Epic Photobomb?

You probably will have already seen the video, if not, take a look at it on Petapixel: Guy Epically Photobombs Newspaper Photographer Shooting a Demolition.

It’s a good example of the kind of thing that happens with remarkable frequency these days, when it has become very hard to work at many events without someone holding up their phone getting between you and the subject.

In this case it actually makes what would otherwise have been a rather boring movie clip rather more interesting – and the idiot with his phone running across the field of view hardly obscures what is happening.

Without that guy, no-one outside of Reading PA would have watched that demolition video, or known that Reading had a newspaper. Although the factory demolition may have been ‘a momentous occasion, at least regionally, given the history behind this factory, which once built tanks during WWII’ the video would frankly have been rather boring.

The Reading Eagle staff photographer was working from a location where the public had gathered to view the event. But it wasn’t one that gave a particularly good view of the factory and one might have hoped that working for the local rag would give you an idea and get you better access than Joe Public.

And ‘she even set up her gear down low in case debris came flying.’ What? Debris could equally fly low or high, but a higher viewpoint would have helped and avoided the low moving person. The chances of a camera being hit by anything large enough to cause serious damage would seem to be low, and would probably be covered by insurance. If she or the authorities were worried about her own safety then a remote trigger could have been used.

I doubt if we will ever see the phone video, though I expect it will be of little interest with the chimneys hard to make out in a rather blurry and jumpy film. Many of our local papers would now be relying on getting that and others sent to them for free rather than having a staff photographer spending a day on the job.

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