Your most DANGEROUS photographic moment

[gerryyaum]

What is the most dangerous thing that has happened to you when making pictures or what was the most dangerous place you have been while making photographs, close calls? injuries?

 

[Polybun]

What is the most dangerous thing that has happened to you when making pictures or when what was the most dangerous place you have been while making photographs, close calls? injuries?

A few months ago I photographed a bum fighting another bum over some empty cans. The younger fightey bum was beating up this old bum. He noticed my camera and aproached me, smacked me in the head, told me to give him the camera. Then a woman anounced she was calling the police. He then attacked her and attempted to take her phone from her. I then beat him in the face and head with a bicycle lock. All in broad day light right in front of the front door of a Safeway!

The sad part.. I forgot to stop the lens down.

The homeless mans blood still stains the sidewalk, both on the sidewalk, and in the road. The police arrived and he proceded to fight the police, it did not go well for him.

 

[gerryyaum]

yes that is always the sad part...THE MISSED PHOTO!!!.....sounds very violent, never got into a fight over photo taking, did push a drunk westerner once in a bar who pressed his juicy sandwich up against my face (he was mad I was photographing sex workers outside the bars).

 

[Polybun]

yes that is always the sad part...THE MISSED PHOTO!!!.....sounds very violent, never got into a fight over photo taking, did push a drunk westerner once in a bar who pressed his juicy sandwich up against my face (he was mad I was photographing sex workers outside the bars).

I don't know, i wouldn't describe it as very violent. Hell, my brother and I use to beat the crap out of each other for fun! Thats the kind of world I grew up in. Life on the farm.

I've seen your photos of sex workers on here, amazing photos actually. I'm jelous of some of those boys, to be so androgynous could be a source of great entertainment. People tend to paint them in a light of pity. I think thats unfair, its highly possible they actually enjoy the job.

 

[Vaughn]

Well, I set up the 4x5 to photograph across the toe of Franz Josef Glacier towards a waterfall on the other side of the valley. I was on a rock on a slope, and as the glacier was in a period of retreat, the surrounding ground was not very stable. I kept an ear open for the sound of falling rock while I was under the dark cloth. I took the photo and then moved closer to the glacier. I looked back to see a few rocks of good size roll down the slope and right over the rock I was on a few minutes earlier. Timing is everything.

But I have been in many places that were "dangerous" if one mis-stepped...solo backpacking with the 4x5 off-trail in the Grand Canyon as an example. Such situations do seem to place oneself in a more aware frame of mind, which I see as a positive.

Vaughn

 

[Alexander Ghaffari]

This past summer I was walking in the woods with my 35mm SLR and an adult black bear walked out right in front of me. It was so close that he filled my camera's frame with a 50mm normal lens on it. Of course I am shooting away, while my family was shocked from much further back. I just wish my viewfinder was not coated from moisture due to waterfalls and my sweat, but I let my photographic instinct take over and made some shots. No "keepers," but it is still cool to have a close up shot of a bear in the wild with a normal lens.

 

[gerryyaum]

Ben:

I've seen your photos of sex workers on here, amazing photos actually. I'm jelous of some of those boys, to be so androgynous could be a source of great entertainment. People tend to paint them in a light of pity. I think thats unfair, its highly possible they actually enjoy the job.

I think your partly right on this. I had photographed mostly female workers before this last trip and found that the ladyboys were much more sexually oriented in the shoots. Many (not all) seemed to enjoy the sex worker life much more than the ladies I photographed before. I am not sure if that would be the case in a larger sample group than my 20 or so ladyboys but it certainly seemed the case in the people I photographed.

 

[gerryyaum]

Vaughn:

But I have been in many places that were "dangerous" if one mis-stepped...solo backpacking with the 4x5 off-trail in the Grand Canyon as an example

Vaughn...what I hate is when your on the edge of a cliff making a photo...watching every movement, every step...in other words risking your a-- and then when you get to the darkroom and find all you created was a lousy boring image! now if I risk my life and make something great! well thats worth it! : )

 

[gerryyaum]

Alexander :

This past summer I was walking in the woods with my 35mm SLR and an adult black bear walked out right in front of me. It was so close that he filled my camera's frame with a 50mm normal lens on it.

haha..excuse me mr bear...can you wait while I put on my fisheye!

but I let my photographic instinct take over and made some shots. No "keepers," but it is still cool to have a close up shot of a bear in the wild with a normal lens.

something the war photographers talk about, having no fear behind their camera, sort of protected by it....

that is the moment the bullet usually takes them out thou!

