonderful occasion for some fantastic photos of people in period outfits and a great way to spread the word about Columbus. I love Columbus and want to help in anyway I can. However I get there and after 10 minutes I'm approached and told my camera is not welcomed because thay have an "official photographer" and I should respect her and stop taking pictures and . . .basically . . go away.

This ticked me off a little along with the four older people I was talking to (who had small pocket cameras and quickly hid them) and talking to other professionals on forums they have never heard of this kind of attitude.    

Well, geez - I paid $10 and didn't see signs saying "no cameras allowed" but since I was on private property I respected that.  Didn't like it and did not understand it but . . .what can ya do.

This is an anti-business and anti-Columbus attitude. If this is an actual rule you should not associate  "Columbus" with the event as it's just rude. I feel the more people taking photos the better the event will be advertised. This type of thinking went away in the 80s.  Rock groups realized that people taking photos in concerts was a GOOD thing because it helped spread the word.

I was also told to put my camera away at The Columbus Carriage Classic. 

Furthermore the one "official" photographer has access to all the emails and address of all involved and the inside track for selling photos and contacting carriage people and where is the assumed competition here anyway?  Who is trying to compete?  Any other photographer could have publish photos of this event in magazines and the Columbus Sleigh Rally would get a LOT more free advertising.  Are they afraid of success?  It's this kind of small town thinking that keeps Columbus stagnant.

sigh!!!

With THAT little tirade out of the way  . . hey . . you know me, I say what is on my mind and then it's all good, nuff said.  Once I hit enter it's forgotten and in the past. I won't fall into the holding a grudge thing.   I just hope next year they have a No Cameras Allowed sign before I pay to get in. 

Here are a few photos I took before I was booted out.  Yea - you don't want any of THESE kinds of photos floating around as free advertising.

and here is an old postcard look. (could have been a postcard advertising the event but . . . . although I would need a model release then and they probably not want me to talk to any of the participants).

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Last Friday I took my mom to Madison for a DR appointment and on my way back from Fort Atkinson I happened to be near Tyranena Brewery so I stopped in. While there was talked to a Solar Power dude (did you know solar power panels have dropped 50% price in the last year?) and had a some stout.

Then the bar person put up a little sign saying they had a few cases of there unreleased Chocolate Oatmeal Stout for $17 which had had a catastrophic labeling event. Well, I like stout so I purchased one of the four cases and while its pretty funny looking it is it is sure tasty.

While there I was I talked to the Brewmaster for a bit and took a few photos of the inside of the bar.

Here are a couple.  Extreme beer . . .extreme photos  :-)

 

Snow storm coming . . .well, not really a "storm" more of a long drawn out snow event - I'm looking at maybe 6ish inches slowly accumulating over the next 36 hours. 

Have a great money - way to go Saints.  Weird Superbowl. I liked both teams and would have been happy no matter what the outcome. 

Rod