"No pictures please" ... for health and safety reasons!!

[Mad Doug Biker]

Of course H&S is not a cancer on the UK.

I meant the whole 'No Blame no Claim' stuff which seems to drive half of it along.

And since the case at the nursery in Plymouth every single woman as well from what I've heard recently.

Life is starting to sound like the Sun News Crappaper:

'Are you a peado? are you a peado? are you a peado! Oh, look at the 18 year old with the big tits!, are you a peado? are you peado? are you a peado?!.......

 

[Norm]

This ... at a tap and ballet show for 7 year olds.

We're not talking about high-flying trapeze or high jumping gymnasts who might be fatally injured if caught out by a stray flashbulb ... we're talking ballet and tap for little 'uns.

There was a whole bunch of us parents in the audience going "Huh?".

If it's anything like my kids' school, it has sod all to do with H&S.

There are two things which stopped it and, tbh, I'm quite happy with both of them.

Firstly, there was some bizarre pissing competition at each of the parents' events, whether speech day, school concerts or plays or whatever. The "winner" (a.k.a. biggest tosser) was the one wearing the most expensive man-jewel around his neck. Some parents were turning up with huge SLRs and mega-output flash guns, others with vast 3ccd camcorders and they were getting mightily peeved with each other as the flashes were ruining the ambience for those with videos (and everyone else) and those with videos were assuming priority and reserving the front seats hours before anything was due to happen. The school banned the lot.

Secondly, the school brought in a pro video team who now record all of the school plays. OK, so the DVD's cost about £12 but they are good quality and properly authored, which makes them a pretty good price and, as the plays are always free, I'm happy that the school get some of the profit from DVD sales.

 

[ColinJ]

There used to be a notice up in the office saying that only people who had done 'the training course' could go and get the little trolley and bring two water bottles up and fit them to the chilled water dispensers.

I used to ignore it. Somebody got in a flap but I told them that I was quite capable of pulling two 19 litre water bottles on a trolley without hurting myself, and I can also lift a 19 kg container up and invert it onto a water dispenser without putting my back out!

I admit that when I worked a summer job aged 18, trying to carry two 25 kg sacks of plastic on each shoulder was a bit much, so I carried one on each shoulder and a 3rd slung between them. The foreman used to rush up and down stairs carrying 100 kg at a time!

 

[MacB]

If it's anything like my kids' school, it has sod all to do with H&S.

There are two things which stopped it and, tbh, I'm quite happy with both of them.

Firstly, there was some bizarre pissing competition at each of the parents' events, whether speech day, school concerts or plays or whatever. The "winner" (a.k.a. biggest tosser) was the one wearing the most expensive man-jewel around his neck. Some parents were turning up with huge SLRs and mega-output flash guns, others with vast 3ccd camcorders and they were getting mightily peeved with each other as the flashes were ruining the ambience for those with videos (and everyone else) and those with videos were assuming priority and reserving the front seats hours before anything was due to happen. The school banned the lot.

Secondly, the school brought in a pro video team who now record all of the school plays. OK, so the DVD's cost about £12 but they are good quality and properly authored, which makes them a pretty good price and, as the plays are always free, I'm happy that the school get some of the profit from DVD sales.

Yep, if it's not one extreme it's the other, thankfully a lot of this nonsense fades away as the kids get older. My youngest is in year 6 so will be on his last term before heading to secondary school. The next oldest is currently year 8 and the eldest year 11, so he'll be on to 6th form. We'll not be sorry to see the back of the junior school as we weren't sorry to see the back of the infant school before. In our experience the competition between parents, and some of the more bizarre rules, both dissipate as the kids get older and more self aware. I don't think my eldest would speak to me again if I turned up at his school with a ton of camera gear

At other times we've fallen foul of camera rules, most noteably my Mum being stopped from taking pics of myself and the 3 boys in the local pool. I actually felt for the poor pool attendant tackling a formidable Scottish grandmother.

