Yesterday – on the day of my embarrassing defeat to gravity – I had my first brief paparazzi experience. It is quite usual that people wants to take my photo: On todays ride from George Town to Alor Setar I stopped at a roadside restaurant for something to drink and the two girls and one guy that was running the place asked me if they could take a photo of me. Of course I didn’t reject that, and they ended up doing a session where one photo turned into several, in which I posed with different configurations of people, and with and without sunglasses, lol. Most situations are like this, with people I have talked to if only briefly. However, a few just take a quick stealth shot without ever talking to me.

Although I am not crazy about being in front of the lens I think it is only fair that I let people have their photo. If they think it is funny that a cyclist comes all the way from Denmark and end up in their little known corner of the world, well … go ahead, shoot! After all, I take photos of people I don’t know as well and am a bit of a voyeur looking into peoples living rooms. Still, a few times it has been a weird feeling that knowing people are talking about me and just snapped a pic with their cell phone, while they thought I was not paying attention. I hope I am not circulated on Facebook and the like – getting thumbs up or down with regards to my coolness factor, but at least I will be anonymous in that case.

But the actual case went a bit beyond that. In George Town I was generally just another tourist and people didn’t pay special attention to me. Except in this case, where a guy (Asian – could be Chinese or from Japan) with a huge Canikon spotted me and started shooting away. He must have thought I looked hilarious in my cycling outfit (and I wouldn’t argue this point). But he was quite serious about his photographic business and rather than the “any snapshot will do” approach he was running around to get into different positions in order to get the optimal framing of the shot. I just ignored him as I went on with my business as if he was not there. I thought it was a quite interesting experience for various reasons: He knew that I knew he was taking pictures but he never recognized me – not a word or a polite nod. He moved about while he took his pictures and then checked how they turned out. As an amateur photographer I tend to be in his shoes, behind the camera, taking the pictures. So while I think he was overdoing it, could it be me? Situations as these has made me a bit more conscious about how I behave as a photographer. I would have preferred he at least approached me afterwards, asking me if it was okay.

I know that approaching strangers to ask them to model for you is a personal challenge that is difficult for many photographers to overcome. It is even recognized as something for photographers to train at, just as composition and choosing the right aperture is. Guides on “how-to-talk-to-strangers” can be found in photographic magazines and on the Internet. I’m not good at it myself. It is even a dilemma if you should ask, because asking is not even always the best solution as people then start posing and become self conscious, whereby you loose the natural response.

I hope my paparazzi got a useful picture, but if he had just asked I would have made the job easier for him.