Comments on: Vail photographer fired for taking photo of dangling pantsless skier

By: Alex

Alex — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 20:11:10 +0000

Karen,

I see your point in some respects.

However, it’s the task of the journalist to report on things as they are occurring. To report on the bad things that sometimes happen. Ideally, business entities, governments, and private individuals improve their behaviour in response to this kind of event.

Let’s take the journalists who reported on the Exxon Valdez oil spill.

Would the journalists have done more good just picking up a shovel and cleaning up the mess themselves? Or did they do more good reporting on the situation at hand — the ecological damage, the corporate actions, and the piloting of the ship?

Or that dude who narrated the Hindenburg disaster. Not much he could have done to help, so he filmed the terrible wreckage of the once mighty hydrogen blimp. Maybe his reporting led to blimp companies switching to helium gas?

I feel that I can say this not because I’m a journalist but because once in Austria I plopped myself on a chairlift without the chair in the down position and had to wrestle the thing down while 20 feet in the air in a rapidly moving lift.

It made me mad and made me wish that the lift operators had done their job better.

I just want people to do their jobs better.

Thanks for listening.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:31:41 +0000

I mean, this photo could really turn this guy’s world upside down. He may have been stuck in a rut before that trip to Vail, y’know? Now, he might get exposed to numerous opportunities he never imagined. Maybe he’ll hang out more with his son, or stand taller among his peers.
You have made a lot of ass-umptions about the quick shooting photog. without looking for the upside.

By: Jason

Jason — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:27:00 +0000

Wow, Karen. Comparing a tourist to a torture victim is a bit of a stretch isn’t it? This photo is hilarious any way you slice it.

By: You're f*cking up

You're f*cking up — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:41:19 +0000

Karen, there’s nothing wrong with documenting reality. What’s wrong is when people try to suppress the truth. This seems to be the priority for both Vail and Jackson Hole Mountain Resort: to warp reality. What these two resorts appear to be overlooking is the very basic fact that skiing is fun and that people will continue to ski regardless of deaths, avalanches, emergencey evacs or naked people dangling from a ski lift. How hard can it be to work in a ski resort’s marketing department? People will always come skiing. It’s not like they work in the marketing department for Phillip Morris. These people are making it look difficult when their job is to make it look effortless.

They need to get over their idea of resort branding and get on with the idea of skiing.

By: Karen

Karen — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 16:45:07 +0000

Good for Sharpshooter and Vail. Odom is bum. Imagine someone needing help,and you pick up a camera. Idiot! No one was hurt, says who???? The guys young son was watching his dad hang upside down naked. The man was naked and humiliated. When we do it to prisoners, the lawyers call it public ridicule and a violation of civil rights. When it happens to a guy who paid ALOT of money to ski, it is okay?

Good for Vail. Good for Sharpshooters. I hope Odom takes a course in common decency. He would do it all again? Fool.

By: Jim Stanford

Jim Stanford — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 20:23:41 +0000

the Deadspin comments just about brought tears to my eyes:

http://deadspin.com/5125163/hero-photographer-canned-by-fussy-ski-resort#c

By: Dave

Dave — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:39:30 +0000

Marty is a rockstar.

The Sharpshooters’ crew are wankers.

I guarantee the poor bloke is laughing his bollocks off over the situation. This is unfortunate for Marty.

By: Fresh Tracks

Fresh Tracks — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:23:38 +0000

By this logic, shouldn’t the liftie who didn’t put the seat all the way down get fired too?

Most resort managers aren’t known for their sense of humor. This confirms it. Lawsuit certain to follow from humiliated guest.

By: David

David — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 17:17:27 +0000

I used to work for Sharpshooters. It was my first ski bum job, in Breckenridge. I always thought the owners were jerks; this pretty much proves it.

Seems like if the guy was off duty and shooting with his own camera, he could file a wrongful termination suit.

By: John

John — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:09:27 +0000

“‘I was out on my own with my own camera, so I didn’t think it was a big deal,’ Odom said.

Makes you wonder then what is going to be an acceptable photo on the web. The photographer was on his own and if he had posted it in his own blog would the world and his employer be after him?
What a load of crap. I’m sure Marty will have no problem finding a better job after this timeless photo.