I have discovered something about taking great photos

[Samurai_Writer]

I'm by no means a great photographer. I'm still learning a lot. But I have learned to take a really great photo, you must do one of three things:

1. Endure horrendous weather conditions.

2. Trespass where you shouldn't be.

3. Risk life and limb.

For example, my Chapel on the Rock photo was taken in 20 degree weather with 60mph winds. It's by far the best photo I've ever taken.

I have this old mill house that's falling down with a huge 'No Trespassing' sign chained across the drive that I drive past every day to work. I am SO wanting to take some shots of that, and the other abandoned buildings there. But it would be trespassing and probably pretty dangerous physically. I'm working up the courage once the snow melts and the ground dries up a little.

What are some of the worst conditions you've ever endured for taking a photo?

[Blue_In_AK]

1. I say go for it.

:evilgrin: I think probably the most dangerous conditions I endured for a photo were getting these shots which involved scrambling down a couple hundred feet of loose rock. I'm not the most athletic person in the world and am most averse to physical risk-taking, so this was a biggie for me.

This is about halfway down from the trail.



We went down to the little gravel outcropping to set up the tripod, and discovered that I forgot the little thingy that screws into the bottom of the camera, so I had to balance it on HullBoss's shoulders for this. Lucky I had him along. :)

[regnaD kciN]

4. The most hazardous position I ever had for picture-taking...

...was last September, when I was trying to get the middle section of a waterfall in the Cascades, and the promised trail simply wasn't there. To take the pictures, I wound up leaning halfway over a cliff with my left arm wrapped around a tree trunk for support, with the prospect of a steep uphill climb on wet ground back to my car, where any slip was likely to send me right down the hill and over the cliff.

Oh, by the way...none of the photos I got there was worth a damn. :-( Proving that just because it's risky doesn't automatically mean it's any good.

[NV Whino]

2. No so much with photos

except trespassing. ;) But I can tell you that plein aire painting has its hazards. Trespassing, certainly, but you also have rattlesnakes and cows. I was in a little town in New Mexico a while back very intent on the painting I was working on when I suddenly realized I was surrounded by cows. Cows with horns. BIG cows with horns. Nowhere to go. Cows on all sides.

They turned out to be benevolent, just on their way to their afternoon feeding, but it was pretty disconcerting at the time. That was the time I ended up painting out in a snow storm, too. (I was in NM for a masters class and used every minute to paint--whether it be sun, sleet, snow or rain.)

[Blue_In_AK]

3. You know, I have an unreasonable fear of cows, too...

Kind of funny since I don't have ANY problems walking up to a moose and taking his picture.

[NV Whino]

5. Hmmmm....

:scratches head:

[intheflow]

6. Some of my best shots are taken at obscenely early morning hours.

This was shot around Ward, CO, not far into a park. This pond was roadside. I'd hear there was going to be a sunrise and a fullmoonset happening simultaneously that night, but being in the mountains kind of skewed exactly when the sun rose and the moon set. Even though I stayed in Nederland (about 40 minutes away from Ward so I had to get up at 4am to get there), and it was cold waiting pondside in the mountains for the sun to rise, I think this photo came out pretty good.


This photo was taken the same weekend. I think this shot was closer to Nederland, maybe in El Dorado, CO. I started this hike just as the sun started to rise. It was almost 10am when I reached the summit and climbed around on sharp, jagged, wet rocks to take this photo.


I usually don't take too many other risks--I'm a scardy cat--but I do crazy things like lay down on the ground for 15 minutes trying to get the camera aimed exactly right for the shot.

[regnaD kciN]

8. The basic adage for landscape photographers...

...is that the best time to take pictures is in the half-hour around sunrise, and the half-hour around sunset. The rest of the day is a dead loss -- the lighting's too harsh.

That's a problem for my recent schedule. ("Get up early?????" :wow: )

I think I'm going to have to set up a routine where I arrive at a location in late afternoon, set up for sunset, get the photos, then figure out something to do throughout the night (time-lapse astronomical photography?) until just before sunrise, get the photos, then head home for sleep. (Since, unfortunately, I can't afford an RV with satellite Internet. ;-) )

[Bonhomme Richard]

7. Years ago I went to a seminar by wildlife photographer....

Leonard Lee Rue. One thing he said always stuck with me. He said that it didn't matter if you were hung from a helicopter, by your ankle, 500' above the ground. If the result was a lousy shot, it's just a lousy shot.
I always chuckle when I think of that because it's so true.

[Immad2]

9. I stepped in a ground squirrel hole and about broke my neck -

BUT I SAVED MY CAMERA.

Then there is being dive bombed by this little guy

while watering in the garden

[bikebloke]

10. Athens Greece

There's a hill across from the Acropolis that I walked up just exploring. For some reason they had a military guard sitting in a shack at the top, who was dozing. Meanwhile a sign said photographs forbidden. What could I do? I took one.

That wasn't really Dangerman photogrgaphy. Though once in Israel, when leaving my kibbutz, I stood in the middle of the road to take a shot of my mates seeing me off. A big lorry came around the corner roaring at me.

[Fovea]

11. How about a lightning strike 2 houses down...

When I told the gods I wanted some good lightning pics, I should have mentioned that panoramic was more what I had in mind...

[Touchdown]

12. Never go shopping with a friend in a historic town.

Here I was in DC. Never been there before. Where did we go? Target in Virginia, the mall area of Union Station, and the store at the Smithsonian (she spent $360 just there), and walked out with 5 bags of Trinket shit, including, a DC version of Monopoly!!! It's the SAME DAMN GAME, no matter what it's called, or the fact that it is $48, compared to $16 for the reguar version.:puke:

I might have snapped off 300 shots there, but I could have gotten 500 had I not been saddled with being a shopping bag mule!

