Your most DANGEROUS photographic moment

randyB said:

2 dangerous shoots actually. The first one, being 1200 feet underground in a zinc mine photographing the blast crew loading the charge into the bore holes wondering if my multipule flashes will set off the the charge and kill us all, the crew boss said NO, the slurry was very stable until the blasting cap blew. The second one, while on a shoot for a very large hardwood timber mill I had to get a shot of their kiln building, the only vantage point was on top of what I thought was a small water tower so I climbed up the ladder to what I thought was a "walkway" and went around to the other side for the shot. As I was focusing and framing with the camera to my eye I noticed the image changing a little so I looked down to find myself sliding down this very slightly slanted sawdust-powder covered roof toward the edge, no rail, nothing to stop me from falling 40+ feet to the concrete below, I very quickly looked around and grabbed a metal pipe and stopped my slide. While hanging on with one hand I recomposed and clicked several shots one of which made it into the brochure. The "water tower" was actually the sawdust collection tank.
RandyB

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got to love that kind of dedication

I was flying high on a Huey above Enewetak Atolls' northern most islands when I spied a huge spotted fish on the ocean side of the reef. It was a whale shark and I quickly pulled out the F1n I carried everywhere and began to snap pics. We were flying much higher than usual and having a hard time keeping station over the parking lot sized island below because of the heavy 'trade' winds. I leaned way, way out over the edge of the chopper from my position in the right-side 'Hell Hole' where I flew as a Dust-Off medic and kept on shooting from the edge of my seat until I couldn't see the fish any more. It was only after I moved back into the machine that I realized my safety belt was not on me and that I should have taken a nose-dive right out of the bird but didn't. I can only say that one of those angels that my mother loves to talk about was holding me in, nothing else makes sense, I was really way out there.

That same angel must have been looking after us all that day because the young pilot/newly appointed aircraft commander and a even newer copilot decided to take that chopper to ten thousand feet that day, something I doubt they could have gotten away with stationed anywhere else.

I will take a moment to point out what most of us know already, young people do very, very dumb things. Who would have come for us when something went wrong, we were IT! By the time the standby crew knew we were going down and got up north, the sun would have set and we would have floated away to oblivion, if we survived a crash into the sea at all.

We tried to keep an eye on the very small islands below, we were flying VFR (visual flight rules) only, and between the clouds that rolled in between us and the sea and the heavy wind steadily blowing us away from the atoll, we weren't doing a such a good job of looking after our own lives. Still we went up...

By the time we hit ten thousand, we did make it, 2 miles woo-hoo!!!, we had no idea if we could find the atoll again because we might have been taken too far out to see the thing. Our pucker factor really hit the heights when chip detector alarms started going off inside the cockpit and we started reviewing what not to do until the rotors stopped spinning once we were in the water, if we even made it down in one piece. FYI, stay strapped into the bird till the blades stop turing otherwise it's the blender for you!!

Obviously we made it down ok and back to Enewetak Island. That chopper was not long after replaced, as all four of our birds were, by six new rebuilds fresh out of Texas, courtesy of a hulking big C5a Galaxy and Uncle Sugar. As it turned out, we had massive corrosion all through these helos, from the Pacific salt and H-Bomb radioactively spiced environment; I was told not long after I shot the pics we send in with our request for repair or new aircraft, that they were the worse case ever of corrosion on flying U.S. Army Hueys.

I did a lot of stupid things when I was young, oftentimes to get a shot, other times because I was just plain stupid with a camera in tow, but that day is one I'll never forget so that's why it's my choice for this thread.

Well, mine were in the pursuit of video while working on a TV show. I stood in a live minefield in Northern Cambodia that was in the process of being cleared by MAG and I climbed a live, erupting (yes, currently erupting) volcano in Chile.

My favorite photographic time was 89-94. I just used to play with the camera and unfortunately lost many of the photos/negatives and had a large number confiscated. But I was taking pix in Iraq, Tchad, Central African Republic, Zaire/Congo, Sarajevo.

