PixelatedImage Blog

Two items today. Not exactly unrelated to photography, but a little more tangental than usual.

Thing One
Remember the Eagles hit song, Hotel California? It was a place you could – according to the song, “check out any time you like, but you can never leave.” The song is probably about drugs or something.Or an actual hotel in California for all I know… But actual hotels and guest houses in much of the world are often like this. You get up at 5am so you can be out the door at 6 just in time to experience the world waking up. But you can’t because the hotel is locked up tight, with steel shutters you didn’t notice the day before, and bars and padlocks and stuff, and there’s no one there – or even awake – to let you out. Few things are as frustrating. So plan on surprises happening and ask at the desk about early mornings the evening before so there can be someone there to let you out. Just a helpful hint.

Thing Two.
I can’t tell you how many times I have hit my head on something while trying to get a shot, or standing up after I’ve captured it. Many, many times. It’s a running joke with Gary, my producer on the World Vision assignments. I get focused on what I’m doing, I get all artsy-fartsy and start playing and suddenly I’ve run into a door jam, a post, a sharp pointy thing sticking out of the roof. The same distraction has happened, I’ve taken a step backwards, and stepped off something or into something I never should have stepped off or into.

So this is your “stay alive while shooting” reminder. Most of us get pretty into what we’re doing, and the fact that we often close one eye and look into a confining little box that kills our peripheral vision, to do it, can be dangerous.

I’ve not yet found a solution to the head-banging thing. Wearing a ball cap only seems to make it worse. I’m trying to learn. But stepping off curbs, into traffic or holes, that one’s easy. I’m now in the habit of carefully placing one probing foot behind me with every backwards step I take. It’s saved me from walking off all kinds of things and probably saves my life more than I know. So next time you’re shooting, stay aware of your surroundings, watch your head, and check before you step backwards.