Thanks for the great story.

 

[Larry Bullis]

On a job -- I was once in a cage with a big prairie wolf. The fellow who ran the "wolf farm" told me that if I felt any fear at all, I should turn my back immediately on the wolf, and walk toward the door, and he'd let me out of the cage. The idea is that in fear, your eyes dilate, and that signals the wolf; at that moment, you become prey, and then it is automatic. He can't help killing you. The wolf can bite with a pressure of 600 lbs/sq inch with its bite - enough to easily break your leg.

What I did was hold the Leica right up to one eye, the other closed. When I figured I'd got it, I turned and left the cage.

Yes, it is in my files. I can find it, but it is too late tonight. Maybe tomorrow.

 

[Larry Bullis]

Don Normark told me once that he was doing an aerial fly around of Mt. Rainier for a magazine story. The door had been taken off the airplane. After a whole trip around the mountain, he looked down at his lap. He'd forgotten to latch his belt. "Take me down!" he said. "I need a drink!".

When shooting aerials, I hire instructors because they are better equipped to recover from mistakes. Instructions: "Fly as low as you legally can, as slow as you can without falling out of the sky, and if you would, please keep my wing a bit low". With the minimum of 1000 feet over inhabited areas, a stall would be fatal, even so. The airplane wallows, is sluggish, and after awhile with my wing down, they have to fly the other direction for awhile because the fuel flows down into the tank on my wing. Got to even it out.

Since my dad was a pilot who lost his life in a crash when I was 16 mo. old, aerials are sort of exciting for me, but another advantage of hiring an instructor as a pilot is that I can fly the plane out and back. I just love it.

 

[Larry Bullis]

Vaughn:

But I have been in many places that were "dangerous" if one mis-stepped...solo backpacking with the 4x5 off-trail in the Grand Canyon as an example

Vaughn...what I hate is when your on the edge of a cliff making a photo...watching every movement, every step...in other words risking your a-- and then when you get to the darkroom and find all you created was a lousy boring image! now if I risk my life and make something great! well thats worth it! : )

Think of Wm Henry Jackson. He liked to stand on the edges of cliffs, etc. and have someone else, on his instructions, operate the bulb! The guy was nuts!

 

[Vaughn]

Vaughn...what I hate is when your on the edge of a cliff making a photo...watching every movement, every step...in other words risking your a-- and then when you get to the darkroom and find all you created was a lousy boring image! now if I risk my life and make something great! well thats worth it! : )

Fortunately, the one looking across the glacier to the waterfall made it into the portfolio of that trip to New Zealand. But as you said, they don't always! But I find the experience itself worthwhile -- coming away with an image worth printing is a bonus!

Vaughn

 

[gerryyaum]

Bowzart:

never heard of that dilating eye thing, interesting. Thanks very much for the story, being LOCKED IN with predators sounds way to Jurassic Park to me!

 

[Polybun]

Ben:

I've seen your photos of sex workers on here, amazing photos actually. I'm jelous of some of those boys, to be so androgynous could be a source of great entertainment. People tend to paint them in a light of pity. I think thats unfair, its highly possible they actually enjoy the job.

I think your partly right on this. I had photographed mostly female workers before this last trip and found that the ladyboys were much more sexually oriented in the shoots. Many (not all) seemed to enjoy the sex worker life much more than the ladies I photographed before. I am not sure if that would be the case in a larger sample group than my 20 or so ladyboys but it certainly seemed the case in the people I photographed.

I think it is very possible that women feel as if they are degrading themselves to do such work, maybe even forced into such a line of work. The ladyboys on the other hand, nobody forced them to be a ladyboy, they chose it.

 

[gerryyaum]

Ben:

I think it is very possible that women feel as if they are degrading themselves to do such work, maybe even forced into such a line of work. The ladyboys on the other hand, nobody forced them to be a ladyboy, they chose it.

All the sex workers thou have to deal with rather rupulsive customers at times, plus disease etc.

 

[gerryyaum]

When shooting aerials, I hire instructors because they are better equipped to recover from mistakes.

bowzart:

that type of photography is indeed dangerous, I did it one time when assisting a pro in San Francisco (he was shooting buildings from the air in downtown San Francisco for some kind of reality business), I remember feeling sick from the movement plus all the calls from the various airports in the area and the confusion of the relatively inexperienced pilot.

