Professional Courtesy

The sun's been baking my pale Irish skin all day. Polo is fun to watch, but the half time at the America's Cup of Polo ran about three hours. Enough, already.

I'd been hired by an upscale Tequila company to shoot the event. They're one of the sponsors, and are about to award their branded trophy to the winning team. I'm bumping elbows with about a dozen other photographers, getting ready for my shot, when I notice the LCD panel on my flash is blank. "Uh oh." I try to power it up. Nothing. I open the battery door, and try that trick where you shuffle the AAs around a bit. It powers up... for a few seconds. I have backups (of course) but they're in my camera bag, which is about a quarter mile away at the tequila tent.

I see that another photographer has just replaced his batteries (he even has the same flash), and left the dead ones on his bag. "Are those your dead ones?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"I'm in a pinch here, can I try them?"

"Help yourself." He returns to firing off shots of the current sponsor award, Cartier. His batteries are hot... but they're not dead. I'm back in business. The other guy says "Hey I've got four fresh ones here you're welcome to," and starts digging into his pack.

"No time," I say, as my sponsors are walking onto the stage.

The batteries hold. I get my shots. I thank the guy as I leave the stage. He's a bit older than me, lean, weathered, he's obviously been at this a while. "No problem, that's how it's supposed to be. We help each other, man."

A while later I'm back at the tent, waiting for Journey (see above) to come on. I've replaced all of batteries from my kit, and happen to see the other photographer walk by my tent. I dash back, grab an unopened package of 4 lithiums, and run behind him. "Hey! Photographer!" He turns. I toss the package to him. Grin. "Thanks again, dude." He smiles, waves, walks off.

That's how it's supposed to be.