I posted a couple of pics on a few forums and got one email saying "I would looooove to take photos in crisis areas, it must be really interesting! Please give me some tips on how to do it!"

The only tip I could think of giving was "If you want to go pointing a camera at people in crisis areas, the best backup I can think of is a company of the Foreign Legion, without it I would not bother trying ;-) "

randyB said:

2 dangerous shoots actually. The first one, being 1200 feet underground in a zinc mine photographing the blast crew loading the charge into the bore holes wondering if my multipule flashes will set off the the charge and kill us all, the crew boss said NO, the slurry was very stable until the blasting cap blew.
RandyB

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It is. High explosives are so safe, that many of them you can set fire too and they will simply burn. To gain the maximum energy from a high eplosive you must initiate what is called a "high order" explosion from it. It takes allot of power to do that with some explosives. You have to have an explosion to cause an explosion in other words.

eli griggs said:

I was flying high on a Huey above Enewetak Atolls' northern most islands

.....

I did a lot of stupid things when I was young, oftentimes to get a shot, other times because I was just plain stupid with a camera in tow, but that day is one I'll never forget so that's why it's my choice for this thread.

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Great Story!! Thanks!

Late last summer, while photographing in the afternoon in Florida, I found myself having increasing difficulty focusing the camera under the dark cloth. Nothing seemed to work correctly, no movements, nada. As an MD who is almost 70 ( but in very good health ), I started asking myself what was going on. I realized that the sweating under the dark cloth and my soaked clothing probably meant that I was developing heat exhaustion. I started to get dizzy, and thought that I would probably have to crawl into a nearby club house. Just then a worker came by with a cart, and I asked him to get me inside ASAP. The attendants put cool towels on me, and supplied fluids. After about 30 mintues the room stopped spinning, but it was a few days until I felt completely "right". If I had been alone on one of my usual solo outings into our nearby state parks I probably would have been in real trouble.

The lesson: Drink plenty of fluids before going out into the hot sun, and consider taking a cell phone with you. The dark cloth holds in heat, and the back packs can be heavy. I know that I had no encounters with black bears or other varmits, but I can tell you that the experience was certainly scary, and enlightening. Heat exhaustion comes on very quickly, and without much warning. If you're near a cliff....Careful.

Ed

Most dangerous thing I have done was not all that dangerous...just a misdemeanor and mischievous. I could have fallen down a pretty major sheer hill, but I don't think it would have killed me unless I rolled just right. A local brick mansion at the side of a fairly steep hill above an old river bed burned to the ground, and I hopped the fence several months later to shoot the remains. I had just started taking pictures. About halfway through the roll, I saw a security guard walking the grounds. He didn't see me at first, and I could have hid or left, but I decided to just continue my shooting, as I saw absolutely no reason why he would have a problem with a student taking pictures of a jacked up pile of rubble. I figured he'd come over, ask me what the hell I was doing, and I would tell him, we'd have a nice conversation, etc. Well, he came up to me and was immediately horribly disturbed by the fact that I was there. He took my attempts at small talk as racism because I saw his name tag and recognized his Persian accent, and asked asked him in Farsi where he was from in Iran. ("I am American! What do you mean where am I from!?!) He grabbed my camera and my coat and demanded the film. He said I could either give him the film or he would call the police. I told him that I would get a trespassing ticket, while his company would get their asses sued and he would lose his job, then told him to call the police and demanded my camera back. He let go and started radioing, and I jumped the fence and escaped down the "cliff". Well, I avoided my trespassing ticket, but I paid with a month's worth or poison oak all over my body. My arms looked like Popeye's they were so swollen! If somebody came onto my burned-down property, I wouldn't care if they took a dump on the doorstep, personally, but I guess others don't feel the same way.

