Forums > General Industry > SAFETY SHOULD BE A PRIORY......PLEASE THINK

Photographer

KoolGirlieStuff

Posts: 3560

Gainesville, Florida, US

I`m posting this just as a reminder to all that no matter how great a location is you should always think about the safety involved.......

I had a fashion shoot about two weeks ago where I used a 1930`s fire escape

The shoot went nearly flawless (shot in a crossprocessed digital mode) but as the model and I descended the escape the bottom weight of the stairs hit the ground and my model (Nihility) walking behind me slipped (her fetish boots were like ice skates) and she nearly went over the side (a 35/40 foot drop to the street!)

Both out hearts were up in our throats and I was quite disturbed at my (not thinking about the danger mode) that now I`m evaluating ANY situation that might have the slightest bit of danger involved in any future photoshoot

The great Erwin Blumenfield shot a HIGH FASHION shot for VOGUE magazine in 1938 hundreds of feet above the Paris streets on the middle part of the EFFEL TOWER

http://img.iskon.hr/kl/2004/05/28/0002014v.jpg

While this photograph is maybe one of the GREATEST fashion photographs ever taken, the girl is unsupported and is`nt wired or anything to the tower she`s holding on by one hand and has both feet planted together on a small iron girder part of the tower......

Just "THINK" before you shoot is all that I have to stress for that "mad" and "artistic" look before you do it....

Shaken But Not Stirred

Tom

Apr 25 05 07:28 pm Link

Photographer

not here anymore.

Posts: 1892

San Diego, California, US

Everytime I do an outdoor shoot, I risk my life.  It's like mountain climbing to get the that ONE spot.

Apr 25 05 07:42 pm Link

Photographer

Viva Van Story

Posts: 615

Long Branch, New Jersey, US

oh... snap!  *Makes cross with hands*  Thanks god you guys are OK!

Apr 25 05 10:16 pm Link

Photographer

KoolGirlieStuff

Posts: 3560

Gainesville, Florida, US

Posted by Viva Van Story: 
oh... snap!  *Makes cross with hands*  Thanks god you guys are OK! 

Yeh, I`m lucky too....that could have been the END of both of our careers.......

Apr 25 05 10:20 pm Link

Photographer

Lesley Arak

Posts: 23

Springfield, Massachusetts, US

Posted by KoolGirlieStuff: 
I`m posting this just as a reminder to all that no matter how great a location is you should always think about the safety involved.......


http://img.iskon.hr/kl/2004/05/28/0002014v.jpg

Tom

That picture just freaked me out. I don't have to worry about me or my model falling from anything higher than a stool - I'm afraid of heights!

May 08 05 01:00 pm Link

Photographer

Patrick Walberg

Posts: 45289

San Juan Bautista, California, US

I think that sports photographers are the biggest risk takers. While working as a safety worker at a couple of race tracks (Sears Point and Laguna Seca) I'd have to chase shutterbugs back behind the fence, but they would keep trying to get closer than is safe. We use the buddy system and even then it's dangerous to be out on the track with race cars going around at 100 mph! I've seen some photographers get pretty beat up at football games when they didn't move fast enough!

Nothing is more life threatening than War! My hat is off to the many journalistic War photographers who died while in the line of duty.

Be careful!

May 08 05 02:36 pm Link

Photographer

DJTalStudios

Posts: 602

Seattle, Washington, US

OMG... Heart started pounding just reading that.

Heard of a shoot once; don't know if it was true or not involving a swimsuit model and shark attack.

Funny how sometimes the simplist things can become hazzardous in an instant. Like never let a model cook bacon while she naked for a shoot... BAD idea.

May 09 05 06:48 am Link

Photographer

Sleepy Weasel

Posts: 4839

Las Vegas, Nevada, US

Posted by DJ Foothill: 
...never let a model cook bacon while she naked for a shoot... BAD idea.

What the?

May 09 05 01:27 pm Link

Photographer

Brian Kim

Posts: 508

Honolulu, Hawaii, US

Posted by Sleepy Weasel: 

Posted by DJ Foothill: 
...never let a model cook bacon while she naked for a shoot... BAD idea.

What the? 

Naked bacon, great. Now I'm hungry. Thanks guys...

Eh, I was shooting some bikini photos out on the water at Kahala Beach in Honolulu this past November, I also shoot a lot of sports and most of the kiteboarders know who I am. I have a 10 foot folding ladder out on the reef about 1/4 mile out from the beach. The model was caddied out on a kayak by my assistant, the ladder by my lighting grip. I carry my own gear, dry bag, water housing, etc.

We're shooting away. This kiteboarder sees me, and more importantly sees the bright yellow water housing for my camera. Thinks "photo op" and starts buzzing the shoot. I actually don't mind because a kite or kiteboarder in the background is cool. It's a beach/water shoot, no big deal.

While I'm in the water getting some low level shots of the model standing above me on the reef, the kiter buzzes me, catches a freak gust and blows straight at me. i don't see her because she's behind me. She runs over my right arm. Kite boards are a lot like wakeboards, short, light boards with very sharp carbon fiber fins.

I got cut. Bad. about 11" long and about 1/4 inch deep, deeper in some spots. I should've gotten stitches. I keep Steri-strips in the car, butterfly style sutures, for this type of thing. Shooting sports in the water, I get cut up a lot. I now have a happy reminder of the occasion, a nice thick keiloid scar down the length of my forearm.

May 09 05 04:14 pm Link

Photographer

Hugh Jorgen

Posts: 2850

Ashland, Oregon, US

I cant belive i got left out of this forum..just lucky so far i guess (:--

May 09 05 04:24 pm Link

Photographer

Reel Fish

Posts: 34

Eugene, Oregon, US

My shoots are usually very tame but there is always a chance of someone slipping in the water (we shoot fishing and hunting swimsuit calendars).  If the water is moving too fast, I don't let the models go out in it.  One time I had a model standing in a lake.  The water was calm, it was a nice day, everything was going great and then she passed out and crumpled into the water.  We ran out and carried her to shore.  Turns out she had been sick (didn't tell us), hadn't eaten, and had a reaction to her medicine.  We drove her home and she was ok but it was a real scare.

May 09 05 05:43 pm Link