BS: Photographic injuries!!

Subject: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 09:40 AM

I'd be interested to know about folks' injuries sustained whilst taking photographs.

Last Monday we visited the Belgrano Athletic Club in Buenos Aires, in order to take pictures of the large house where my wife's mother lived in the 1930s - it stands next to the club grounds, but is obscured by a high wall and bushes from the road. I was taking a photo of the pavillion in the club and gradually moved backwards to get it all in the picture. Unfortunately I didn't look behind me and fell backwards over knee high metal railings, which was very painfull indeed. Luckily my rucksack cushioned my fall so my back was OK, but there were severe contusions to the back of both legs!

The bruises still cover a large area of my legs - all for a photo!!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: gnu
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 09:50 AM

Ouch!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 10:23 AM

'Taking photos' is just a sub-class of activities that can require some care...from crossing the street to dancing. I have tripped over railings & curbs...etc. at various times. I have made "look about and be careful" my basic rule and do a LOT less stumbling now.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 11:28 AM

"look about and be careful"

Yes, my wife stressed that to me afterwards!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 11:41 AM

Yes, cameras should come with such warnings printed in red in large font. Maybe they do. How would I know? I never read warning.

You just sit there looking cute
And if something moves, you shoot! (vintage Tom Lehrer)

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: SINSULL
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 12:19 PM

My apartment in NYC had steps inside leading to a foyer where I kept up seasonal decorations. One Halloween, as I photographed my work, I backed off the landing into the stairwell, crashed into the door and scared the hell out some people waiting in the hallway for an elevator. I never did that again. OUCH!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: katlaughing
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 12:39 PM

Ow! I think cameras ought to have a warning beep, like the trash trucks do when backing up, that way we'd all be warned.:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Will Fly
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 12:51 PM

There's a very famous wildlife photographer called Eric Hosking who lost an eye while taking a photo of a barn owl - came straight at him.

You can read all about it in his autobiography: "An Eye For A Bird"...

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 01:08 PM

A few years ago some travelers along the upper-west edge of Michigan's lower peninsula stopped at a popular overlook, on top of something of a "castle rock". They found a camera sitting there on a tripod, not far from the edge of the cliff. Looked over the edge, and the ex-photographer was laying at the bottom. Apparently he had stood there looking thru the camera, backing up a little more at a time, composing a picture. Then, abruptly, he was decomposing.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Mrrzy
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 01:12 PM

urban legend?

I remember one of those candid camera shows, where they would find tourist couples taking pictures of each other at a castle or something... the prankster would offer to take a picture of the couple for them, and slowly back up to frame the picture till he fell backwards over the low wall at the edge of the cliff... and the hidden camera would catch the terrified tourists running over to see the guy laughing on a mattress on a ledge about 3 feet below the edge. It was HYSTERICAL.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: frogprince
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 01:19 PM

Unfortunately, the instance I referred to was a fatal incident, not an urban legend.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: MikeL2
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 02:07 PM

Hi

We were out in Madeira and one day we happened to be in Funchal when it was the Portuguese trial for the Triathlon for their National Team.

They started the race by sprinting down the beach and into the sea to swim around the harbour as the swimming leg of the race. They then ran out of the water onto a long pier to mount their bicycles for the next section of the race.

We were at the far end of the pier with my wife taking pictures of the changeover. In doing so she dropped the leather camera case into the water.

We watched the case as it floated, driven into the shore by the breeze.

As the competitors were all out on their bikes we rushed down to the beach and sure enough there remarkably was the case near to the shore.

So I waded out to get it. As I approached the case I reached out and lost my footing. Over I went headlong into the sea. The large crowd cheered with laughter as I manfully came up spluttering but clutching the case.

I was not hurt but my pride was duly punctured.

Cheers

MikeL2

PS Come to think of it, I don't think my wife ever thanked me for that !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:20 PM

With any activity of the sort, in any environment especially if it's an unfamiliar one, it is imperative, before even selecting the specific things you intend to do there, to assess all potential hazards and impediments.

If, after a careful survey, it appears that injury (including embarrassment) might occur, the obviously correct and proper procedure is to hand the camera to your companion and request: "Honey, can you take a picture of that ******."

As the initial post made reference to "we," it occurs to ask "was it your camera?" so we'll know if "(s)he(?)" - your companion - was the one who appropriately analysed the situation(????).

John

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:34 PM

Oh yes, it was my almost new Fuji Finepix HS10 which thankfully I managed not to drop!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bill D
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:39 PM

A friend & I did a photographing survey of some wilderness areas many years ago, which included standing on edges of canyons and sich like places.... after awhile we agreed that the basic rule was "If you find yourself toppling off, throw the CAMERA to the other guy!"

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 06:47 PM

I once came very close to being flattened by a stock car in a dirt track race I was photographing. There was one more car than I expected bringing up the rear of the pack hidden by a cloud of dust.

This one of the most tragic stories about photography I've heard:

man falls from an Edinburgh hotel balcony while his fiancee is taking a photo

This has a great collection of weird anecdotes. (I have his book "Cyanide and Spirits").

Bill Jay's historical writings

Look for the article "Dangers in the Dark".

