Crazy Situations

Looking back, I don't think I have been in a crazy situation (maybe I'm not trying hard enough or I don't recall 😂). I can say the one that gives me the closest feelings to that type of situation is when I was photographing some Southern California low Mtn fires (long ago). I had shot some close ups (with telephoto) of a crane helicopter filling up on water and dumping it on the fire. The following day I heard on the news that the helicopter had gone down. I felt bad as I had probably caught some of the last images of that crew.

During the anti war protests of the late 60s I would photograph the demonstrations. The problem was that I was still in the Army so I had short hair. I took the name patchs off my army field jacket and wore old jeans. I because of my shorty hair I looked like a cop trying to look lie a protester. The demonstraters would yell " he's a cop" and throw rocks and bottles at me. I just remember running and yelling " I'm not a cop"

Oh wow! That is certainly some hot water to be in.

I recently had some kind of raptor come after my drone. I was not photographing wildlife, I was in a urban setting photographing a bridge and a WW2 Naval vessel museum.

I didn't get a look enough to identify the raptor, because I was trying to evade it and get my drone back to safety....or at least from above the open water. I think the bird came from a nearby bell tower, and didn't like my drone in it's territory.

I blogged about my wildest wildlife shoot a few years ago... https://www.susantregoning.com/blog/moonlit-flight

Another was in Rocky Mountain National Park during the elk rut. We pulled into the area where the elk liked to gather at night. It was still dark, and we had our headlights off. There were 100s of elk congregating on the road, and they just parted enough for us to drive through. Once we were parked, they filled back in around our SUV. We were completely surrounded so close we couldn't open our car doors if we wanted to. We missed most of the sunrise, but they finally moved off into the field.

Probably the craziest for me would be the time I was just off a trail, photographing a very co-operative barred owl. I heard grunting and saw a black bear headed down an incline, coming towards the trail. He didn't see me and kept coming so I figured I'd better make myself known by clearing my throat. He stopped dead in his tracks and began peering at me. For a lonnnngggg time. So I stupidly said, "Hi, bear,". Instead of running away he began walking parallel to the trail. However, he stopped again when he was directly above me so that he could give me another stare-down. I had bear spray on me but I didn't retrieve it...instead I swivelled my camera around on the tripod, hoping to at least get a shot. However at that moment he finally continued on his way, and I know exactly where he was going...to the berry patch that was just down the path.

Oh, and George, I remember saying, "I'm not a snack!" :-)

The time I was dive bombed by a peregrine falcon (I didn’t know they had a nest near by) or the time I ran onto private property to photograph a hawk eating a duck, or the time I followed a strange man into the woods under the promise of eagles and pelicans (which was totally true) but I had to keep texting friends that I was still alive lol

I was robbed at gunpoint, at the time I was still shooting film and the robbers opened my car door, pointed a gun at my head and told me to 'hand over f**king money'
I lost 2 cameras, 2 lenses, 2 flashes, my wallet, they demanded my car keys but I am still here to tell the story - I came from 2 shoots and arrived at a place for the third, so watch your surroundings.... always

Wow! Certainly quite the adventures from everyone. Thank you all for sharing. Always looking forward to more adventures (but the safe kind).