What will a photographer do to nail that image?

Jill-of-all-Trades wrote in post #12942254
On the news tonight... a young lady was posing for a picture on the railing at Niagara Falls, slipped and fell into the river about 20 feet from the falls. They haven't found her yet.

post 5.

I actively look for opportunities to ride in airplanes with the doors off or open while flying in close proximity to other aircraft...

Jay,, I can understand that..It can be scarey.

Some years ago I was asked to shoot the arrival on a 250,000 ton ore carrier on it's maiden voyage to the harbour aligned to the heavy industrial plant were I worked.

I arrived at the helipad, sitting there was this tiny two man helicopter..I mean tiny. I don't know the model or make, all I remember it was pink and white. The ground crew had removed the door on my side so I could get clear shots. Now, I'm 1.81 metres tall, and at the time weighed about 85 kilos (I'm now about 87 kilos) the pilot was bigger and we were rubbing shoulders as we flew. It was a cold grey winter's morning. We had to fly out about 5-10 kilometres.

I had two Nikon bodies with me, one loaded with B/W, the other with colour transparencies. My camea bag stuck between my feet. As we were flying, my shoulder was in the breeze. Only a lap seat belt kept me from falling out.

I told the pilot I wanted a couple of pics of the carrier straight on. No problems. He dove down and hovered about 10 metres above the water as the carrier was steaming towards us,, a 250,000 ton behemoth. At the start it was about 100 metres away.. Man,, I had to work fast , alternating between the two camera bodies.

Exciting to say the least, but got the shots.

FlyingPhotog wrote in post #12942344
I actively look for opportunities to ride in airplanes with the doors off or open while flying in close proximity to other aircraft...

I'm surprised you haven't hitched a ride on the side of a shuttle ...

Imagine the rush that would be.

It would be for a couple of minutes. Then you'd better know how to shoot skydiving...

Todd Lambert wrote in post #12942096
Not really, in my opinion. You're either meant to go or you're not. I don't buy the whole "increased risk" mentality.

That's just silly.

I have worked for 29 years with the local fire/rescue, and 9 years with the local ambulance service. Take my word for it; there is without doubt a point where people have exposed themselves to unnecessary and stupid risks that had nothing whatsoever to do with being "meant to go". I have sat beside too many bodies waiting for the coroner to not know for certain there are some very stupid reasons to die.

If you are climbing over the barrier at the water fall, you are being stupid. If you are drinking and climbing over the barrier, you are being an absolute idiot.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #12942096
Not really, in my opinion. You're either meant to go or you're not. I don't buy the whole "increased risk" mentality.

Glad I don't work with/near you.

Hehe... ok, I think ya'll are overacting this a bit. I'm not saying that firemen don't have increased risks or that doing something stupid, won't kill you.

My point was, that you can go at any time doing anything.... why live in a plastic bubble your whole life? If you see a shot that is technically risky, but you can afford the risk, what's wrong with taking it?

Just because your level of risk might not be the same as everyone else's' doesn't give you the right to preach that your level is THE level of risk to live by.

Earlier you wrote:

and now you write:

Todd Lambert wrote in post #12944655
Hehe... ok, I think ya'll are overacting this a bit. I'm not saying that firemen don't have increased risks or that doing something stupid, won't kill you.

My point was, that you can go at any time doing anything.... why live in a plastic bubble your whole life? If you see a shot that is technically risky, but you can afford the risk, what's wrong with taking it?

Just because your level of risk might not be the same as everyone else's' doesn't give you the right to preach that your level is THE level of risk to live by.

You've backed off on your absolute "not buying into the whole increased risk thing" to saying there are risks, but you may draw the line of what risks are worthwhile farther than some others may draw that line. That sounds reasonable.

And nobody here was suggesting living in a bubble either. Risk is not the all-or-nothing proposition your earlier post suggested and your bubble comment in this post suggest.

And nobody was telling you what risks are acceptable for you. People were taking exception to your statement that there aren't really risks - that simply when its your time, its your time.

Yeah, I needed to clarify that. As is often done on this board, people come into threads and crap on them about not being safe, or any number of moralities, etc... Just like photography, there is a million ways to shoot something. In life, there is even more ways to do something. Your method may work for you, other methods may work for others. That's really the crux of my point in this thread. I was going about it in a roundabout way to get there, but there it is.

And yes, people were telling people what risks were acceptable or not. That's why I commented to begin with.

rral22 wrote in post #12942000
But there is quite a difference between being the victim of a genuine accident, and dying because you were just stupid and exposed yourself to unnecessary risk for an essentially meaningless reason.

There is NO difference here. Sorry. A genuine accident can happen anywhere. What makes a guy falling off of a building while shooting a skyline shot, not genuinely accidental?

Also, what makes his reasoning stupid or unnecessary? Or what makes it a meaningless reason... to you? I think it's sort of stupid and meaningless to drive a car really fast around an oval track... does that mean I think that's not a genuine accident when someone slams their car into the wall and dies?

