[LRflex] Re: The Road Report
- From: <tedgrant@xxxxxxx>
- To: <leicareflex@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 29 Dec 2011 10:23:46 -0800
David Young SHOWED:
Subject: [LRflex] The Road Report
> Had a great holiday with all the family - kids, grand-kids and six dogs. I
> hope your holiday was as
> enjoyable.
>
> The skiing was good, and the roads even better... almost summer driving, for
> the most part...
> but, not everywhere.
>
> http://www.furnfeather.net/Temps/Road.html
Hi David,
Beauty action photo. Thank goodness you didn't shoot from where I did as
explained in the following story! :-)
Buried Alive:
Most news photographers hate weather assignments. These assignments rarely
occur on good weather days. But be assured, if the temperature is blowing the
top off the thermometer or dropping through the bottom, if there is a
torrential downpour or a heavy snowfall, the city desk expects a weather
picture. You dress, go out the door, and shoot a weather picture on the way to
the office hoping to avoid the need to go out again.
One winter the city was severely snowed in. Before I awoke, the editor called
insisting on something different from the usual kids sliding down hills or
stranded cars. His lilting voice barked over the phone in a way I didn't want
to hear before coffee. "I want something really exciting instead of the same
old crap!" Always up for a challenge, I decided to look for a working snowplow
crew. The challenge: how was I going to make a snowplow look exciting?
I found a plow moving quickly along the street throwing huge waves of snow off
its blade. I decided to shoot from a low angle and get the plow approaching. It
would look like a Pacific Ocean "surfs-up" wave. I lay down at the side of the
road. The low angle increased the height and size of the snowy wave and
approaching plow. The beautiful arcing white wave looked incredible through the
viewfinder. It was close and I squeezed the motor drive release.
Whump! Thump! Surprise! The force of impact and volume of snow knocked the wind
out of me. I was buried. I wasn't sure how deep, but I knew I was in trouble.
Trying to move my right arm with what I hoped still held my camera was useless.
The left arm was equally immobilized.
Being buried alive began to cross my mind. Then, with one frantic heave, I
exploded out of the snow. Shaking like a wet dog, I must have been quite a
sight-woolen toque missing, snow inside my shirt, inside my parka and down my
pants; my camera looked like a snow sculpture.
When I looked for the snowplow-it was gone. The crew never knew they had buried
me. If I had failed to free myself, someone would have found me the following
spring still clutching my camera.
Returning to the darkroom, I processed the film and discovered a beautiful
sequence of high curling snow waves coming off the blade, including the final
wave that buried me. I printed the sequence, including the "buried frame," and
attached a note of the incident. I walked in and put them on the city editor's
desk.
"Are these different enough?" I asked.
"Yeah, not bad. But if you do something this stupid again, have your obituary
ready first."
Nothing like a challenging assignment first thing in the morning!
------
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