Anytime your up in one of those little planes it is dangerous.

 

[Marco B]

Like Ben's Safeway example, the most dangerous moment doesn't have to be in some exotic place. A few years ago, I was photographing a derelict cacao factory right here in my home town Haarlem. It was 11.00 pm and totally dark. A small truck stood parked close by. Now I have done quite a lot of night photography but never felt threatened before, so I initially thought this was going to be just another nights shooting.

Not so.

While setting up my camera on a small piece of wasteland near the factory, I noticed a woman passing by taking her dog out. I didn't pay much attention to her, as I was busy and she just passed by. It took some time setting up and I started taking some pictures. The wasteland I was standing on, actually was part of a small neglected neighbourhood destined to be demolished and rebuild. People were still living there though, and rebuilding was already taking place.

Now maybe a quarter of hour after the woman passed, two man came walking towards me. I didn't noticed them until they were very close. One started talking to me, and it was clear they didn't like what I was doing. They were quite pissed of, and wanted to know why and what I was shooting. They looked grim and pretty mean, and hell, yes, I was scared. What do you do when you've setup your camera on tripod and carry some 12 kg of camera equipment with you??? Dive for it and go running? Hell, not really an option.

Actually I didn't really know what to say, baffled and speechless by their attitude. That didn't help and agitated them even more. A few minutes later, a car stopped and a window went down. Some other man joining, maybe their "boss"? They certainly knew each other. He started asking if I was photographing the small truck standing close by. Well, I really wasn't, although it was in my frame.

In a sense, in hindsight, I think in some way they were as much scared of me, some mysterious person with a camera invading their "territory", taking photo's of their truck and neighbourhood. Don't know what went on in their heads: Did they really think I was some kind of under cover police officer / investigator / journalist going out there on his own at 11.00 pm to shoot "evidence" in plain site of everyone to see?????

It was clear they wouldn't let me walk of just like that, so finally with a slow working brain (time seemed to have halted), I decided to open my camera and ripped out the roll and threw it to them. That satisfied them, and they let me pack my gear and walk of.

Still wonder what was hidden in that truck? A hundred kilo's of cocaine or pot? I also wonder if that "Lady taking her dog out" actually warned them, she must have... I later heard that this little neighbourhood was infamous for having a number of criminal families living there... just two blocks away from Haarlem's main police station!

 

[phaedrus]

No drunken pugilantes, prostitutes male or female, wildlife, cliffs or aerobatics here. Sometimes it's the camera that gets dangerous. My Calumet C-1 tried to take off my pinkie finger when the bed came forcibly down and pinched it in the joint. Luckily, no broken bones, just a blood welt. Now I'm watching that green beast closely ...

 

[Polybun]

Like Ben's Safeway example, the most dangerous moment doesn't have to be in some exotic place. A few years ago, I was photographing a derelict cacao factory right here in my home town Haarlem. It was 11.00 pm and totally dark. A small truck stood parked close by. Now I have done quite a lot of night photography but never felt threatened before, so I initially thought this was going to be just another nights shooting.

Not so.

While setting up my camera on a small piece of wasteland near the factory, I noticed a woman passing by taking her dog out. I didn't pay much attention to her, as I was busy and she just passed by. It took some time setting up and I started taking some pictures. The wasteland I was standing on, actually was part of a small neglected neighbourhood destined to be demolished and rebuild. People were still living there though, and rebuilding was already taking place.

Now maybe a quarter of hour after the woman passed, two man came walking towards me. I didn't noticed them until they were very close. One started talking to me, and it was clear they didn't like what I was doing. They were quite pissed of, and wanted to know why and what I was shooting. They looked grim and pretty mean, and hell, yes, I was scared. What do you do when you've setup your camera on tripod and carry some 12 kg of camera equipment with you??? Dive for it and go running? Hell, not really an option.

Actually I didn't really know what to say, baffled and speechless by their attitude. That didn't help and agitated them even more. A few minutes later, a car stopped and a window went down. Some other man joining, maybe their "boss"? They certainly knew each other. He started asking if I was photographing the small truck standing close by. Well, I really wasn't, although it was in my frame.