Mahler_one said:

....The dark cloth holds in heat, and the back packs can be heavy. I know that I had no encounters with black bears or other varmits, but I can tell you that the experience was certainly scary, and enlightening. Heat exhaustion comes on very quickly, and without much warning. If you're near a cliff....Careful.
Ed

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I very much appreciate this because it is useful advice that relates to my own experience. I've never got to that point, but I can easily see how it could happen.

Just thought I'd mention that the best darkcloths are white on one side, black only on the inside. Might as well reflect as much of that radiant energy as you practically can. Lots of folks know this, but some may not have thought of it.

bowzart said:

Just thought I'd mention that the best darkcloths are white on one side, black only on the inside. Might as well reflect as much of that radiant energy as you practically can. Lots of folks know this, but some may not have thought of it.

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A friend and I were driving north past Mono Lake and started up the grade on Hwy 395. On our right were some great rocks in the snow, so we grabbed our 4x5's and went just to quickly check them out. We ended up shooting for several hours.

Because I did not expect to be out long I did not take my sunglasses. It became increasingly difficult to see (the beginning of snow blindness), so I used my darkcloth over my head with just the tiniest slit to look through...it cut enough glare out so that I could still function.

I did get a wonderful image of a sheep skull in the snow.

Vaughn

Vaughn said:

I did get a wonderful image of a sheep skull in the snow.

Vaughn

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Vaughn, I'd sure like to see that one!

Apparently, something was dangerous for the sheep, too.

This is pretty tame compared to most things so far and not really dangerous at all but .... a few years ago (2000) myself and a buddy were in Beirut engaging in a pursuit that we christened "urban trekking". This involved picking a random point in the city from the map and walking there. I wasn't big into photography at this stage but my friend was to some extent. So, we were walking down this street and saw a large election poster which featured a woman candidate (something of a rarity). My friend pulled out his camera a took a shot.

Next thing we are surrounded by some quite aggressive Lebanese soldiers who are angrily pointing at the camera and ushering us across the street. We were brought to their commanding officer who thankfully spoke some English and explained to us that if we handed over the film everything will be fine. We did this and everything was fine.

It transpired that we had been inadvertently photographing the building where the trials of members of the South Lebanese Army (who collaborated with the Israeli army in the south) had been taking place. Ooops!

A few days after this we were questioned by the Syrian secret police. But in such a nice way that we didn't realise it until afterwards

Nothing so dramatic as some of these stories, for sure, but the most dangerous thing I do when pursuing a photograph is the drive to and from the site of the photograph over one of the most dangerous places around - the American highway.

Two stories

One is from me and another from someone else.

Long ago, I was photography over a cliff with my first Wisner 4x5 tech field. Iches away from the edge. I had a little group gathering around me to watch and see what I photographing. The camera was pointing downward to the sea coast and rock.
I was reaching behind me for a film holder when I heard a click from my quick release and the collective gasp of those behind me. Then, I just counted how many times my camera rolled then flew over the cliff. Thank goodness for insurance.

Other story is when I was doing a Sea kayak trip in the Vancouver islands, following pods of Orcas for the photography. One of our party decided to do some fishing one foggy morning by himself. He brought along his Nikon auto focus camera. This is back in the mid 80's when those were very expensive.
We heard this guys give a shout and the a small angus scream.
When he came back to shore, he had a great but sad tale to share. It seems while out in the fog, a bull orca did a spy hop next to him and when the guy started to grab his camera he almost dropped his fancy $400 fishing rod and reel. He grabbed for it but his Nikon went over instead.
The painful scream we had heard was him watching that camera tailspin downward.

1968
My first job for a big time daily.
Covered a peace demonstration, and learned that folks come to break heads
because they want to break heads. Was caught between a demonstrator and a cop,
who were happy to try to kill each other,
but I was in between, a 17 year old kid
and it was really, totally, and completely damned dark.
As they came for me, I fired the Strobonar off in their face
and got away.

