Mass Rejection... Welcome to Image!

Mass Rejection... Welcome to Image!

14^th April 2011

This morning we arrived in Kusadasi (Ephesus), Turkey. The photographers were up at 6 am. Richard, Hernan, Lee and I were shooting on gangway (when passengers disembark and embark). Stuart was dressed up as a Turkish Sultan. He certainly looked the part and is a real character so putting him in the costume is ideal.

Unfortunately, Kusadasi was absolutely freezing this morning. There was an incredibly strong wind so we had to keep grabbing hold of the rail. At one point we thought we’d have to end shooting early as it started raining pretty heavily. It soon stopped but the bitter wind didn’t! 

We were shooting gangway from 7-11. We have a photo target set for each gangway and today's is 800 images. If you reach that target before 11 (for example) you can finish shooting early and have a bit more time to yourself. Unfortunately this wasn’t the case for us. By 11am we’d only shot approximately 700 images.

The photographers are saying it’s because the passengers are sick to death of us as the cruises are 11-13 nights. They’ve seen and bought so many photos that now, they don’t want to even pose for a picture. It’s apparently much harder photographing passengers in Europe (especially the English) compared to South America and the Caribbean. Richard came over and summed things up nicely “Welcome to Image… Mass rejection”. It's enough to make anyone ask themselves "what have I got myself into?" So many people refuse to have their photo taken and to be fair, I can understand why. We were constantly reminded not to take their rejection to heart, it’s just something we have to get used to.

Smudging today made me miss Becks a lot!! We smudged together during the training week in Miami and had such a laugh. It wasn’t the same without her!

Afterwards I headed up to the crew mess (food hall/dining room) with Hernan for some lunch. Image warned us that the food on the cruise ships was utter tripe. Either they are wrong or I had extremely low expectations but the food is brilliant and there’s so much of it! Mama, get me some size 16’s for when I’ve finished my contract!

I desperately need to get some bits and pieces but the crew shop on board is shut. During port days, like today, the crew shop opens at 19.00 until 01.00. What a time to go and buy shampoo!

Anyway, I’m shattered so I’m going to have a nap. I start work tonight at 6.30 to midnight. It’s going to be a long evening. I’ll update a little later and let you all know how this evening went. Tomorrow we are in Crete and apparently there’s a good café with a decent internet speed. I’ll head there tomorrow and update blog.

So from a jet lagged photographer in Turkey, good night.

**UPDATE**

It’s 02.00h here. This evening went a bit better than yesterday. I started working in the gallery behind the counter and changing the photo displays. I finally met Jeni (Chile) who has been off ill for the past couple of days. She’s absolutely lovely. 

Later on, I was working up on deck 5 “Coral”. Coral is basically the standard studio set up with an under the ocean and cruise ship back drop. I took over from Stuart at 21.30 and we had to reach a target of 100 (we were half way there) by 23.30. 

It’s sometimes hard smudging (getting people to stop and have their photo taken) as they are usually leaving the restaurants, casino or heading somewhere. Having said that, I managed to hit the target and shot 53 images by 11. While working we are constantly on our feet, there’s no leaning or sitting down. We constantly have to stand up straight (someone pass me the iron rod). By the time 22.00 arrived my feet were killing me!! One thing I will say to anyone applying to work at image is buy some comfortable shoes… don’t do what I did and pay £10 for a pair of plastic shoes at Shoe Zone or Primark. If you do, like me, you’ll pay for it big time!! That’ll teach me for being such a cheap skate.

The crew shop was finally open but bloody hell, it was crap!! Everything so was expensive! The cheapest shampoo was $3 but for a bottle of Pantene it was $11!! Deodorant is $5 or more. When I asked Lucy where she gets her stuff from she told me she always heads to a local supermarket. It’s cheaper and there’s more choice.

This afternoon the sea was relatively choppy and boy, did I feel ill! It’s quite funny when you see groups of people walking in zig zags down a narrow corridor. We are all walking as if we’ve have one too many to drink. Feeling sea sick is awful though, not even focusing on the horizon helped. At one point I really thought I was going to have to hang my head over the back of the ship! Looking back on it, it seems funny now. At the time it’s anything but when you’re as white as a sheet, sweating and feeling as green as The Hulk.

After work a few of us headed up to the crew bar for a quick drink. Out on the deck is was bloody freezing and everyone is knackered.

The reason why I haven’t been connecting to the Internet on board is because again, it’s horrendously expensive. It’s dial-up speed so you can imagine just how slow it is. If you use the wired connection it’ll cost you 36 cents a minute and after midnight it’ll drop to 12 cents a minute. There’s a wireless connection but it’s about 64 cents a minute. So I’ve got it in case of an emergency, for the rest of the time, I’ll be on the hunt for internet cafés. According to the others, there are always a handful of bars with free wifi. Hopefully the parents will be online. I haven’t spoken to them since the day before I left Miami, it seems like longer though.

Hope everyone is finally on their ships now and having a laugh! Take care and speak to you all soon. Stay in touch.