Some nice photos, I especially like the patterns in yours, Valdore..
Anyways I am not exaggerating in any way when I say that today I almost got beaten up and had my camera stolen. Here's a little advice to anyone as stupid as me: when you're going to photograph the 'worst' neighborhood in town, don't take your best equipment...
If you aren't familiar with Vancouver then you probably won't know about East Hastings.. It's a district completely full of the homeless, sick, and desperate who have no-where else to go. People line the streets, slumping in doorways and pushing needles into their skin. I don't normally venture close at all to the district, but today I wanted to capture some of the derelict atmosphere on camera.
I started out walking down a back alley (bad idea number 1) and 'sneakily' snapping some photos of all the people huddled in groups busy doing drugs. Bad idea number 2: I chose the worst subjects imaginable.
Never take photos of people currently using drugs, or who are in large groups, or who are in a back alley. It usually leads to confrontation or worse.
Anyway, a couple seconds after I snapped this pic:
someone yelled "He's taking our pictures!"
-uh oh- I immediately thought.
The guy with the red hair turned and stared towards me. "If you F**CKING take my picture i'll come over there and take your F***king camera away!" He yelled.
I replied "I didn't take your picture!!" and started to back away.
In return he literally screamed "F**** OFF!!!" and began walking towards me.
At that moment I turned around to start walking away, and things began to seem like a bad, bad movie. Someone slouching against a wall snickered and said "Nice camera, buddy", and a few more curious people began walking towards me. The guy with the red hair then picked up his pace to a run and that's when I ran away as fast as I could.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I don't think I'm going to go back there anytime soon.. I need a different strategy.
