your scariest photography moment?

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#21
wickidwombat said:
what silly thing have you done?
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During my vacation in Edinburgh, Scotland I paid for an expensive private tour of the city's famous monuments, castles, buildings etc, I forgot that there was no CF card in my 7D (as I had taken it out a night before to transfer the images to my laptop but forgot to reload the card back into the camera) to my bad luck I also had enable shutter release without the card feature ... so I proudly kept clicking away at all the glorious places (with my wife and kids reluctantly posing at my commands) ... when I got back home and found out what I had done, my wife gave me an earful for making the family pose for nothing :-[ ... till this day, whenever we go on a vacation, I get teased about it by the wife.
 
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#22
expatinasia said:
Major riots had just broken out in a very poor, and relatively lawless country. I was covering some of it from the back of a motorbike when an angry looking guy in army fatigues clutching an AK 47 (or 74 - not entirely sure) ran towards the bike screaming and pointing. Quite a moment, as I was the only white face around, and the only guy with a camera as well. Thankfully it turns out that it was not me he was pointing at, but a bike over my left shoulder heading in the same direction as me. :o
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47 is distinctly bigger than a 74 :)

Mine would be doing a paid job for a friend's birthday and then "accidentally" getting drunk halfway through the night.

Either that or accidentally putting the uncharged batteries in my flash instead of the charged ones for an engagement in a low lit restaurant.
 
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#25
BrandonKing96 said:
47 is distinctly bigger than a 74 :)
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I have no idea, it was quite a few years ago (maybe 12 or more), but my guess would be an AK 47 knowing the country I was in. I believe the 47 is the cheaper, older model? Not that it mattered. I wasn't really too concerned about the model of the gun at the time. :o Tensions were already high, buildings on fire etc.
 
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#26
dswtan said:
Side of a lake, bag on a slope, tipped over, opened, 24mm f/1.4L II rolled out, all in slow motion, off it went, comedy-style, down to the waterline...plop! :-/

$312.08 repair charge for cleaning and water damage.

Maybe I got off lightly!
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I'll say! Could have very easily been purchasing a new 24mm!
 
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#27
During my vacation in Edinburgh, Scotland I paid for an expensive private tour of the city's famous monuments, castles, buildings etc, I forgot that there was no CF card in my 7D (as I had taken it out a night before to transfer the images to my laptop but forgot to reload the card back into the camera) to my bad luck I also had enable shutter release without the card feature ... so I proudly kept clicking away at all the glorious places (with my wife and kids reluctantly posing at my commands) ... when I got back home and found out what I had done, my wife gave me an earful for making the family pose for nothing :-[ ... till this day, whenever we go on a vacation, I get teased about it by the wife.
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+1

I did the same thing 3 years ago while on vacation with my family in Washington state. I forgot to re-install my CF card after importing pictures at the hotel one night. The following day we visited Mount Rainier and I shot 100+ "shots" of landscapes and the wife and son at various locations, only to find out that evening that I was shooting blanks. Needless to say, I promptly turned on the no shutter release without memory card option! My wife will never let me forget... :-[
 
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#29
Some great stories, thanks to all...

Silliest moment - aside from the normal misreading the tides and getting "stranded" on the english coast, my best to date would be diving/slipping into a stream with 1Ds and 17-40mm attached with tripod. Photographer and equipment fully immersed and not an underwater housing kit to be seen! :-[ Left everything for 24hrs drying and it was all fine...

For scariest, they're all animal related...

I've had a herd of springbok get suddenly spooked and dart towards the car and one hit the rear but shook his head somewhat dazed and ran away...

What always scares the beejezus out of me is self-drive, narrow roads, herds of elephants in close proximity. I was in Kruger a couple of years back, heading down a backroad. Came across a bull. Normally if I approach slowly but consistently, the elephants will ignore me. Not this bull. He proceeded towards me. I paused, perhaps that was my mistake, but then I went forward again. Like a game of chicken, he keeps coming, I advance slowly. When he shakes his head a little, it was time to retreat. 500 yds back to the T junction I wait, deciding I could either go backwards with a quick u-turn, or floor it forwards if he continues.

Then out of my left field of vision comes another elephant and the penny dropped. He was in musth and not interested in me. I watched him court the female with his demonstrations of destruction, and after about 5 minutes she turns and trotts off and he follows at a pace. I decide to go back to where I was heading and leave them in peace....

For the rest of that holiday, whenever I came across a herd, especially on the narrow roads where literally the brush almost touched the side of the vehicle, I could always feel my throat, the adrenaline and the stomach acid :-[ Funny on how I spent half the time considering where I could quickly throw the vehicle into reverse if I needed to get away from a charger ;)

By contrast, driving through a herd of buffalo at 5:45 in the morning, because a hundred of them decided to block the road was a lot easier... I drove slowly but surely, and they parted without issue. So long as they are not frightened, then it's normally all good....