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Desert Dancer
Date: 24 Apr 11 - 09:01 PM

In the recent tsunami, a northern California man was drowned when he was swept away as he was photographing the waves. I have to say that watching many of the videos that came online from Japan led me to wonder how many people had been lost that way. Some of those folks seemed pretty close to disaster.

~ Becky in Tucson

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: VirginiaTam
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 12:10 PM

Ouch! Bonzo... you need those little parking sensor thingiamajigs that warn you when you get near an obstruction.

Take care and thank you for the warning to others.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bonzo3legs
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 12:22 PM

Yes, now there's a commercial opportunity - perhaps they could be strapped on like Morris Bells! The bruises are gradually going now, but my wife has had gastroenteritis for the last couple of days and so we couldn't fly back from Buenos Aires to the UK today. The very helpful folks at British Airways have put us on the Tuesday flight - on line check in time in 3 minutes!

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: olddude
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 01:03 PM

years ago I Once dropped my camera off the north rim of the Grand Canyon while trying to take a photo ... Does that count :-) needless to say my 35 mm no longer existed.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Edthefolkie
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 02:52 PM

I always TRY to damage the camera rather than me.

My old Pentax S1a has a dent in the pentaprism, my K1000 ate lens shades, and my current K20D drops its shade every 10 minutes since I knocked it against a wall. This feature proved embarrassing when I announced "B*gger, it's dropped off again" in the Gents at the Bell Inn, Adderbury. Collapse of about 4 morris men and self.

The S1a got dented when a bunch of us were photographing a steam loco around 1974 - we arrived 10 secs before the train. I ran across a field, leapt over a wall, and found that the other side was about 6 foot lower. Result - twisted ankle and no driving for a week.

A good friend was on a narrow gauge steam train in South Africa a few years ago. He and some German guys were standing on the verandah at the front of their coach, when they saw the driver and fireman panicking on the footplate - the train was running away downhill. After a short debate the Germans jumped off one side and my friend jumped off the other with camera. They were OK, he broke ribs and punctured his lung. The train was brought under control about 5 seconds after they jumped! His wife had to fly to SA to sort him out as the airline wouldn't let him on the plane.

Needless to say his Nikon was perfectly OK.....

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Jack Campin
Date: 25 Apr 11 - 03:11 PM

My brother lent his Nikkormat to a colleague who was going on a once-in-a-lifetime tourist flight from New Zealand to Antarctica. This one...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Air_New_Zealand_Flight_901

His camera is probably wending its way to the sea inside a glacier. I wonder if they'll know how to develop film in a few hundred years?

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: SINSULL
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:17 AM

I came close to disaster in Alaska. Out on a glacier I was taking my son's picture when he kept saying "Mom...Mom...Mom..." the way kids do. He finally shouted MOM! and grabbed me as I nearly stepped backwards into a fissure. We had been warned repeatedly not to back up on the glacier when taking pictures. It is a long way down and no way up.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Stu
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:25 AM

You were taking the photos personally Bonzo? Haven't you got a Philippino ladyboy slave to do that sort of thing for you in between the French polishing and buffing up the corgis?

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Bill D
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:43 AM

There once was a fisher named Fisher,
Who went fishing for fish in a fissure,
A fish with a grin,
Pulled the fisherman in,
Now they're fishing the fissure for Fisher.


(I think 'photographer' is too long for limericks.)
naaawww... let's see.

A photographer, needing to share,
Was framing his subject with care,
He took a step back,
Fell down with a smack,
And the picture showed nothing but air.

hmmmm...best I could do.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 11:57 AM

Frogprince, picture this: A man sets his tripod fairly close to a precipice, sets the camera on it- and then backs up and falls over the wall? How is he taking the picture?

Not to mention: Is he taking the picture away from the view?

Hmmmm. Sounds like an urban legend to me. *g*

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: frogprince
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 12:24 PM

Folks, gimme a break : ) This was from the TV news, followed by the newspapers, at the time. There is a choice of scene to photograph in either direction off the scenic viewpoint where it happened. You're looking through the camera, then stepping back and moving the tripod back, trying the scene. Just a little more...just a little more...
If Sinsull had stepped back another step, would that have been an urban legend?

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 01:05 PM

No. Had Sinsull fallen into a fissure that would not be an urban legend. However, it would have been a a truly strange thing to do. I too have been on a glacier- not only do they issue the same kind of non-slip 'bunny boot' to every person but the crew is even overly vigilant in watching everyone.

So, Mary, had you slipped into a fissure you should have been sued. Sorry.

Subject: RE: BS: Photographic injuries!!
From: Ebbie
Date: 26 Apr 11 - 01:19 PM

Sinsull, I should have made clear that I referred to an official visit to a glacier. Anyone can climb onto a glacier on one's own - and if that is what you did, you are fortunate indeed.

Accidents happen.

Some years back (I know, sounds like an urban legend) a group in southeast Alaska was led on a glacier trek by several scientists. The story goes that they sat on the ice to rest and eat a bite.

A backpack started sliding and one of the scientists lunged for it. He followed the pack into the crevasse. Head first.