17.1 POSITION

Question:               What happens when you turn up at a project by appointment only to discover that you cannot get access to take the photographs?

Answer:                   I ‘do the best I can’! In a recent case in Jamaica we had driven by rental car from one end of the island to the other to shoot a project. We arrived at the appointed time only to discover that we could not enter the building. Why? Because the building had been broken into and no one was permitted to enter until the police had made their inspection and took fingerprints. I asked “How long would that take?” …  “Try after lunch and see”. Oh well … back to the hotel and into the sea followed by a soothing Bloody Mary drink … to return after lunch and ‘do the best I can’. Stuff happens and sometimes you cannot control everything [we had a plane to catch the next day] so you just have to work with the situation.

Question:               Do you sometimes find yourself needing to get into awkward positions to capture a composition?

Answer:                   This often happens. On my recent short trip there were a number of examples.

• Small Bathroom: The only way to get the shot was to sit on the WC. Few would resist capturing the event!
• Leg Up: Standing on a bench to get extra height needed for a composition of a monument.
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  on the low down … the high ground

• Kneeling: Low shots with limited space can bring me to my knees.
  

  kneeling inside … kneeling outside

• Swimming: I got these images swimming with my Leica D4 in one hand while paddling with the other and by using the tide I was able to float along to get a series of seaside images.
  

  seaside image holding a Leica D4 in one hand and paddling with the other

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  Using the tide to drift and still holding the Leica D4 in one hand

  Floating: Finally some time for myself.

  

  Finally some time to cool off in the blue Caribbean