Hi everybody. Welcome to the blog where I talk about the past.
Oh man, we used to do some crazy stuff, just to get “The Shot.”
There’s a walking path on the south headland of Bondi Beach, Australia. Off the footpath, there’s a little path that leads to some shallow alcoves or caves. The alcoves have been cut out by the wind and the rain for centuries and centuries. Now, they’re a great place to shoot. It’s great light. The only problem was there’s a 50 foot drop to a certain death. And if the fall didn’t kill you, the giant waves that broke against the boulders would. You’d be dropped into a human blender. I think I shot a cover for Australian Elle there. The light was cool. The fall wouldn’t have been. But it was worth it I guess.
Another time I think I told you about. We were in Greenland. We put the model on an iceberg and backed away to get the shot. It was crazy because, if the iceberg broke off or rolled, or she fell into the water, it would have been instant death. Just to get the shot. Crazy.
I’ll tell you one other time. There were many times we did crazy things, but, this one really stood out in my mind. I used to scuba dive all the time. So I thought it would be brilliant to photograph a model in a white dress, underwater. She was basically at the surface, and I was on the bottom of the sea in my scuba equipment and the camera, and the flash. It was a good idea, but the only problem was the waters were really sharky. My damn camera and her thrashing about were like a dinner bell for sharks. I guess in hindsight, it wasn’t such a great idea. But the shots came out cool. I think that was for British Elle. I can’t remember. I know it was in Mystique.
All this was well before photoshop. It’s when you could believe a photograph was real. Now you always question a photo, the reality of an image. Kind of a shame.
That’s all for this week. Check out the blog where I talk about the present.
Love, B. Nice
P.S. OK, I have one more story about taking risks. I was in New Guinea on a photo shoot. We came across a great rope bridge over a gorge. The gorge was about 100 feet down and there was a raging river that went through giant rocks. The rope bridge was made up of three parts. One rope for your left hand, one rope for your right hand and one rope for your feet. Well, we thought it’d be a great idea to put the model on the rope bridge. Being a tough Australian girl, she said, “No worries, Mate,” and she went out to the center of the bridge. I thought it was scary enough, but then, all of a sudden a wind gust came. It almost blew her hat off, so she grabbed her hat with her left hand, so she was basically suspended over certain death with 2 feet on a rope, one hand on her head, and one hand on the rope. Then, of course, there was an earthquake (you can’t make this shit up). But, because she was on a rope bridge, we felt the earthquake and she didn’t, thank God. I think I drank heavily that night.
Anyway, I just wanted to share that with you. Talk to you next week.
Love, B. Nice