Hmmmm its 4:45 am. I've been awake since 10 am the previous day and I've just finished a 10 hour shift and I want to go to Hillarys to take some shots of the humpback that washed into the harbour. Dawn is over 2 hours away. I can't do it. neeeed sleep....srry..hv to rely on the news for some shots. I'll go in the arvo if they haven't removed it by then...

What have you done to get your shot....??? Have you ever lain down in the mud?? Risked your eyebrows burning to get the shot that mattered???? Dodged bullets??Driven from one side of the city to the other holding your eyes open with matchsticks???

As a student, I went shooting alone in some of the most 'dangerous' immigrant districts in Brussels. As I entered the streets, some of the older residents advised me not to go walking around with a camera; but I went ahead and had a great time. People came up to have their picture taken, I was invited in pubs, tearooms and homes. Later I heard of some friends that were afraid to go there all by themselves, so they decided to go shooting pictures in groups of 4 or 5... they were all beaten up, had their cameras taken and thrown on the ground... I'm still wondering if I was just lucky, or was it all a matter of attitude..?

The most dangerous thing I've done so far was cross a busy dual carriageway (4 lanes) with traffic flowing fairly frequently at 70mph in both directions - I did this to get the shot of my "Sunset Bridge" earlier this year - but I think it was worth it!!

Yet to dodge bullets, but I think I would if it got me the shot I wanted and earned me some respect!!

Hugs

Chrissy xx

I almost got my hand chomped by a gator going for that close-up... (great idea for a thread and neat tales!)

Nothing as exciting as bullets or gators but last year I climbed into a cave to shoot an 80ft waterfall.The cave was narrow and claustrophobic.I suddenly heard a roar that sounded like masses of rushing water and thought "Oh shit I am in big trouble" but it was a jet plane roaring past out side the cave.Any of you that know the lake district in Cumbria UK well will be aware that the RAF use this area to practice low flowing over the lakes and mountains and the roar from the engines is at times quite deafening.Made me think why do us guys and girls put ourselves thru this kind of experience for the sake of a photo. 

Eddie

Nothing too daring. Almost lost my paddle a few times on the last Kayak trip, however I will climb on and over things, cross busy roadways, etc.
(great thread)

Quote - Nothing as exciting as bullets or gators but last year I climbed into a cave to shoot an 80ft waterfall.The cave was narrow and claustrophobic.I suddenly heard a roar that sounded like masses of rushing water and thought "Oh shit I am in big trouble" but it was a jet plane roaring past out side the cave.Any of you that know the lake district in Cumbria UK well will be aware that the RAF use this area to practice low flowing over the lakes and mountains and the roar from the engines is at times quite deafening.Made me think why do us guys and girls put ourselves thru this kind of experience for the sake of a photo. 

Eddie

Can be pretty impressive when you're high up on the peaks and you can see the planes flying below you in the valleys. 

Most dangerous thing I've done was when out climbing in the Ardeche valley, my friend who was on the cliff face spotted an interesting looking lizard and asked if I (still on the ground) would pass my camera to him. He was only about 10 feet up so I just free climbed up. The lizard moved so we gave chase across the cliff and I suddenly realised after getting a reasonable shot that I was still free climbing but was now about 85 feet up and not protected in any way :(. 

It was 20 feet of easy climbing to the top, but it was the most nervous scary climb I've ever done. After all that when I developed the photo's they weren't that good anyway :(

Apart from falling of things like mountains, off stepladders and out of trees. 
Demos are the most dangerous places. Not just because cops like to give anyone with a camera a good whack.     

Dangling from a bridge - the tracks looked really old - to get a good shot of a crowd at a CND demo - then discovering a train wanted say Hi!.

Shooting anti-hunt-demo - taken a long lens to try out. Saw a group of people with the cops, looked interesting and shot away. 3 minutes later I'm legging it across a field with a line of cops after me like the Charge of the light Brigade. 
 
Frantically trying to rewind the film, shove the canister down the Y-Fronts and reload shoot a couple before a barbed wire fence caught me. The cops removed the film from the camera and told me to s*d off.     

Next day 2 cops on the doorstep holding a copy of the local rag showing a shaky shot of  
a local magistrate who'd claimed he wasn't there, wasn't biased and wasn't a freemason :)

Couple of months ago I was wanting some waterfall pics..... so, running along a muddy path halway up a ravine wall wasn't daring enough.....oh, no........ the shot I wanted would require finding a less-steep route to the top (50-60ft?), finding an overhanging tree with a branch thick enough to hold my weight and suspending ape-like with an outsretched arm aiming blindly.  It wasn't until I went back down an looked at the tree I was hanging from that I realised it was pretty dumb....... and the picture wasn't anywhere near as good as I'd imagined it to be..... ho hum!

(",)

Great stories one and all...got a great chuckle from yours mrsparky. ;'D

It wasn't my best shot but my wife caught me hanging over the egde of a very high cliff (please remember that without my camera I'm VERY afraid of heights) on a Scottish holiday some years ago in order to get a better POV on an unusual plant on the cliff edge.  

For som reason she keeps a very close eye on me when I'm out with the camera  since then, can't think why.

Hmmm, there seems to be a common theme developing here...

1. When in possesion of a camera we all do things we wouldn't normally dream of doing
2. The more bravery/stupidity required to get the shot we want - the less likely it is we'll get a good one

But we still keep doing it, lol :biggrin:

As for myself, nothing too risky yet. I seem to spend a fair amount of time at work climbing trees/ladders etc. It would be silly of me not to have a camera with me!! lol

• Andy

Shoting the people on the streets is not so safe sometimes! :)