Rejection plays a big part in being a journalist writes blogger Andy Toft.

For every person who is happy to talk to you there is generally another who won’t.

Stick a camera in your hand and that ratio becomes even more heavily tipped in the direction of the negatives.

And so doing a vox-pop – where you go out onto the streets and try to interview members of the public about a given topic – can be a really hard slog.

It’s the journalistic equivalent of cold calling and you need to have a thick skin as potential interview candidate after potential interview candidate cuts you dead with a wave of the hand and a quickened step.

This isn’t always the case.

Generally football fans before or after games are more than happy to talk about their club.

And so last week’s assignment at The Hawthorns, as supporters set off for the game in Norwich was as easy as taking aim at fish in a barrel.

Move on a few days though and I headed for Walsall to interview people about the best places to visit in their town.

This was sparked by a story in our paper about the town’s tourist information centre closing due to a lack of council funding.

As I set out on the short drive to Walsall the idea seemed like a decent one.

When I arrived the town was teeming with shoppers, the sun was shining – the scene seemed set for a smooth ride to a productive morning.

Sadly though the people of Walsall were more than a little camera shy and so my initial optimism took a battering as interviewee after interviewee turned down my advances.

In fact I began to feel like one of those poor so and so’s deployed in town centres to ask if you have had an accident at work – how many of us have been tempted to reply “No, but you will if you don’t stop bugging me pal”?

After my arduous morning on Park Street I shall be slightly more sympathetic to their plight.

Eventually I managed to get enough interviews on tape to make a video for the site and I’m really grateful to the handful of people who did agree to go on camera – good things will come to them.

I’m sure they will testify it was a quick and painless procedure.

So please, if you do see me on the streets with my camera, have a heart and speak to me.

Even a journalist can only deal with so much rejection.