See my point here? Some people are in photography to capture snapshots of family, friends, happy times, pretty flowers, pregnant moms, etc.. others are into it for other reasons, some of those may be darker reasons, or that deals with darker subject matter and matter that requires risks to get.

Who are you to judge someone else's reasons? They may be meaningless to you, but to the person shooting it, that may be their life. That may be their reason for waking up in the morning. How is that wrong?

Sorry, but I just don't see anything wrong with someone dying, doing what they love to do. Is it tragic, sure... but I'd much rather die doing what I love than die in some cubicle.

Todd Lambert wrote in post #12944867
Yeah, I needed to clarify that. As is often done on this board, people come into threads and crap on them about not being safe, or any number of moralities, etc... Just like photography, there is a million ways to shoot something. In life, there is even more ways to do something. Your method may work for you, other methods may work for others. That's really the crux of my point in this thread. I was going about it in a roundabout way to get there, but there it is.

And yes, people were telling people what risks were acceptable or not. That's why I commented to begin with.

There is NO difference here. Sorry. A genuine accident can happen anywhere. What makes a guy falling off of a building while shooting a skyline shot, not genuinely accidental?

Also, what makes his reasoning stupid or unnecessary? Or what makes it a meaningless reason... to you? I think it's sort of stupid and meaningless to drive a car really fast around an oval track... does that mean I think that's not a genuine accident when someone slams their car into the wall and dies?

See my point here? Some people are in photography to capture snapshots of family, friends, happy times, pretty flowers, pregnant moms, etc.. others are into it for other reasons, some of those may be darker reasons, or that deals with darker subject matter and matter that requires risks to get.

Who are you to judge someone else's reasons? They may be meaningless to you, but to the person shooting it, that may be their life. That may be their reason for waking up in the morning. How is that wrong?

Sorry, but I just don't see anything wrong with someone dying, doing what they love to do. Is it tragic, sure... but I'd much rather die doing what I love than die in some cubicle.

This is just completely adolescent.

rral22 wrote in post #12945015
This is just completely adolescent.

How?

Back to the premise, guys.

As for me, I have always been a risk-taker, and added photography to the mix after I was a (young) adult.

The body has paid for some of my risk-taking, but the photography part has given me some nice images over the years, mostly during my working days using film. certainly I've climbed towers to shoot from the top. Once was tied to a wrecking ball and hoisted by crane 150 feet up to take photos of a radio tower antenna installation. I've been tethered to helicopters and other aircraft for images and I've climbed trees, lamposts and crawled under hurdles to get a different shot than others.

Mostly, it was part of my job. Sometimes, just for the hell of it. Shooting offshore racing boats from a helicopter at near wavetop level was a job. Climbing an unmarked ridge to get a better view of Neuschwanstein castle was for fun, even though my wife of 30 years was fuming at me because she had seen me have a few close calls other times my daredevil came out to play.

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Todd Lambert wrote in post #12944867
... but I'd much rather die doing what I love than die in some cubicle.

This seems to come up in your posts here LOL. I died a cubicle death in 2001 and made a pact never to go back and I haven't. I now work from home but it took 20 years of cubicle to get there.

Yeah, I work in a cube a lot of the time too, but I don't want to die there. There's nothing better to me, than exploring places and seeing things and of course capturing that with my camera. If I die doing so, then I consider it to be meant to happen that way.

That's not to say that I take non-calculated risks lightly - I know my limits and I try to stay in the bounds of those. However, I certainly don't like someone who does not know me, to tell me what risks I should or shouldn't be taking.

In all honesty, I hope that I do die in the field somewhere, rather than in a hospital or a cubicle or my car sitting in traffic. I'd rather go out that way, doing something that is a passion.

That said, to be get back on-topic... one of my recent risks involved shooting an old abandoned school. It was not in very good shape but it was beautiful nonetheless and there was a particular wing that I really wanted to get into, because it was not well visited at all.

Well, it was not visited because the flooring to get there was really bad.. completely rotting away (almost all wood structure that had been abandoned since 1972).

Anyways, I usually explore alone most of the time, since I rarely have people patient enough to go to these places with me. Knowing that, I am generally as safe as I can be, I come prepared for most things that I can be prepared for.

In this particular case, I actually was with some other photographers although they were in a different section of the facility. Well, I slowly made my way across these floors, using pieces of wood molding as trestles to cross. I made it through fine and proceeded to shoot and explore the wing. I made my way through one of the back rooms when I noticed that the floor was starting to go. I tried to jump up as my right leg went through the floor and when I did, the entire rest of the floor collapsed and in I went with it. It happened in a flash and as fast I knew it, I was laying on the floor where there were nests of rattlesnakes. Thankfully, the floor collapse scared them as much as it did I, so I was able to extricate myself and get up out of the subfloor. I did keep my camera up and safe through the whole fall though.... probably from days of the mantra (always save the beer! don't spill a drop!)