“There are so many photographers here I don’t know where to look”, was not the phrase you would expect from a bride-to-be in Sydney’s Hyde Park this afternoon. It was then her official wedding photographer looked behind, and realised he, not she, was the centre of attention. Unwittingly, they found themselves in the midst of a 400-person gathering called “People With Cameras”, where the photographic theme was “Photographers in their element. Black and white”.
“How did you go with the theme?”, I asked a bloke who I had corresponded with on social media over a number of years, but have never actually met. “Too hard. We went to the pub”, he told me. “So did we”, I admitted, “but only because we thought it was a good way of exploring the theme. Photographers in their element.” We weren’t the only ones either, as the pub we entered, “The Windsor On Park” also contained a lot of other photographers who clearly had similar thoughts.
“Why didn’t they just say the theme was ‘take some great photographs’ and come back later?”, I asked the three other “random” guys in my group. There was a young guy from the UK who had only recently become interested in photography, a young guy from Sydney’s North Shore, and a similarly aged guy to me who had driven up from Melbourne. Yes, really. He told us he was a truck driver by profession, and so driving nine hours to come to a photographic event in Sydney was nothing out of the ordinary for him. He took the photograph of me stuffing my mouth with an ice-cream, by the way. All three of them were excellent photographers, and when they pulled out their cameras declaring their favourite shots (we had to choose just one for our group), I felt somewhat inadequate. I take ok photos. I’m better with words and sound.
As well as the bride, there was also an extended family in the park, dressed up as the Von Trapps, on their way to “Sing-a-long Sound Of Music”. They were also “mobbed” by the group of photographers. They seemed to take it in their stride also. Our group agreed, we hoped they would also be travelling home as a group. Though the nun might have been okay to get a taxi, we thought the guys dressed up as Nazis would have less chance.
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