Missed Opportunity

Taking this documentary photography class has made me aware of having access as a photographer to different situations. In many cases, saying that you are a photographer will allow you to gain access to places most people would not, but that is not always the case. I work at Nassau Coliseum as a customer service representative, and a perk of this job is that I am stationed inside the arena when the concerts are on. The event that I had been looking forward to the most since I began working there a year ago was the Roger Waters: the Wall concert, this was the first time I had enough courage and desire to sneak my camera to work, and luckily it paid off. I was stationed close to the stage enough that I could snap decent pictures with a small digital camera.

This luck did not last for me at this job because when I asked my boss to bring my larger, and better quality camera for a documentary project, he told me that I was not allowed to. There are countless events for which I wish that I was allowed a camera, for example, when Taylor Swift sang a song on the stairs of my crowd section; when the circus shot a man on fire across the room; and when Niki Manaj ascended to perform from underneath the stage. The energy of a concert venue of this size interests me immensely, and I wish I could capture different aspects of it, not just the talent but the audience. I get the most upset at a missed picture when I see a moment pass in the audience, like a row of children in matching camp t shirts all dancing together in their seats, or sets of feet hanging over the ledge of the mezzanine level.