Sunday, December 19, 2010

Dear Pro. to Antics,

Back in the naughty nineties while shooting a wedding and trying out John Whitfield-King's  idea of shooting weddings in a photojournalist style.I forgot about the poor old videographer's. Dare I say it, I had the sheer audacity to, shh -- don't tell anyone, (I walked across the front of his cameras while they were on.) Promise you won't tell anyone now. Monday morning at the studio found moire sifting through the mail. On opening one letter it had  a very serious letter of complaint that ended with "very unprofessional".

This accusation disturbed me into going to the local library where it was my habit to check out the old 20 volume O.E.D. Encyclopedia of the English Language. My hobby now is the history of words and their usages in all times and locations after making the most excellent discovery that every letter is a picture.  I photocopied all four pages under the heading of "professional". Then went back to the studio and read all the quotes to see what professional really means. I found this little gem amongst them. A  reference to usage during the 1840's in a  newspaper article about  a musical performance of a band of amateur musicians.

" It seems the amateurs are as good as the professional.".

I highlighted that point with one of those neat little 3m marker pens and put all four pages in an envelope with no return letter of apology and posted it and smiled.

Was it professional to do that or not?

The word professional gained its usage from the military. The military establishment took on the work that word now does for us and press ganged it into service for the benefit of we, the residents in the 20th/21st centuries. The Military was not paid before that word was pressed into service but gained their income from rape, pillage and plunder only during the event of war. A full time military profession is a recent phenomena. They were amateur before they became professional?

 I was not impressed by the criticism I faced from the video guy when after all is said and donel I was looking for the best pictorial viewpoint while his "MOVIE" camera was sitting on a tripod when I know for a FACT movie cameras just love movement and  action in front of them. Your honor/honorees I rest my case, may the jury retire to consider their verdict? Was I not a respected guest at that wedding and since that was the case then why should my action not be present in the record of the said event?

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