Creating Meaningful Photographs

[Ray]

Ray,

I think you need to go back to the same scene again with a different camera. Specifically, one with a totally silent electronic shutter so you won't scare the kangaroo away before he/she/it signs a model release for you.

Nah! It's too difficult. One can't just drive there with all one's camera gear on the back seat or in the boot. One has to walk every day, all day long, for a whole week to get there. And not just on the flat. It's mostly up and down all the way, but mostly up. And for all I know, the kangaroo might no longer be there. It might have changed habitats, or someone might have eaten it.

Mind you, I suppose I could just photoshop a substitute into the scene, but that would be cheating, wouldn't it? 

[LesPalenik]

So we were both standing there, bare-footed in the snow, when this kangaroo suddenly hopped onto the scene. I guess he was attracted to the strange pose the lady was in, which he sensed was perhaps vaguely similar to some of the poses other kangaroos get into, when they are having a good scratch.

I quickly took the shot, then the kangaroo bolted.

Thank you for sharing the whole story with us. As I said before, you were incredibly lucky to be at the right place at the right time.
Most people who see just the final version, they couldn't possibly imagine what it takes to get an image like this.  And to boot, it takes an expert photographer to process so truthfully and exquisitely the image he has experienced under those harsh conditions.
But the true hero and real professional was your model who stayed put during that terrifying moment and didn't even blink.



 

[Ray]

But the true hero and real professional was your model who stayed put during that terrifying moment and didn't even blink.

Absolutely! And I certainly didn't convey my thoughts to her that the kangaroo had been attracted to her posture because it sensed a resemblance to another kangaroo. One has to be sensitive about other cultures.

[Rob C]

Perhaps she was really under no threat at all: the kangaroo might also have been female. Anyway, as David Niven pointed (!) out in his book, The Moon's A Ballon, genitalia and snow'n'ice do not good bedfellows make. That's why its all about après-ski, not on piste.

Cracking read, by the way.

Rob C

[Rob C]

I'm on another forum that acknowledges the Page Two Rule; after the first page of a topic, the discussion can move off in any direction.  Now, I'm going to shut up lest anyone think I'm trying to enhance my own post count.

You missed the point, Dave: on this forum the boredom threshhold comes much more quickly than on your other one (why you should need two heaven only knows) and so measures either to rescue it or relieve the tedium have to be implemented at the first hint of a yawn. Simple, really, when  you get the hang of it.

Rob C

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

Mind you, I suppose I could just photoshop a substitute into the scene, but that would be cheating, wouldn't it? 

What a shocking suggestion!!!

Nobody ever accused Ansel of Photoshopping kangaroos into his pix, as far as I know. Even Alain Briot's kangaroo portraits use authentic, live kangaroos. So another trek to the mountain would certainly be in order. You might make it easier by wearing a third pair of socks.

And, to add my own Meaningful Kangaroo Photograph to this estimable thread, here is one I took on the Kalahari desert the other day. The kangaroo is crouched down behind the steering wheel of the car (it was bashful).

[Colorado David]

Perhaps she was really under no threat at all: the kangaroo might also have been female. Anyway, as David Niven pointed (!) out in his book, The Moon's A Ballon, genitalia and snow'n'ice do not good bedfellows make. That's why its all about après-ski, not on piste.

Cracking read, by the way.

Rob C

I enjoyed the heck out of that book when I read it about thirty years ago.  Do you remember the limerick he repeated for his first screen test?

[Rob C]

I enjoyed the heck out of that book when I read it about thirty years ago.  Do you remember the limerick he repeated for his first screen test?

No, David, I can't remember - I can't remember much of anything, these past few years!

What I can remember though, is lending the book to the crew of one of Pete Townshend's boats whilst it was briefly in Alcudia en route from Port Cervo, Sardinia, during the early 80s; I had been asked to shoot it for charter folios, but it was stipulated that it had to be done on 6x6. So, I used the 'blad and 50mm which, in my view, was the wrong combination for interiors (dogma removed, they'd have been better off with Kodachrome and 35mm, but who's going to argue with the paymaster?). I certainly got paid, but boat, crew and Moon vanished before I had a chance to play retriever and get Niven back. I did buy his next book, and both name and content escape me too, but not the impression that it was a disappointment after the joy of the first.

Life, I guess.

Rob C

[Colorado David]

The second book was, I believe, Bring on the Empty Horses, and I remember it to be a disappointment too.

The limerick he used for his screen test; There once was an old man of Leeds, who swallowed a packet of seeds.  Great tufts of grass shot out of his ass and his cock was all covered in weeds.  I didn't set out to memorize it.  It's just one of those things cluttering up my brain.

[Rob C]

The second book was, I believe, Bring on the Empty Horses, and I remember it to be a disappointment too.

The limerick he used for his screen test; There once was an old man of Leeds, who swallowed a packet of seeds.  Great tufts of grass shot out of his ass and his cock was all covered in weeds.  I didn't set out to memorize it.  It's just one of those things cluttering up my brain.

That's right! 'Empty...' was a reference to a quote from a non-English-first-language director. I'm pleased it wasn't just myself that felt let down; I suspect that when someone sets out to do an autobiography they put in the best and then, when it clicks and more's demanded, they have to trawl a little bit.  I also think it had some fictitious content (or was it all fiction?) though I'm far from sure, which seems to me to confirm my disenchanted view of the second oeuvre.

That's some limerick! I must try to learn it, but I told you about myemory. Anyway, my joke delivery always sucked; I'd have made a good straight man, though. I hope, but can't be sure.

I can tell you, actors of that era had so much more going for them than do the pretty boys of the past few decades. I was very sad when he passed away; he wrote the Forward to the first Pirelli Calendar book and, along with Patrick Campbell, he was one of my favourite scribes; a wonderfully light touch of the surreal. It's pretty much all disappeared now.

Rob C

[Colorado David]

David Niven also served honorably in the British Army during World War II, something few actors would do these days.  The world hung on the edge of a knife during World War II and it was right for him to serve.  He also had a darned fine first name. 

[Rob C]

David Niven also served honorably in the British Army during World War II, something few actors would do these days.  The world hung on the edge of a knife during World War II and it was right for him to serve.  He also had a darned fine first name. 

Yep, he shared it with my son.

Rob C

[theguywitha645d]

David Niven also served honorably in the British Army during World War II, something few actors would do these days. 

Because the war ended in 1945.

[Rob C]

Because the war ended in 1945.

The war has never ended. It simply continues as economics and the eternal struggle to maintain employment until the next bout of mass extermination breaks out spontaneously to correct the balance to bring the production need back. It's cyclical - always was. It's nothing personal - just business.

Rob C