You can’t take pictures of people indefinitely. At some point you know it’s time to pack your bag and go.

You start to see the same faces over and over again. Or you realise that you’re walking around in circles and wonder if people start to notice that. The smaller the pond you fish in, the faster you’re out of fish. But every pond is different as I experienced during an evening of bingo.

I’ve never taken photos of a bingo event so I was actually thrilled to be at one. I hadn’t been taking photographs for a few months and this seemed like a good opportunity to get back in the saddle again. And things seemed promising: a room with 100+ people, mostly concerned about the numbers on a sheet before them and not about a photographer hunting for the perfect picture.

As always, I started preparing my cameras after I arrived at the scene. I always do that as it gives me some time to pick up the mood in the room around me and slowly transition into the role of photographer. While I was busy with preparations, some looked over their shoulders to see what I was doing. That was a hint for what was to come.

Even though the bingo was a happy occasion, it was also a quiet one. People need to hear the numbers being announced. In contrast with other activities like carnival, the clicking of my camera was very noticeable. Even during other activities like when the jury checks the bingo card of a winner, there wasn’t much sound. There was no way to hide.

Slightly distracted.

So I quickly switched to telephoto lenses to take pictures of people without getting too close to them. Even though that worked, I could tell people were keeping an eye on me. Not that I was a nuisance (I think) but because I triggered their curiosity.

So I got up the stairs and took pictures from a high angle. But even then, people at some point looked up to see what I was doing. Even on a different level in the building, they were onto me.

"I know you're there!"

When I tried to get more close with a 50mm equivalent lens, people started to giggle. Sometimes this works well: you make contact with your subjects, have a chat and hopefully the opportunity to take a photo while talking. In this case though, the group giggled too loud. I feared this would be a distraction for the rest of the group, so I soon made my escape to another table.

Then came my rescue: the organisation announced that this was the last bingo session before the break. I quickly made the best of the time that was left and when people started to make their way to the bar, I felt relieved and started packing.

Bingo turned out to be an adventure.

Side note: bingo is apparently still pretty much a gender thing. I only noticed halfway that only about 3 of the 100+ participants were actually male.