The Most Interesting Photographer in the World

<p>He's photographed lions... from the inside<br>

When NASA had to repair the Hubble... they borrowed his lens<br>

He built his first camera when he was five... out of a toaster<br>

His portfolio has been known to stop wars<br>

He photographed a sunset once... it waited for him<br>

His list of clients include Bigfoot, Santa Claus, and those little grey aliens</p>

<p>He is... the most interesting photographer in the world...</p>

<p>"<em>I don't always shoot film, but when I do... I prefer Dos Chromas. Keep shooting my friends</em>."</p>

<p>A little play-on of those popular beer commercials. OK, so I'm sure you all have some interesting photo stories you can share. So let's hear it. What's the wildest, craziest, strangest thing that's happened while you were taking pictures?</p>

<p>That's pretty good, Luc! :-)</p>

<p>It's gonna be hard to top but I once stepped in dog poo while shooting a dog pooing.</p>

<p>Watching dumbfounded from the foot of the stage while Stevie Wonder tossed his hands in the air and fell straight backward off his seat during a Juneteenth concert at the Cotton Bowl comes pretty close to topping my list. I think this was in 1982? I was so stunned I forgot to snap a photo until after the bass player hoisted Stevie back onto his chair. The band never missed a beat, tho' the backup singers were screaming and running in little circles while this happened. To this day I'm not sure whether it was a stunt.</p>

<p>I was walking down a street in the Quarter making some photos when a woman, sitting half naked in the open window of a restaurant starts waving and smiling at me. The man with her points at her large breasts. Grinning, he bends down and begins flicking her protruding, erect nipples with his tongue. These people obviously wanted me to make their photograph. I passed this up.</p>

<p>What was crazy about it was that they were sitting in the open window of an ordinary restaurant. All around them were normal dining patrons who were ignoring this as they were eating. I moved on. This stuck in my mind as an unusual event.</p>

<p>Luc, I logged on just to comment on how funny this is!</p>

It reminds of me !

<p>I'm not a professional. My last camera was a 4MP compact Canon S40 (it took RAW's), and on an outing with an old friend who's a bit 'spastic' it ended up in the ocean off the Santa Monica pier when he dropped it.</p>

<p>So I decided to save up and upgrade to a 40D and a couple of nice lenses. With this equipment I knew I could stop action quite easily. So I set my sights on my 'Everest' photo of a pelican in midair about to strike the ocean and its prey.</p>

<p>A couple of years ago I went to the Bolsa Chica NWR without thinking about pelicans. But there they were, some fledglings, some appearing to teach others to dive while they struck the ocean in pairs, one always hanging back a split second watching the other before crashing into the water (I wouldn't have been able to see this behavior without the photos stopping the action). The water is shallow there so the pelicans had to start pretty low, and the fish were numerous. Photographing all this was incredible, and I didn't get one "Everest' photo; I got many.</p>

<p>There was also a rare reddish egret, and on a separate trip I snapped a photo of a cormorant preening a clearly happy, relaxed pelican.</p>

<p>Nature has become so fascinating, and photography takes me there in a different, magnificent way.</p>

<p>Michael - lol, classic!<br>

Lex - unbelievable, and funny!<br>

John - The Quarter... as in New Orleans? I was born there, was it a certain time of year, mardi gras season? Or just a random day... it doesn't really surprise me though either way.<br>

Martin - thanks!<br>

Harry - ha ha<br>

Brad - great story!</p>

<p>It just occurred to me that some of you may not know what beer commercial I'm talking about. Do a search on a beer called "<em>Dos Equis</em>" and I'm sure you can find some commercials online, the bit I wrote will probably make more sense then.</p>

<p>Sadly I am familiar with the ad of which you speak.</p>

<p>I look for <em>interested</em> people, rather than interesting ones.</p>

<p>Luc, great parody with a photographic angle!</p>

<p>I must lead a boring photographic life as I have no real crazy stories. I have one ironic one, though.</p>

<p>A few years back, taking street shots in San Diego, I happened to take a shot of the exterior of a bar I found architecturally interesting. A few minutes later, a waiter from the bar came over and told me that a woman sitting on the patio wanted to talk to me. I went over to see what she wanted. She was fairly confrontational about me me having taken her picture. Mind you, I was using a wide angle lens and had been focusing on the building, not patrons on the patio. I kept my cool, remained polite, and explained to her that, although I had not taken her photograph, the law did allow such a photograph to be taken in a public place.</p>

<p>"Well," she huffed "I don't agree with that law."</p>

<p>I found this encounter ironic because, A.) I had been blatantly taking pictures of people in the street for 2 hours with hardly a glance thrown my way. I took one shot of a building, and someone became upset. B.) When I looked at the photo of the bar....there she was in the upper right hand corner, a small distant figure seated on the patio. </p>