In a sense, in hindsight, I think in some way they were as much scared of me, some mysterious person with a camera invading their "territory", taking photo's of their truck and neighbourhood. Don't know what went on in their heads: Did they really think I was some kind of under cover police officer / investigator / journalist going out there on his own at 11.00 pm to shoot "evidence" in plain site of everyone to see?????

It was clear they wouldn't let me walk of just like that, so finally with a slow working brain (time seemed to have halted), I decided to open my camera and ripped out the roll and threw it to them. That satisfied them, and they let me pack my gear and walk of.

Still wonder what was hidden in that truck? A hundred kilo's of cocaine or pot? I also wonder if that "Lady taking her dog out" actually warned them, she must have... I later heard that this little neighbourhood was infamous for having a number of criminal families living there... just two blocks away from Haarlem's main police station!

In harlem, the police are probably on the take. They are probably making crack cocaine in the abandon factory, or meth. It is common practice. If it were just pot, they wouldn't be so defensive.

This sort of crab really amazes me. Prohibition didn't work in the 30's, why in the hell would it work now? The stupidity of people amazes me.

 

[Polybun]

Anytime your up in one of those little planes it is dangerous.

Helicopters are even worse.

Heh, btw, Its why a cub or super cub is the prefered plain for photography. The stall speed is all the way down around 30 knots! Even if you do stall one, it will recover in 100ft of alt at most! Heh, because if you can't recover it in 100ft, you will excede its maximum air speed.

 

[MurrayMinchin]

My wandering alone in the bush up here on BC's wild north coast is somebody else's dangerous, yet their back alley inner city meanderings is their normal, right? I feel completely, absolutely comfortable in the bush (yet am mindful of the precautions needed to be taken concerning animals, etc...) but wouldn't feel that way in any big city's downtown core.

The most dangerous thing, potentially, was sea kayaking BC's coast for six months - my wife in a single kayak and me in a double with the front cockpit holding my 4x5 gear. We stayed ashore for the worst storms and managed to get to shore safely when things got really weird, really fast. I've found most things are in your control; like where you hike, how much noise you make to warn animals you're coming, how clean you keep your camp, or how far you go before returning to camp. The ocean, however, just doesn't give a damn about you or anything you want to do, and can snuff you out if you let your guard down.

Murray

 

[Philippe-Georges]

A very long time ago, wile I was still working for the Museum of Industrial Archeology, I had to photograph an old coal power plant while it was demolished. So, when I stood on the top footbridge (= passerelle?) of one of the three huge steam boilers, some 25 meters high, down below me, a worker started to burn away the studs of that footbridge. The man had not noticed me. In the beginning, I did not realise it as I was working under the black cloth and there was a lot of noise around there. But suddenly the whole footbridge construction started to move and coming lose of that big and dirty (black) steam boiler. I grabbed my camera (by the tripod) by one hand and the handrail by the other. I waited, when the footbridge was slowly coming down folding like it was pealing of, for what was going to happen. But, when it was off a few meters, it suddenly stopped moving. Somebody saw it happen and was holding the whole construction up with a bulldozer! I really was lucky that day.
As a measure of security, the museum gave me a shiny red safety helmet and a pair of wharf shoes, just in case this would happen again. And a lot of 'things' happened again, but then I was still young and adventurous and I did not care (imagine, I was still smoking these days)!

Break a leg,

Philippe

 

[SuzanneR]

Nothing more dangerous than looking down the barrel of a water pistol!!

(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

Though last September I photographed a wedding in Maine, at this lovely outdoor chapel set high on a rocky cliff overlooking the ocean. Lovely spot.. bitch of a place to shoot. And it required a step ladder... on some very uneven ground. I managed to save myself, and the RZ beast I was using hand held when the step ladder decided to take a nose dive!!

That would have been rich... thank goodness... another reason to avoid doing weddings!!

 

[David A. Goldfarb]

Once I was photographing an old factory structure in Tampere, Finland, with my 8x10" camera, and a seemingly drunk elderly fellow tapped me on the shoulder while I was under the darkcloth, and then started ranting about something in Finnish, involving rifle sound effects--pchhh, pchhh, pchhh, pchhh, pchhh. In retrospect, he may have been telling me something about the history of the factory, where there had been violent labor conflicts at one point, but I had no idea at the time. I let him look at the image on the groundglass. He nodded and grunted and moved on.