Last year I attended the Arizona Renaissance Festival twice. Both times paying for tickets. My brother and I even considered getting seasons passes.
The first time was alright, a normal day at the Arizona Renaissance Festival. The second though…
As a photographer, when I go to events, let it be comic con or an outdoor festival I take pictures. Many times in the past those that are being photographed want to find their photos. Because of this I have gotten to the point where I print business cards with the web address of my events page (http://dreamfinderproject.com/events) and hand these out.
When I got to the Arizona Renaissance Festival, I did my usual social media post of “we are in you” with a picture of our tickets (or badges at other events) and a business card. It shows I go places. It makes for engagement and reach.
When I go to shows at the Arizona Renaissance Festival I usually put a few dollars in the basket as well as a card because I want the performers to be able to see their photos, plus it makes for good networking with the performers. We are all artists after all.
I don’t know what crawled up someone’s … but the second day (Feb 29, 2017) was a “bad day.”
I had just taken a photo of some ST:TOS cosplayers, and then swung around and took a shot of some cosplayers I knew from other events. After handing them a card I was almost immediately accosted by someone who identified them as the “head of security.” They had one of my business cards and said “it’s you.”
For a few minutes they interrogated my brother and I in a public space saying we’re attempting to sell something at the Arizona Renaissance Festival.
I will admit, most photos at events I post, I offer an option to purchase a print (because prints aren’t free) but almost always offer the ability to share on social media completely free.
I explained this to the person, and said he understood and let us go about our way. After that experience, my brother and I decided we were going to take in one more complete show (Don Juan and Miguel’s Weird Show).
I shot some photos during the show, and after I gave Miguel my card. Moments later, three “security staff” swooped down and told us they were taking us to the office.
I let them know that had also been my plan as to how I had been treated already, though I had intended to put my gear in the car and drive over to the office. Instead they insisted they escort us.
After sitting and waiting for the office staff to get their stories straight and explaining what we were doing, that we weren’t selling anything, and that no, they don’t own my photos, they decided that we had done nothing wrong and let us go.
It is my feeling that they illegally detained my brother and myself for about an hour, embarrassed and slandered me, my brother, and my company in front of others in our same professional community, and were out right rude.
It’s sad, because I know at least one of the performers liked
