All-time funniest comment you've gotten while shooting

[sandy_sorlien3]

I had the Arca pointed into an abandoned storefront on Main Street,

Phoenixville, PA. A well-dressed businessman-type walked briskly by.

He glanced into the storefront and then at me, calling out rather

loudly, "What could you POSSIBLY see there to photograph?"

 

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I said, "If you can't see it, I can't explain it to you." He nodded

as if that made perfect sense, and walked on.

[bill_johnson3]

In 1983 I was photographing a railroad station with an 8x10

positioned on the commuter waiting platform well in the clear of the

tracks. (This was in Merion, PA, west of Philadelphia on a 4-track

commuting rail line.)

 

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Under the dark cloth I heard a car drive up behind me, lock the

brakes, and skid on the gravel. Turning to see if I was about to be

struck, I saw that it was a police cruiser and the officer jumping

out, running toward me.

 

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"Alright buddy, just what the h*** do you think you are doing??!!",

he shouted.

"Taking photographs of the station" I stuttered, partly in shock from

this unbelievable intrusion.

"Oh yeah, with what??", he screamed. By now he was standing on one

side of the camera, I'm on the other side.

"This", as I pointed to the camera in front of him.

"That's a camera?", he growled in disbelief.

"Yes sir", I confirmed.

"Well,...don't get on the tracks!!", he grunted, and then stomped off

to his cruiser and pulled away.

 

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To this day, I can only imagine that someone saw my setup on the

platform, thought it was some kind of weapon (machine gun, rifle,

etc.), saw me "aiming" at the tracks from under the cloth (perhaps

waiting to blast the next train), and called the police. And this was

long before September 11, 2001.

[steve_feldman]

To: Kevin B.

 

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Reminds me of the "Here's your sign" routine.

 

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S.

[steve_feldman]

OK Chris - here goes:

 

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There was the wedding that I assisted on the hottest day of the year.

117 degrees in the San Fernando Valley, CA. Had 2 Hassy bodies break

down. Finished the day on a Yashicamat Twin and a Mamiya 645 (5x7

proofs trimmed to 5x5). No one could tell the difference.

 

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Then there was the wedding where the proofs came back and the couple

were already separated.

 

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Then there was the wedding where on arrival to the reception site I

found the cake in a beautiful garden setting. Made several creative

and straight shots of it. About 30 min. later a loud crash was heard.

Cake bumped by a busboy. The father of the bride wanted to know if I

had taken the shot earlier. Since I had, he was at least relieved.

The bride never saw her cake until she saw the proofs.

 

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Then there was the wedding where when the bride saw the proofs about

3 weeks after the wedding, called and yelled at me that my pictures

were evil and had ghosts in them. She wouldn't buy a finished album

from me and refused to pay the balance on her contract. Found out the

next day from the bride's mother that the bride was very

superstitious. A few of my "make-up mirror" shots had two sets of

faint shadows behind her image. The result of using a two flash system

(main high on camera, fill slave held by assistant).

 

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Then there was the wedding where . . . .

 

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Any wonder why I shoot mountains, rivers, snow, trees and butterflies

now?

[chris_jordan3]

another good one came to mind: i was shooting a closeup of a manhole

cover in the middle of a busy street in downtown seattle one rainy

night. i had to wait until 2:00 a.m. when there was less traffic, but

there were still a few cars around, making the shot somewhat dicey. i

was squatting there with my camera in the middle of the avenue, tripod

legs splayed out with the camera right down at street level, and a cop

pulls up, gets out and asks what the heck i'm doing in a hard-ass

tone of voice. i showed him the wet manhole cover (which was

reflecting wild colors from a nearby neon sign), and got him to look

under the darkcloth at the ground glass. he looked silently for a few

seconds, then went back to his car, turned on the flashing lights,

turned the car sideways and blocked off the whole street so i could

finish my shot!!

 

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~cj

[clay_martin1]

I was at Arches National Park taking pictures along the Devil's

Garden Trail (a very popular spot), when a whole busload of retired

folks from a tour bus came up the path. One elderly man paused to

watch me focus and meter, then stepped up and said "You must take

very beautiful pictures, since you have such wonderful equipment!"

 

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Ah, if only it were true...

[ted_brownle]

When I'm out in public, I'm always asked my some young couple, "can

you take our picture?" while I was out with my wife for an

anniversary dinner, I mentioned to her, "Gee, no camera. I won't be

asked to take anyone's picture." To our amazement, about 5 minutes

later, an asian couple handed me their point & shoot and asked the

classic question.

 

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Even without a camera, I must have the look of a photographer about

me:

 

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At a trip to the local waterpark with my family, I was standing in

the middle of a pool of water with my older daughter (no cmaera in

hand). A woman waded up to us, handed me her disposable waterproof

camera & asked me to take a picture of her & her child.

 

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It's a family joke now, whose going to ask Daddy to take their

picture? (Just for reference, I don't wear camera logo clothing.)

[david_grandy5]

I was shooting a hockey game for a daily newspaper. It was

something like Junior B and I arrived with a few seconds left in the

first period so I got to chill my bones through the intermission.

 

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A spectator came over and asked. "Are your pictures going in the

[cities other daily newspaper and my competitor]?" "No, sorry but

I'm with [my paper]." "Well is one of their photographer's

here?" "Nope, sorry I don't see anyone."

 

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So then this guy just starts to chew ME out. "Why the hell aren't

they covering this?" I kept saying, "It isn't US. It's THEM" but he

kept on insisting that we all worked for the same paper. It was kind

of fun since he was getting more and more pissed off and he never

could get his head around all of this! I can only imagine what he

yelled at the refs!

[john_hicks___]

Non-photographer pokes his head up under the darkcloth to see what I'm up to.... "It's in color!!"

[704 studio]

I was in New Orleans carrying my 35mm camera, making pictures of

people in a square. There was a gang of children running around and

they began pleading with me to let them make some pictures. I

figured �why not?�, and started passing the camera around to the

kids. Some didn�t look through the viewfinder, didn�t focus or

compose, just started clicking and pointing the camera at their

friends. They were smiling, happy to have the opportunity to try

something new. When they finished making their pictures they allowed

me to make some photographs of them.

 

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When I returned to Chicago I developed the film and was surprised to

see that that the pictures they had made were far more interesting

and creative than my own efforts. I guess the lesson for me is to try

not to think so much while making a photograph, have a lot of fun,

and keep a smile on my face.

 

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If you want to see an example of one of the kid�s photographs, I

posted it at :

 

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http://www.prairienet.org/~jwebb66/jackson.htm

[__jon__]

Not to break up the flow of funny comments, but in case you all

haven't checked out Chris Jordan's web site, here it is:

 

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http://www.chrisjordanphoto.com/

 

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I lived in the Pacific North West for several years and "Seattle

street studies" is just stunning.

[chris_jordan3]

Ha-- what a great bunch of anecdotes! My favorites were Walter's

"spirit level" story and Rob's "Bridges of Madison County." What

a hoot! Dang, this thread should be made into a magazine article or

something. Or maybe a book, along with everyone's funniest photos.

 

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Speaking of which, maybe that's a good new thread. My funniest was a

self-portrait on a mountain summit in the Cascades with my Nikon.

Timer set to 10 sec, I ran across a 30-foot section of icy snow to

pose majestically with the sea-of-peaks behind me. As I sprinted

toward my chosen spot, I slipped exactly as the shutter clicked.

Photo: me flailingly suspended sideways in mid-air immediately prior

to snowy face plant...