 

[summerdays]

I don't have a problem with them banning the use of flashes during performances as I suspect it is fairly off putting for the children on the stage let alone the audience. As for whether parents should be able to use camera's and video recorders I think should depend on whether the parents can do so without getting in other parents way - I've often gone to the back of the hall so I can stand. I have paid for the DVD but they are often very amateurish (at my children's school), and you quite like being able to focus in on your own child.

As for preventing paedophiles ... to be honest presumably it would be a lot easier to go to the local park or to the sea side to get photo's or film of children as opposed to the small dots I've usually ended up with, which are often blurred given the dark conditions.

 

[Noodley]

A few years ago I got told by the head teacher at younger Noodlette's primary school that I could not take pics of her on sports day cos of 'child protection'...I told her to sod off. She did not like it nor did she like it that the following week she was at a conference where I was doing a talk on child protection

 

[Bayerd]

A few years ago I got told by the head teacher at younger Noodlette's primary school that I could not take pics of her on sports day cos of 'child protection'...I told her to sod off. She did not like it nor did she like it that the following week she was at a conference where I was doing a talk on child protection

I don't think I've anything else to add to that...

 

[david1701]

If it's anything like my kids' school, it has sod all to do with H&S.

There are two things which stopped it and, tbh, I'm quite happy with both of them.

Firstly, there was some bizarre pissing competition at each of the parents' events, whether speech day, school concerts or plays or whatever. The "winner" (a.k.a. biggest tosser) was the one wearing the most expensive man-jewel around his neck. Some parents were turning up with huge SLRs and mega-output flash guns, others with vast 3ccd camcorders and they were getting mightily peeved with each other as the flashes were ruining the ambience for those with videos (and everyone else) and those with videos were assuming priority and reserving the front seats hours before anything was due to happen. The school banned the lot.

Secondly, the school brought in a pro video team who now record all of the school plays. OK, so the DVD's cost about £12 but they are good quality and properly authored, which makes them a pretty good price and, as the plays are always free, I'm happy that the school get some of the profit from DVD sales.

they're the all the gear and no idea crowd if they're using flash at a live show (with the potential exception of wireless stuff in the lighting gantries) and in all honesty they don't make a lot from the dvds

 

[661-Pete]

they're the all the gear and no idea crowd if they're using flash at a live show (with the potential exception of wireless stuff in the lighting gantries) and in all honesty they don't make a lot from the dvds

This is one of those things I've never understood. Every evening in the 10-o'clock news, you can bet all your money on a dead cert, that there'll be the set announcement "The following report contains flash photography". No matter that it's a celeb. coming out of a building or car in broad daylight, or in brightly-lit city street, ot brightly lit indoor scene, it's always the same: flash-flash-flash. OK so this warning is another bit of H&S stuff, they don't want epileptics suing the BBC I suppose... (yet more nanny state).... but what about the poor sods being photographed? Does anyone ask them if they mind?

I have a digital camera - nothing fancy, a Canon 350D, that can be set to 1600 ISO if I so wish. That's plenty fast enough to shoot at normal shutter speeds in night-time ambient light, let alone daytime. So if I have a relatively cheap camera that does this, what about those £'000s worth of Press cameras then?

Sometimes I wonder if the journos continue to use flash as a means of intimidating their 'subjects'. Especially if the subject is a politician I suppose.

Or maybe a photographer on here can explain....?

 

[PaulB]

Now my wife is disabled and on occasion uses her wheelchair for convenience. There was no one sat next to my wife so I asked an official if I could move back and sit next to her - there were some fold-out chairs leant against a post not being used.

"No, sorry sir, you can't do that for health and safety reasons"

Should have told him to go forth and multiply and done what made sense to you anyway telling him you're going to make him look incredibly stupid with the press if he carries on with his nonsense. Basically, when the morons don't know what they're doing, they hide behind the catch-all term of 'health and safety'. As Steven Fry says, the two most dangerous words in the English language are 'health and safety'.

