It was hard not to feel a little bit like a bull in a china shop the other day while photographing all those restored Chevys on display at a gathering of the Vintage Chevrolet Club of America.
Typically, I wear two cameras when I'm shooting an event _ one equipped with a wide angle lens and one equipped with a telephoto lens.
The telephoto _ an 80mm-200mm _ has a very prominent lens shade just begging to get banged against something. And if you take a closer look at it, it bears all kinds of scars from door jambs, etc.
I wasn't concerned at all about putting a few more scars on the lens; while I don't abuse them, they are tools designed to be used so we expect some wear-and-tear on equipment.
I was more concerned about inadvertantly dinging the pristine paint that those vintage cars with one of my cameras as I looked for the best angles.
And judging by some of the side-long glances I got from a few car owners, they were just as concerned that a clumsy photographer might mar their pride-and-joys.
And I can't say that I blame them. I know how I feel when I discover a ding left by some careless parking lot miscreant in my wife's Chevy Impala.
And the Chevys we're talking about here raised the bar a whole lot higher than that.
So I took extra pains to be very, very careful _ to the point of taking a camera off my shoulder and putting on the ground while I used the other one.