Gas Man

Gas Man, Petrol Boy, Gas Price King, Gas Huffer, Mr. Gas. You name it, I’ve been called it. Since 2002 I have been shooting gas prices on a very regular basis and friends and colleagues make sure to poke fun at me regularly. The jokes continually roll in.

I even had a little bet with a co-worker a few years back. At the time, he was shooting a lot of subway security and he thought that by the end of the year he would have shot more security photos than my gas prices. Well, he was wrong. I think I edged him out by 2 or 3 assignments.
There were some weeks that I would do gas prices twice in one week. Gas trucks, prices through the raindrops on windows, tight shots, loose shots, people pumping gas. The list goes on. I even shot gas prices on vacation once. I see a pump and I am drawn to it. It’s an illness, I know.

In 2002 the big story with gas prices was that they were nearing $2.00 a gallon. Every time it inched closer, I was there. People were pissed. Two dollar gas?!?! Since then we’ve seen the price reach beyond $5.00 a gallon in areas around where I live. Yup, I visited that station more than once. But, I never expected to see what is happening today. Gas for $1.59 a gallon.
I honestly never thought I would see gas for less than $3.00 in my lifetime, let alone under $2.00. People are thrilled, everyone loves them some cheap gas. You would think my assignment today would be a positive one about gas buyers rejoicing. Sorry. In case you didn’t get the memo, there isn’t any good news anymore. Even when consumers finally get a break they get dealt a blow. Seems that the cheap gas is all of the sudden hurting the economy.
Anyway, on my quest to find a different approach to shooting gas prices today, I saw a gas truck making a delivery at a gas station. Sometimes you can get something decent from this scenario, so I pulled in to the station. I went up to the guy, who I think I may have photographed before, and asked if he minded if I took a few frames of him doing his thing. He came back with the most ridiculous line/excuse I have ever heard. He said “ever since 9/11 we can’t allow you to take photos of the gas truck or the operation.” He went on to say “if we see people taking photos we are supposed to call the cops.”
I stood there for a second trying to understand. I almost started laughing. My better judgment prevailed. I asked if he was sure about this policy since it was the first I had heard of it and had shot these trucks several times in the past without incident. I’ve actually had some good conversations with gas truck drivers.
This line is becoming all too popular with police and other security types and it really bothers me. Yes, 9/11 was terrible but do we really need to use that day as an excuse to try and block people from taking photographs of bridges, buildings, gas trucks and popular tourist sites? Even worse, do people really need to be detained and in some cases arrested for doing so? There are way too many cases of this.

One thing I can say is that “ever since 9/11” I have shot a ton of gas price pictures.