Got the shot, ran on the front page.

Next assignment was a string quartet. Nicer.

d

Icy Grand Canyon and I almost slipped, "stepping outside of the rail".

While shooting in the North Cascades this summer I drove along a logging road that quickly narrowed to nothing. I was very close to finding the end of the road. I had to back up an incline through slide alder while trying to hug the side of the mountain.

I love black top...


Bob

hughitb said:

A few days after this we were questioned by the Syrian secret police. But in such a nice way that we didn't realise it until afterwards

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I would love to hear more about that. Myself, I have only been interrogated on my photography by police and interior ministry forces in Russia, and they never managed to do that nicely.

Erik Petersson said:

I would love to hear more about that. Myself, I have only been interrogated on my photography by police and interior ministry forces in Russia, and they never managed to do that nicely.

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Ah, it was nothing as dramatic as I was implying We visited a place in Southern Lebanon where some rather gruesome events happened back in the 90s. We were hanging around outside when this man approached us and started chatting in a friendly manner. He was spinning this whole yarn about having lived in Australia for a long time and he was just back. He was then asking us all about where we were from, and what we were doing in Lebanon, who we knew here, etc etc. We had a friend from the Irish army with us who was incredibly rude to the guy, and ushered us quickly into the car and away. We were a bit annoyed and asked why he did this. "Don't talk to those guys" he said "Syrian secret police".

bowzart said:

Vaughn, I'd sure like to see that one! Apparently, something was dangerous for the sheep, too.

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If I can find a copy to scan, I will. I printed it 16x20, so I need to find a 4x5 proof to scan.

Vaughn

Here is the skull in the snow -- unfortunately I was unable to reproduce here all the texture in the snow of the original print. Posted image taken with a digital camera from a 16x20 silver gelatin print.

Taken with Gowland PocketView 4x5 and Caltar IIN 150/5.6 Photo taken as found...if fact I came close to stepping on the skull. Otherwise I might have backed the camera back just a little except for my boot print would have shown.

Vaughn

My most dangerous situation was on fashion photography!

It was above main pedestrian street in Sarajevo, and on construction where people worked on repairing of outside of buiding. So, there were models on construction, lifted there with vehicle carrying basket for street lights repairing. After models, I was lifted up, carrying cameras and equpment in hands. When I stepped out of basket to construction, my foot sliped, and I started to going down. It was about 6 meters high. One of models grab my hand and stopped my fall enough for me to grab construction with other hand. She saved my body from being broken if I would fall on street, who knows, maybe I would fall on some of people who were staying there and wached, or just passing by and broke myself and some other(s) and probably she saved my life.

Vaughn said:

Here is the skull in the snow --

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That's great! Interesting, the structure of the nose part of the skull must contribute to the particular resonance of the Baa-aa, which I can almost hear, looking at it. With the texture of the snow visible, I bet it's terrific.

Thanks!

While I was working at Kodak one of my fellow employees took me to Letchworth State Park in western New York to shoot photographs of waterfalls and fall colors. He took me to lower Letchworth falls, and I started walking across the top of the falls. At one point, since I was wearing waterproofed hiking boots with big neoprene lugs, I stepped into the following water at the top of the falls on to alge covered flat rockets. As soon as I put all my weight on the foot in the water, the current started to move me very quickly to the edge of the waterfall. I immediately jumped to the next dry rock. When I turned around and looked at the foot prints on the alge I had moved from 10 feet from the edge to less than two feet from the edge!

Steve

Steve;

That whole area has been posted as off limits now due to the deaths of several people. That still does not prevent us "violating" the prohibition. Last year, I took a fellow APUG member from Europe on a photo trip to Letchworth and we did just about what you did, but I cautioned him against stepping on those rocks.

Our visitors from Harrow and Chalon also used to love to go there and visit, but they were quite surprised at the amount of wildlife in the park.

PE