Mini thread about the story behind "I just photograph flags" though I have to change the names to protect people and my job ;-)

Several years ago I was waiting for a VIP thing and behind the scenes busy hurry up and waiting and talking to person A, they said my job must be really interesting as I get to photograph a wide variety of things and events like what was about to happen

I said it wasn't as good as most people thought and had plenty of downsides but I loved it. We continued to talk and as we did one of the flags that was on a stand, set up in place for an official photo was knocked over by someone

Knowing that the positioning of the flag was important to the official photo I went over and positioned it back to how it was meant to be.

Went back to talking about photography with person A and had a joke rant about flags, mainly that at that time they were everywhere in photos and to me it was old fashioned and not always needed

As I was jokingly ranting about flags person A suddenly stood up straight and I turned to see VIP B standing behind me. Things went on as normal and all the photos were done... bish bash bosh, jobs a good un.

About 3 months later I was at an event thing and VIP B was talking to VIP C and I was mingling doing the photo shizzle. As I took the photo of them chatting and laughing VIP C saw me and turned to me to say hello and said that they hadn't seen me for a while

Before I could say anything VIP B said, "We call Mark in whenever we have any flags that need sorting out or whenever we need any photos taking with flags in them, its his specialist area"

A few people at work heard about this comment and for a while people would phone me and when I answered they'd say, "Mark, got some flags that need photographing" ;-)

For those not massively into military photography I should point out that flags appear at a lot of places you go and are nearly always positioned as a backdrop for photos, usually to make a blank wall look slightly more interesting

Flags appear at nearly all ceremonial events, most medal awards, most VIP events, and back then it was standard for all senior officers and VIPs to have portraits in front of flags. Flags were (still are) everywhere ;-)

Bit to add on... a couple of years ago I had a disaster of a blind date, I'd had all gone well, was having dinner with a girl and thought it was going really well. Then in the middle of the restaurant she throws a tantrum, everyone stopped and watched

She had this tantrum declaring i was trying to impress her and was bullshitting her to get her into bed (anyone thst knows me knows me knows that thats not me) threw a glass of water over me and walked out.

I was genuinely gobsmacked, hadn't said anything to impress her and had only answered questions she'd asked.

Unfortunately for me the questions she asked were

1, how did you get the nickname Panda? Those who know, know

2, whats the most difficult thing you've ever had to photograph? War

3, what's the best thing you've ever photographed? A Royal wedding

4, Have you met the Queen, yes, quite a bit

5, what were you photographing today? Low level air to air jets

It seems that some of you don't do those things and think that someone who does do those things must be trying to impress you into bed ;-)

On the way home on the tube my mate who had set up the blind date with his wife called me to ask what had happened as the girl (who works with his wife had already been on the phone, she'd told them all what I'd said and they enlightened her thst thst was exactly what my job was