dorseymatt
Eagle Member
Not knowing how experienced any given camera person is, I have no idea how to determine whether experience makes a difference in avoiding getting hit. Maybe experience enables camera people to set up in less risky spots, but I really don't think experience will make them more nimble or faster on the draw to escape an incoming disc.
This guy that Weese hit was standing in the OB area, so it's not like he was in the middle of the fairway. He was probably where he was instructed to be on that hole. And as has been pointed out, perspective when looking through the viewfinder can be disorienting when it comes to things moving toward you.
I think the biggest thing about the incident that leads me to not blame the camera person regardless of any experience factor is that the disc skipped. It's one thing to see the disc coming and be able to move out of its way when it is on a clear and predictable trajectory. A skipping disc is different. It could skip high, it could skip low, it could skip straight, it could go left or right at a variety of different angles. He could have attempted to move and wound up moving right into the path of the disc when standing still would have meant it missed him. He has no way of knowing that in the moment.
That's all very fair. To be honest, if this happens to a CCDG or Jomez camera operator, I think almost nothing of it, other than it's really unfortunate for the player (sometimes traveling out of bounds to land in bounds is the intended line. Which i know you know, but I'm saying it for what it's worth). That's because of those crews' history and credibility. The incident I'm referring to happened in a particular context, and it makes it ripe for criticism. It's another thing that points to the crew's inexperience and, in general, the idea that they may not have been ready for this. Maybe I'm wrong, and that guy was extremely experienced, and there was simply nothing he could do. That's possible. I watched it twice, and that's how how it looked to me, but I wasn't there, in his shoes.