Another great conference comes to a close and the blogosphere is full of great reviews, so many that I have yet to read them all.
Some highlights for me included meeting new faces, like maddog medic and Shaolin Traumashere at meetups and in the Zoll booth.
The most inspirational moment for me came on the last day as things were winding down. It wasn't someone inspired by our content or who writes blogs, or even someone who developed a new EMS system or program, but two sisters.
This was also the moment I realized the importance of being a person before being a blogger and how something so seemingly innocent can easily lead to disaster.
Zoll offers a CPR Challenge station so two people can do it side by side and compare their ability. As I was sipping coffee in the booth, I looked over and saw two girls barely old enough to reach the CPR set up at the station doing their best, which was as good or better than I've seen sometimes in the field by "experienced rescuers."
It was inspirational! Here were 2 kids barely old enough to spell Emergency, having fun applying the basics of CPR! Forget teaching this in high schools, we need to move it forward.
Then I ruined the moment, and in an awkward way. Being the person I am, I wanted to capture this amazing moment I was witnessing. My hand went instinctively for my phone and before I knew what was happening I was framing up a photo.
Goosebumps were forming on my arms thinking about how the description of what I was seeing could be applied in so many ways to help rescuers and lay people alike take CPR seriously.
Through the viewfinder suddenly the mother of the children was sternly, and rightly, asking me who I was and why I was trying to photograph her children.
Now this moment was stained by my wanting to be a part of it. The mother's interaction with me distracted the kids and the moment I had wanted to capture was gone and I felt like an idiot. I never did snap the photo and offered my phone to her to prove it. Apologies spilled from my mouth and I returned to the podium where my coffee was and reflected on what had just happened.
"Way to go" I thought to myself. I could have simply watched, applauded when they were finished and had a perfect memory to use when convincing schools to add CPR classes.
I let my need to capture things digitally interfere with capturing the soul and emotion of what was happening. Something that, I now know, would have been far more powerful than a picture.
The rest of the day and our entire trip home that moment sank in and I began to second guess not getting the photo.
"Perhaps if I explained why?" The little angel on my shoulder offered.
"Oh, yeah sure, tell mom you're taking the picture to put on the internet, that'll go smoothly," responded the devil on the other side.
Now when I reflect on the moment that was, then was not, I realize there was quite the crowd gathering to watch what happened and I ruined it for them as well.
Idiot.
Some highlights for me included meeting new faces, like maddog medic and Shaolin Traumashere at meetups and in the Zoll booth.
The most inspirational moment for me came on the last day as things were winding down. It wasn't someone inspired by our content or who writes blogs, or even someone who developed a new EMS system or program, but two sisters.
This was also the moment I realized the importance of being a person before being a blogger and how something so seemingly innocent can easily lead to disaster.
Zoll offers a CPR Challenge station so two people can do it side by side and compare their ability. As I was sipping coffee in the booth, I looked over and saw two girls barely old enough to reach the CPR set up at the station doing their best, which was as good or better than I've seen sometimes in the field by "experienced rescuers."
It was inspirational! Here were 2 kids barely old enough to spell Emergency, having fun applying the basics of CPR! Forget teaching this in high schools, we need to move it forward.
Then I ruined the moment, and in an awkward way. Being the person I am, I wanted to capture this amazing moment I was witnessing. My hand went instinctively for my phone and before I knew what was happening I was framing up a photo.
Goosebumps were forming on my arms thinking about how the description of what I was seeing could be applied in so many ways to help rescuers and lay people alike take CPR seriously.
Through the viewfinder suddenly the mother of the children was sternly, and rightly, asking me who I was and why I was trying to photograph her children.
Now this moment was stained by my wanting to be a part of it. The mother's interaction with me distracted the kids and the moment I had wanted to capture was gone and I felt like an idiot. I never did snap the photo and offered my phone to her to prove it. Apologies spilled from my mouth and I returned to the podium where my coffee was and reflected on what had just happened.
"Way to go" I thought to myself. I could have simply watched, applauded when they were finished and had a perfect memory to use when convincing schools to add CPR classes.
I let my need to capture things digitally interfere with capturing the soul and emotion of what was happening. Something that, I now know, would have been far more powerful than a picture.
The rest of the day and our entire trip home that moment sank in and I began to second guess not getting the photo.
"Perhaps if I explained why?" The little angel on my shoulder offered.
"Oh, yeah sure, tell mom you're taking the picture to put on the internet, that'll go smoothly," responded the devil on the other side.
Now when I reflect on the moment that was, then was not, I realize there was quite the crowd gathering to watch what happened and I ruined it for them as well.
Idiot.
Comments
But first, don't be so hard on yourself. Your motives were good ones.
I don't know about the mother's reaction being so appropriate. It was a public place, and a public event. One where MANY people were taking pictures of MANY things. To go in there, and do something somewhat unusual, and get upset at someone taking pictures is a little over the top for me.
Seems to me that someone taking a picture of that, of two kids doing something both adorable and exciting, would be almost inevitable.
And about people getting bent about things going on the internet, pictures of their kids, oh no! I have little sympathy for that. The internet is a fabulous place, and is not full of predators finding pictures of children and hunting them down. Seriously, people. I wonder if her problem had more to do with the picture being on a phone, which implies all sorts of negative things to some overreacting people, than she would have if you used a camera, especially a high quality camera, which suggests legitimacy to some? If it had been Ted taking the picture, would she have reacted the same way?
And you were right, it would have been a wonderful thing for educating people. No question.
But.
About ruining a moment by trying to capture it... yeah. That happens. The best I've come up with is that some things are meant to exist only while they are happening, and that the act, the involvement of witnessing it, is as important as the thing itself. Looking at it from that angle, bummer. I can see how you'd feel kind of crappy.
But don't overdo it.
if only she realized that potential in who we are and what we do on a regular basis....
The mother was totally in the wrong here. You didn't approach the kids, you didn't try to stage a photo, you were trying to catch something that was spontaneously happening in a setting where it was appropriate for that particular activity to take place.
Anyone who goes to a public event like this should expect to be photographed.
In sum, you weren't the idiot, the mother was.
Bill Carey
If I use a photo on the internet (for my blog of FB) I blur out any faces of children we do not personally know or if the parent (s), child ask me to.