Women need to understand, being a gay guy only provides me with 5 more minutes of shopping patience. I'm still a man, and get over shopping real quick when we have new cameras to use!:P

[CC]

13. At least she didn't drag you

through Potomac Mills or you might still be there. :rofl: You did much better than I would have, I most likely would of took off on my own.

[TahitiNut]

14. (lol!) When I visit my good friend (female) who lives in DC ...

... almost all we do is see the 'sights' (and sites) when out and about. I don't even have to ask. I love it. I feel so damned fortunate to have the long-term friends I've had and have - 'strangely' enough, far more females than males. (I actually enjoy being in the 'friend zone.') She's got as little patience shopping as I have and, like me, does it alone and quickly. (As I think about it, I deal with shopping like I deal with going to the bathroom - only as much as necessary and alone.)
:rofl: :rofl:

[Ms. Toad]

15. According to the life insurance industry...

hanging out at 60 feet below the surface to get this one:



is risking life and limb.

(All those advertisements I get for cheap life insurance have a couple of qualifying questions they ask - one of which is whether I engage in risky activities, like scuba diving....)

Just got back from Cozumel, and can't wait do do it again! Once I get the rest of my photos cleaned up I'll post my own "how I spent my spring break" thread. Wilma hit the place pretty hard, but the locals (both above and below surface) are working hard to restore it.

[Samurai_Writer]

16. What kind of camera did you use?

To get those underwater shots?

[Ms. Toad]

18. Olympus Camedia C-4000

In a PT-010 waterproof case.

[TahitiNut]

17. Join DAN (good organization, imho).

Looks like you've got some good surge going there. "Going with the flow" is good advice for any diver. :silly:

At 60' you must be using a strobe - a fairly good one, it seems - to pick up the reds at a distance of 6-8'(?). Makes me 'homesick' (we all come from the sea).


Re: DAN (you probably know this)
- fair life insurance (for divers), trip insurance, and accident/health insurance that'll cover hyperbaric treatment, etc. They have a very good reputation.
http://www.diversalertnetwork.org/

[Ms. Toad]

20. Problem with DAN

is that, at least in Cozumel, it is apparently not currently being accepted. DAN has been refusing to pay a significant number of outstanding bills since 2004. Don't know the details of the disputes - but could be things like divers exceeding their certification limits who ran into trouble. It would have been real easy to get lost in a wreck, for example, since I'm not wreck certified. The place that took me diving suggested that uncertified wreck divers stay on the surface - but I know of at least two who chose not to and no one seemed to care.

No strobe - I don't believe I even used a flash (based on the relative lack of backscatter). The water is so clear there that there is a lot of sunlight even that deep. My camera does very well in low light. My only trouble at that low light level is holding the camera steady enough to keep from adding movement blur. The camera captures the color, but it is sometimes hard to see initially (a good number of my shots look like the background in this one - sort of uniformly blue). What I have found that works best to bring the color back out is to pick something I know the color of (in this case it was the yellow on the fish) and do a manual adjust on that object (a tiny square on the bottom fin of the fish in this case) to match that color. Here is the unadjusted image:



You can still see the red, but it's somewhat distorted by the uniform aqua color shift. I just shifted it back to match what I saw.

Not much current in that particular location, but I was suspended and moving slowly enough past the target that I could stay relatively motionless relative to what I was shooting. What looks like surge is more likely the effect of the steady gentle current that flows in the same direction all the time.

I was 'homesick' too before the trip (even though I've never been to this location before) - it had been nearly 2 years since I last had a chance to dive.

(Edited to correct imcomplete thought.)

[F.Gordon]

19. There you are

:hi:

In other countries they actually clean up hurricane destruction? :eyes:

Anxious to see more. Have ZERO desire to do underwater stuff but I enjoy the heck out of seeing photos that other people risk life and limb to shoot.

[Ms. Toad]

21. Tourists...

It's the only industry on the island. Crappy surroundings . . . no one will come visit, hence the speedy cleanup. Immediate outlay of cash seems not to be much of a problem - everyone we spoke to said the government is footing most of the bill.

[bvar22]

22. My most dangerous picture.

A word to the wise:

Never, EVER try to take a picture of security guards loading sacks of money into an armored car.

Nuff said. I'm trying to forget.

[alfredo]

23. though they are not great images, it was the most dangerous.

I was at a bicycle race in Asmara Eritrea. It was a big event between rival cities/tribes. Asmara's hero was a very good sprinter. We knew he would win, nobody can match him in tactics and speed. The race got dirty. There was a lot of pushing and shoving. One of Asmara's other top riders took revenge on another rider by hitting him in the nose.

When the sprint arrived Asmara hero, S. Caramello was contesting the finish with the other cities' top sprinter. Caramello was passing on the right when the other rider swerved, pushing Caramello into the crowd, causing a very nasty crash.



The crowd grew angry, rushed onto the street, picked up Caramello and carried him off to the hospital.



Fighting broke out when locals attacked the cyclist who fouled their hero. Racers were blocked from finishing by the fighting. Soon they used their bicycles as weapons, throwing them at approaching rioters. I tried to get photos, but I was out of film.

So here I was, smack dab in the middle of an angry mob, fists, rocks, bottles and bicycles flying through the air. The next thing I knew, someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me backwards. One of the cyclist pulled me into a flying wedge of baton swinging policemen. They were able to get us out of the angry crowd. I was grateful for the assistance of my friend Mahari. If he hadn't pulled me into the safety of the police line, I might have gotten my ass kicked.

Mahari is in the center. This one was taken after the 68 Olympic trials. Mahari had just recovered from gall bladder surgery, but was able to win the Olympic Trial in dramatic fashion. That is another story all together. But I wanted you to see the man who cared enough to pull me to safety.