ARGH!My friend's story is incredible ... he left Liberia three years ago. His wife was supposed to follow him a month later, but due to the war and the destruction of identification papers by the rebels, she was stranded there. She fled to Ivory Coast, and then back to Monrovia. She arrived here just a few weeks ago. He worked for 20 years to translate the Old Testament into Bassa, and at one point the rebels broke into his office and destroyed — burned — all the books and commentaries and notes he'd collected. However, the single floppy disk containing the first sixteen chapters of the Bible, they simply dropped on the floor. It was unharmed. My friend says it was God's work which preserved it and made publication possible.
We've been waiting to receive the Bassa Bible for well over a year. It's now published, and my friend has his own copy. He's rightfully excited.
Today, there was a blessing of the translation at my church.
Since I work for the national magazine associated with my congregation, I went to take photos. I talked to the senior pastor, assured her I'd shoot flashlessly to not disturb the service; arrived an hour early to test the light and decide on an ISO and aperture; then selected an out-of-the way spot with a good vantage from which to shoot.
By the time the service started, I was feeling pretty good about getting the photos.
But when the blessing began, someone on the other side of the church stood up — a photographer from the local paper. Not only did he obstruct every possible good angle I'd planned, but he started
shooting with flash.
He left as soon as the blessing was over.
I'm happy my friend's story will be told locally, but annoyed as all get-out at this other photographer. Granted, I cover religious events regularly, and perhaps have a better understanding of how to conduct myself in the realm of the spiritual.
But don't you think it'd be common courtesy to ask the religious leader beforehand whether it's okay to shoot with flash? It's extremely disrespectful to disturb a religious service — and I'd feel this way even if it wasn't my own congregation involved.
When I was at the Parliament of the World's Religions last year, my friend Brian told me how disappointed he was with the behavior of the media at the event. The videographers would get right in the faces of people praying, and the photographers had no qualms about using flash during services. It wasn't uncommon to see someone lower a boom in front of someone while they were speaking.
There are techniques that can be used to shoot without flash — in the days of film it was called "pushing," now with digital technology you can simply set a higher ISO.
Regardless, I stayed for the potluck and got some great documentary images of my friend showing his Bible to other participants. I also took some excellent portraits of my friend and his wife. So we'll have good images for the magazine.
But I'm still angry at the other photographer.
