Topic: How many stupid things have you done to get that photo?

[Francois]

I was just watching this video and I started wondering how many silly things I've done to get the photo!
And most of all how many times it was really worth it...
! No longer available

[02Pilot]

Relatively few of those seemed all that stupid, though 100% of the wedding photo shoots qualify for that label. Being on fire is maybe going a little overboard, but it's easily explained by peer pressure or beer (or both in combination). But then I was balancing on a wet rock at the edge of a 30 feet drop into a mountain stream below a waterfall this morning, so maybe I'm not the one to judge.

[ManuelL]

I've taken shots standing in the middle of a stream with a friend standing guard as the dam upstream occasionally opened the flood gates.

At the Banff national park I have seen someone walk up to within 5 foot of a bear at the road side to take a photo - which is something I would never do.

[zapsnaps]

When in NY, I did lie on my back to exaggerate the converging verticals. Was it worth it? Yes. Did I care? Not really. I was a tourist taking a tourist snap. But would I endanger myself for a shot? No - dont think so. Although I do photograph rundown parts of towns - but not its inhabitants - when travelling and I have wandered into a few places that I would not go to again in the rougher parts of Bogota and Istanbul.

[astrobeck]

I almost fell off my roof while making a photo of a Shuttle reentry back in 2001...
My camera did slide to the edge and snapped a photo on the way... I'll try to find it and share.

And just last winter I was photographing a run down yard in a seedy neighborhood in Texas and this woman came driving up like a maniac in her pickup truck yelling and screaming at me.
She had a Rottweiler in the seat beside her and I thought I was breathing my last breaths.  But the dog took an instant liking to me and she thankfully calmed down.  She thought I was there to steal her puppies in her yard, but then noticed I had a camera and said take all the pictures I wanted and she drove off....

One of my superpowers is that all dogs like me!  I've had many "saves" because of so called "bad dogs".

[astrobeck]

p.s., the main silly thing I saw in the video was one of the guys shooting with his lens cap on!

[Bryan]

At the Banff national park I have seen someone walk up to within 5 foot of a bear at the road side to take a photo - which is something I would never do.

That's just plain stupid.

I try not to risk my life for a photo but I'm sure I looked silly trying to get a shot every now and then.  In this shot I had just lost part of my big toe to the coral so I was in a small boat with a bandage on my foot.  I was hanging over the edge of the boat with my dive mask on and my head submerged in the water.  I'm sure I looked silly but I really wanted to get the shot.

Japanese Zero by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Sometimes I stand in the middle of the road but I think my chances of being run over were slim.

Newark Valley, Nevada Road by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

Lined up in the Palouse by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

I did get dangerously close to this beast. 

Vera in the Garden by Bryan Chernick, on Flickr

[Francois]

I know I can recognize myself in pretty much every bendy legs/unlisted yoga pose in there 
I did smash my head a few years ago against a separator safety plate of glass between two escalators... and yes I bled and somehow discovered that the security team at that store was on their toes when it happened...

Now, I try and be more careful so I've been filling the trunk of my car with all sort of safety gear like a folding construction cone, high visibility vest, rubber boots, a foam kneepad, umbrella with a fiberglass shaft... and even a special chainlink fence climbing tool (actually it looks more like the seat of a swing with some heavy duty carabiners attached to the cords).

[Adam Doe]

Any abandoned structure, and there have only been a few, that I've photographed had it's own set of stupid risks. There was the hospital that I only found out after the fact that had exposed asbestos  The farmhouse with the iffy floorboards. Structures that seem a bit rickety.

[Late Developer]

Some years ago, Lara and I went on safari in Kenya.  Whilst we were on a drive around the Aberdares, our driver spotted a young bull elephant coming towards us on the track.  We were in an open-top 4x4 converted Land Rover with 6 seats.  I was stood up balancing my camera / lens on the roll-bar when the elephant started to charge us.  The driver didn't flinch and, taking that as a good sign, I stayed put and kept shooting.  The elephant backed down when about 20 yards from us.  When I turned around, the remaining 5 passengers were all crammed on the back seats, looking at me as if I was mental. To this day, I really don't know why I kept shooting - other than it looked like a scene from a film when viewed through the viewfinder and not "real".  I'm just glad that the elephant did stop, though.

I'd post a couple of shots but they were taken on the "wrong" medium for this forum.

[charles binns]

I've done plenty of stupid things in my life but not many of them to take a photograph. 

Two that spring to mind are both as a result of my attempts to be a "nature photographer".

the first was in the Amazon rainforest in Peru -I spent two months about 27 years ago working in an aid station and ended my visit with a week long hunting trip with some local indians.  Anyway one night they caught a four foot Cayman and when it was dragged to the river bank I thought it  would be a good idea to get a close up.  I got close, the cayman lunged at me, I jumped back bloody quickly just as one of the hunters brained with his machete (even more quickly I might add).

The second was in Mexico where I decided it would be a good idea to take a macro shot of a swarm of extremely aggressive African bees that had taken residence in my now wife's garden.  I got up at 5am when I thought they would be docile, set up my tripod and flash and took a picture.  the angry buzz when the flash fired worried me abit, but I  took a second and the louder and angrier buzz from the flash firing persuaded me that I was pushing my luck to I grabbed the camera and retreated inside the house.  Luckily the bees left later that morning.

[Terry]

A few weeks ago I decided to get a shot that intrigued me in a (now closed) restaurant at the end of my street.  The combination of emergency lighting, and the glow from various electronic devices looked ethereal and I thought a long exposure on Ektar with my trusty Gundlach Korona would make a good photo.  So I went to the parking lot well after dark, stood my tripod and set up the shot.  As I was framing up and pulling focus under the dark cloth I was suddenly aware of a very bright light.  Looking out from under the cloth I found myself staring straight into two headlights that were stopped about five feet away.  One of the neighbors had been parking his car in that lot, and thankfully was quick on the brakes. Closest I've come to dying for a shot.