Week 13, Day 7 (Being a brat is so much fun!)

Oh BUGGER! I just typed out a post, highlighted it to change the font, and the whole damn thing disappeared. Ctrl-Z doesn't work, nothing for it but to start again. I hate that when it happens...!

Anyway, as I was saying... (wonder if I can recreate it.. probably not as well as the first time but here goes)

There's a particularly unpleasant individual who seems impossible to avoid at our club's equestrian activities. You know the type - loud, rude, self-absorbed, and has nothing nice to say to or about anyone. While I was an office holder I had to grin and bear it because to let rip at her might confuse people into thinking it was the Secretary's opinion and not Karl's (natural for people to forget that behind the job is a person with feelings and opinions of their own that are not necessarily those of the club's).

But now I'm gleefully rank and file, and I can say what I like.

One of the things I like to do is to go to our club's events and get hundreds of photos of our girls in action. This takes all day, and you're on your feet and using all your (limited?) wits to get the shots, avoid being run over by horses, and making sure you've got at least five shots of every person. To be on the safe side you take lots of shots, then afterwards it takes several days to wade through the hundreds of photos, trimming to photo size, enhancing, adjusting colour balance, sharpness.. yeah well, I'm a perfectionist and I only have a 3.2mp camera so a lot of post-production work is necessary to get a good result.

I don't ever ask to be compensated, not even for batteries or cds. Mates say this makes me a fool, and they are probably right, but I love doing it, and I love it even more when everything works out and the rider is rapt with their pictures.

What I don't particularly care for is when you do your best to make an unfortunate rider of limited abilities look good, then they slag you off as being a bad photographer. Ummm.. no, it wasn't a trick of the camera that tilted your ass over your elbows, love!

This person has slagged me off so often and often so viciously that you pretty much reach saturation point. In my mis-spent youth I'd have just popped her one on the mouth, but I don't do violence any more (damn!). Giving her her pedigree wouldn't sink in, she's not bright enough to take it on board. But there is a third way to perhaps teach her about repercussions.

I had decided to never photograph her again, but I had so much fun at the Sth Island equestiran event over Easter, that naturally I found myself again taking hundreds of photos of our girls in action. Motormouth was present on a borrowed horse, and for once she was riding to a reasonable standard (damn good horse). I ended up taking about 20 or so individual shots, and they came up great when I looked at them in the editing suite.

During the weekend in question and ever since, Motormouth has said some particularly rude and nasty things about me to others, forgetting of course that it always comes back to the target. Nothing new there, she's always been spectacularly unagreeable and ungrateful for my efforts. Not that I wanted thanks, but constant bitchslaps are a bit on the nose.

So I decided, enough!

I have no idea how it happened.. but every single individual shot of Motormouth have disappeared from the disk. Most of the team shots went on a diet too (not hard.. she wasn't exactly good at staying in shot), somehow losing her from the frame. Somehow three stayed in there.. and none of them flattering.

Gee.. I can't THINK how that happened! It must have been a good wind to finally blow the martyr's hat right off my head. Nice to feel the sun on my face for a change, and that must be why I'm grinning!