Oh and finally, never back away from a warthog... I did that when walking to a water hole hide, and he decided that meant he had the upper hand. Fortunately there were some decent size stones near by and i had my monopod. Neither was required, just a bit of patience and his lost interest :D
 
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#30
FatDaddyJones said:
I've had a couple moose encounters in Montana and Wyoming. They can be aggressive and deadly! A moose is a HUGE animal!
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You are right. Most people think of a moose as a sort of whacky (see Bullwinkle, the cartoon character) deer. However, stand next to one, and that idea dissolves rather quickly. A moose almost killed me without me even seeing it. I was headed to a scenic location in upstate NY in the second truck in a caravan of trucks, some of which were to be shot by myself and one other photographer for a car manufacturer. Driving over a twisty mountain road, a moose jumped out of the roadside foliage onto the road in front of the lead Chevy Suburban, giving the driver no time to avoid him. A mighty collision took place; the moose, although deceased, won. Over half of the huge Suburban was crushed into an accordian shape and totalled. The driver miraculously survived with nothing more than whiplash, while I, unable to stop in time, was able to skid terrifyingly onto the shoulder, missing the Suburaban/Moose combo (a sort of Borg synthesis, for you Star Trek fans) by inches.

There you have it - my moose story of the week.

Regards,
David
 
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#31
Almost got mugged on Vegas strip. Was at the north end, taking picture of Stratosphere. Two guys hanging around the corner of a building. We were next to a Chinese restaurant building; two workers outside taking break. As soon as those two workers started going back into the restaurant; the other two guys around the corner starting approaching us. We shouted to the two asian guys to wait for us. Don't remember what we said as we clearly didn't speak their language. We grabbed our stuffs (tripod, camera bag, etc..) and ran into the restaurant. Had we stayed on the strip, who knows what might happened. We were there shooting for 10 minutes. We noticed those two guys because while we were doing our setup, they walked passed us and then just hung around the next building. We waited until the coast was clear and rushed back into Stratosphere.
 
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#32
When my 7D fell 25 feet off a chairlift into the snow. Survived and shot with it all day.

When my friend I was shooting a few days later took my 7D and 400 f/2.8 II off the table (laying base down) and set it on the back of the camera a bit to hard forcing the lens into the body~ Had 205k shutter at that point.. so I was not too concerned. I think the fall did damage the mount as it felt weird afterwards mounting a lens to the body. I now let no one touch my gear~
 
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#33
i was out trying some long exposures at night, some flash photography and what not, just trying to sharpen my limited skills. pressed my shutter, minding my own business waiting for my 350d to do what i twas doing, then all of a sudden, RIGHT NEXT TO me i heard "You taking pictures of me? i saw the flash from where i was, i don't like people taking pictures of me". I never heard this dude coming, and I'm sure he was high. I just said no i wasn't and then he seemed satisfied a went back to his group of friends. i was sure he was going to attack me
 
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#34
Seeing a nice puddle of water inside the port of my SPL housing. Luckily it was only my 30D and my nifty fifty in there so it wouldn't have been a huge loss. It was a tough swim in with head high surf and good current that day all while trying to hold the housing over my head and out of the water.

Oh well, found the leak, fixed it and have been swimming with it again. Still scary as it hasn't happened in 3+ years of shooting in the water. Also a little nerve racking considering I will soon be getting a housing for my 1DX.
 
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#36
In the Masai Mara (southwest Kenya) a pride of lions is upsetting an elephant herd and the Matriarch is getting very upset since there young calves in the group. For some reason she decides we are the problem and charges our vehicle (we have 40-50 yard head start but she is go faster than we can). Well the ground is muddy and we start slipping. Luckily the driver is able to get traction and matriach finally gives up after chasing up 1/2 mile or so.
 
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#38
Years ago was in Domodedovo airport (Moscow) waiting for a flight. I casually asked our guide permission to take a pic of the sign indicating our flight number and was granted that permission. I lifted my camera to my eye and suddenly a very large female security guard came running and screaming at me as she pushed the camera into my face with her hand almost knocking me down. I guess she did not know that I got permission! So much for the post Cold War democracy in Russia! Neither I nor the camera suffered any permanent damage, so it could have been much worse. In retrospect I wish I had the chutspah at the time to take a pic of her charging at me.

Hmmmmmm. Is this something like an encounter with a moose? ;)
 
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#39
Long ago, in my much younger and stupider days, I was assisting on the shoot of a dancer on the beach. At the beginning of the day she asked me to hold onto her engagement ring which I proceeded to put in my pocket, since I didn't have anywhere else secure to stow it.

A few hours later I was holding a large reflector about thigh deep in the surf and got bowled over by a wave I didn't see coming. Sunglasses gone, other odds and ends missing, but on incredibly agitated inspection of my pockets the only thing that actually was there was the ring. No thanks to me.
 
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#40
pierceography said:
digital paradise said:
Every time I talk to my wife about purchasing new equipment.
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+1 lol

Mine is whenever my wife logs into our amazon account after I've ordered a new lens. Tomorrow should be fun... Just ordered the 135mm f/2L yesterday. :-)
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You just need to get her own login setup! I did that because I explained if she bought me a gift I would see it before it arrived. It works. sort of :)
 
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