Cold ,wet and dark Whitby!

I bet all the "Nasty" Photographers had Canon or Nikon on the front of their cameras...I really enjoy the Whitby experience,having made friends with a number of ladies and gentlemen both young and old.I always ask permission from the people I shoot..(apart from Grey Squirrels),and always say a polite thankyou when I'm finished,as all of our Gang do,so I look forward to many Whitby's to come!

We were thinking instead of doing the 40s weekend at Pickering next year Ken, if you save some of those squirrel pelts and dye them you might be able to sell them as fox furs

Goth and Photogapher i wonder if you could post in the same spirit as the above members of PU have? We attempting to have a dialogue not an argument, and judging from what I have just read you are probably quite angry and not without reason. Lets just leave out inflammatory language like ' sexist bully' asking for it' 'dirty old men' and the like. Everyone has feelings and those to whom you are addressing your comments probably don't reside on this forum.

I have never been to WGW but if i did i would'nt ask everyone i meet for permission to photograph them but I certainly would not chase them or hound them to get a picture. It gives me no pleasure to upset anyone. Are you saying that on public land at an event such as WGW photogs dont have the law behind them when they take pictures?

thanks for your comments

Dan

The only reason I go to Whitby is because everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. There is a great lot of chatting and laughter between all sorts of people.

I come away thinking that perhaps we are not such a divided society. Am I wrong?

Dave

Go on then you've twisted my arm!...just think of all those short fur coats!

Pickering is a great event, as are Haworth and also Bury.

I've seen some very powerful images from all of these places. Not mine unfortunately, not so far anyway.

I would certainly endorse going to Pickering. I was there in 2010 but couldn't make it this year.
As with the Goths, the costumes are excellent and the participants enjoy being photographed. I've been to the Whitby Goths Festival five times, again I couldn't make it to the last one, and each time found it a fantastic event with everyone enjoying themselves.
To read some of the comments here you would think there was a lot of aggro between the Goths and the photographers. I've not seen any evidence of this. In fact there is always a lot of friendly chat between the two groups.
David

There are a number of different weekends in Hawort - the 1940's and the 1960's are the best.

However, as with all these great events, they become too successful. What started in haworth as gentle 1940's weekend ended up with tanks and jeeps flying down the cobbled main street almost causing serious injury. The Council has now insisted that a safety consultant is employed at a commercial level. The traders are not happy paying with this more formal approach.

The locals are not always happy as too many people descend upon a small peaceful village.

Dave

I have just read this thread and now my head hurts

My own feeling on this matter is that should I decide to dress outrageously (or even in an attention grabbing manner) in public I will expect attention both good and bad and would have to take what comes in that should I choose to attract attention per se then to complain about certain types of attention appears to be nothing more than the intention to create a moan which seems pointless. It is not perfect but not all attention in public can be of a kind that pleases everyone just as not every photo will be appreciated by everyone - that's human nature.

Surely the good people attending Whitby do so expecting to be photographed and most seem, from a distance (and from someone who did not attend) to enjoy the attention, whilst I appreciate people's privacy and respect their feelings it is where we place oursleves and in what manner that we present ourselves that will determine the level and possibly the type of attention that we will attract and as such I suspect that those persons who make such an effort and provide such a visually attractive portayal or even reality of 'Goth's' very much deserve their good work, time and effort to be rewarded with the attention of those who appreciate it as there is no show without an audience.

As for the odd 'sneaky' shot causing offence, surely this has to be viewed not merely as one shot but more so as a documentary portrayal of the event as a whole there will be shots everyone likes and some that are not appreciated by all, including the subject - just my opinion though ie take the good with the bad - chin up dear etc etc

As for fat spider you naughty naughty boy how dare you type anything that could possibly construed as sexism or any other type of 'ism' don't you realise that having a sense of humour only serves to offend others - off to bed for you Mr Arachnid after a jolly good spanking (oops have I overstepped the mark:

Personally I think that congratulations should be given to all of the good folks who make the event at Whitby what it is.

If anyone has been offended by my post I apologise except that is if you are offended by my uninvited comment as a person who did not attend the meeting yet has such blatant audacity as to have an opinion about it, if you post it I may comment

Please everyone let's lighten up a litle no one intends to offend others it's PU after all

I have no wish to offend anyone - I am merely reacting to what was an unacceptable situation for a friend, and an increasingly tenuous situation for my wider community.

The assertion that people dressing a certain way are deserving of a certain attitude towards them simply does not stick. This is a positivist attitude, written with a level of conviction in the existence of simple facts that really doesn't hold much water in a complex society, with a variety of competing demands and desires of everyone involved. Imagine if I made a sweeping statement about the intention of photographers, all photographers, that just because they have cameras they are like this, or like that? You'd be up in arms. This is an alternative culture, where people are expressing themselves in ways that you cannot read in a straightforward manner.

As for whether I have ever nudged my friend in a bar and made lascivious comments about someone, I think that effect would be considerably magnified if there were dozens of us and we were all crowding round the object of our attention.

Most photographers on this forum are decent and polite I am certain (and I share your fondnesss for Pentax, my first camera being a solid K1000). But why make this just a boy's club? Cheap comments, and the cheap reprimands with knowing winks, cannot be lessened no matter how many smiley faces you use to decorate them with.

But apologies to everyone else who asks permission before you snap - you're the real victims here. Please don't let the people who feel entitled spoil it for you.

Some of the greatest Comedians this country has ever seen carved their careers on just such humour.
You are defending your right to dress how you want without interference from others yet tell me what sort of humour I am allowed to find funny.

Hypocrisy springs to mind.

Dear Goth and Photographer

May I politely point out that by raising a point and stating that you or your friend have taken offence does not give you the right to make offensive remarks about others.

Your comments about seedy men and pervy photo's etc (not exact quotes) are good examples of what you are complaining about.

No matter what offence you may have taken it does not allow you to insult others.

Hypocrisy is exactly the point I was waiting for someone to raise - your comments regarding sexism may be equally levelled at some of your comments - equality is something I believe in.

I take your points in some ways but the allegations you make are as generalist as the points that you purport to be offended by.

I guess we all await your next foray into the thinly veiled abuse you are peddling.

My request is this, please either make your point politely and without insult or make your protest somewhere else.

Regards

Stu

Tch, tch. All this bickering about Whitby. No wonder Captain Cook left the place and came to Australia for a holiday.

Regards

Offensive post removed, no more please.

In that case I will PM him with the same comment.