This month I photographed Princess Anne, The Mayor of Bexley and The Chairman of Sevenoaks in the space of a couple of days, and I got stuck in a lift with one of them.
Well I’ve had my fair share of tricky moments with dignitaries over the years – even once having Princess Anne hold a door open for me. Being stuck in a lift is a first, nearly stuck anyway – as we got out quite quickly.
It took about 30 seconds before it dawned on us that the lift doors weren’t opening. First thoughts were – am I claustrophobic? Don’t know, maybe I am. What about the person I am with – are they? So I put my camera gear down and prepared for a wait, should we press the alarm?
It was an interesting minute or so as I considered what might happen – how long we might be stuck there. Not that it was a serious situation, to be honest I just wanted to do the photographs I needed to get and then move on to the rest of the day. However the thought that this might involve a lift engineer battling his way through Friday London traffic briefly flashed through my mind – slightly alarming.
Anyway, I pressed the alarm button and the doors opened in a few seconds – phew!
We took the stairs on the way out.
steve hickey 