We got a right div replaced as the steward on our stairwell of the Centenary Stand at Anfield with his constant 'sit down, sit down' mumbo-jumbo and woe betide you if you stood up to celebrate a goal! He's history now.

 

[montage]

This IS Sparta !

FTFY

 

[david1701]

am a photographer, can explain

Thats press its different, the important thing is getting a sharp shot, so f8 1/125th and iso whatever then let the flash nail it, covers for errors in focussing and metering and everything really giving simple workable shots. The editor will kill it with auto levels and then print it on loo roll so any amazing photography will be lost in reproduction. Theres a difference between press and photojournalism

I have 2.8 glass (or primes if its really dark) and a 5d2 I very very very rarely need flash I've shot in churches at night before to get stuff of my sisters kid in a play. IMO flashes should only be on the camera as a last resort and even then there ought to be something else going on to make it more interesting...

 

[SavageHoutkop]

This ... at a tap and ballet show for 7 year olds.

I have heard of legitimate reasons for photos not being taken at shows like this of children - it's if there is a risk of abduction/abuse from a non-resident parent who doesn't currently know where the children or other parent is/are - so perhaps someone takes the photos, posts them on facebook, someone else sees them...

Of course the chances of this are quite small and it should be bleeding obvious to all concerned if any of the children are at risk of such actions; but the default position always seems to be to ban first, ask questions later...

 

[661-Pete]

am a photographer, can explain

Thats press its different, the important thing is getting a sharp shot, so f8 1/125th and iso whatever then let the flash nail it, covers for errors in focussing and metering and everything really giving simple workable shots. The editor will kill it with auto levels and then print it on loo roll so any amazing photography will be lost in reproduction. Theres a difference between press and photojournalism

I have 2.8 glass (or primes if its really dark) and a 5d2 I very very very rarely need flash I've shot in churches at night before to get stuff of my sisters kid in a play. IMO flashes should only be on the camera as a last resort and even then there ought to be something else going on to make it more interesting...

Thanks for the explanation.

I can see how flash can cover for motion blur (camera-shake if we're going to be blunt!) but not how it covers for bad focus. Anyway a skilled photographer ought to be able to get to focus in an instant. I'm sure you can! Also, shouldn't metering be either automatic, or compensated for in the processing?

Ah well. Let those who can't focus a camera and can't keep it steady, try astro-photography! A hobby very unforgiving of both transgressions. Mind you, we're talking of exposure times measured in minutes...

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I have a digital camera - nothing fancy, a Canon 350D, that can be set to 1600 ISO if I so wish. That's plenty fast enough to shoot at normal shutter speeds in night-time ambient light, let alone daytime. So if I have a relatively cheap camera that does this, what about those £'000s worth of Press cameras then?

Quality, the the higher the ISO, the more grain, or 'noise'. Whilst it might look ok to you, to a trained eye it can be utterly horrendous and nobody will want to use it unless there is nothing else.

High grain or noise should only be used for effect, not as a matter of course.

Sometimes I wonder if the journos continue to use flash as a means of intimidating their 'subjects'. Especially if the subject is a politician I suppose.

It is a bit like the guy at a wedding wondering why the photographer is using a flash on a perfectly sunny day. It is for what is called 'fill flash', and helps eradicate any unwanted shadows (the dreaded 'Panda Eye' for example), and produces a picture which is both looks a lot more sensible, and is easier to work with.

am a photographer, can explain

Thats press its different, the important thing is getting a sharp shot, so f8 1/125th and iso whatever then let the flash nail it, covers for errors in focussing and metering and everything really giving simple workable shots.

Amen!

I have 2.8 glass (or primes if its really dark) and a 5d2 I very very very rarely need flash I've shot in churches at night before to get stuff of my sisters kid in a play.

I always preffered using ambient light, but then, I appreciated the use of flash at certain times (not that I had it on my camera). It was a real challenge not to use flash, but how it makes life a LOT more easier!

IMO flashes should only be on the camera as a last resort and even then there ought to be something else going on to make it more interesting...

Ahem, fill flash?