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|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
Weird/Awkward Photo Assignments.
Nic Coury, Photographer
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Monterey | CA | | Posted: 2:29 AM on 03.16.10 |
->> Well I had one recently. I had to shoot a sex toy to illustrate our annual Best Of reader's poll for "Best Place Not to Take Your Parents."
Worst of all, my editor made me go to the shop and pick something out. So I dragged another editor and a second co-worker long.
I now have a long, green thing that wiggles, on my desk...
We'll add it to the "props" box at work of "F'in' weird sh&t."
What other good ones do you have?
~ nic |
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Max Lashin, Photographer, Assistant
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Fort Lauderdale | FL | United States | Posted: 8:17 AM on 03.16.10 |
| ->> I once had to go to Sunday services at a southern baptist church in the bible belt.. being that I'm a good jewish boy from a large metropolitan area it was a bit awkward |
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Chris Russick, Photographer, Assistant
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St. Petersburg | FL | USA | Posted: 10:00 AM on 03.16.10 |
->> I had a pharmaceutical manufacturer contact me to shoot some IV solutions in their cuvettes. I asked beforehand if the medicine was safe to handle. They said that it was, just wear the provided latex gloves. When I received the Fed Ex package and inspected the inside container, it was all wet and there were the classic radioactive stickers all over the box.
I called the representative to explain that some of the solution had leaked out, she assured me that it was only mildly radioactive, soak it up with paper towels and dispose of it immediately in a garbage bag and in an outside container. She reiterated to not let any women, children or household pets come into contact with the solution or anything that the solution had touched.
I think I had that assignment done and in the mailer back to the client in no time flat.
No, I don’t glow in the dark. |
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Andrew Nelles, Photographer
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Chicago | IL | usa | Posted: 10:33 AM on 03.16.10 |
->> Nic,
I had a similar assignment. I had to photography a shop owner holding one of these.
http://tinyurl.com/8vsht
Link might be semi-NSFW |
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G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Dallas | TX | US | Posted: 10:38 AM on 03.16.10 |
->> If you're at someone's house shooting a Home & Garden profile, and "nature calls" ... try not to sneak a deuce in one of their many guest bathrooms. Odds are they'll come looking for you after a while (presumably wanting to know if you'd like some water, coffee, or help). And if that happens, just be honest, and don't hand them some bull that you were still "scouting" places to shoot in their house and found something interesting in the bathroom you've been in for about 15 minutes. Unless that "something interesting" is last night's Chinese dinner, it'll be clear you're full of it ...
... for many reasons.
- gerry - |
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Rich Obrey, Photographer
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Gorham | ME | USA | Posted: 1:47 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> Here's an assignment email I received last year.
Parentheses are mine - I edited out the names to protect the innocent.
"(Our reporter) is doing a story on the 25th anniversary of the death (unsolved murder)of a (local) 14-year-old. He interviewed the girl's mother. She is willing to be photographed any time this weekend at her daughter's gravesite, at a cemetery (in town).
The catch is, she doesn't drive. Any chance you'd be willing to take her?…"
Putting the "AWK!" in awkward... |
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Nic Coury, Photographer
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Monterey | CA | | Posted: 2:21 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> @Andrew,
So would you be the puppet master? |
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Paul W Gillespie, Photographer
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Annapolis | MD | USA | Posted: 2:46 PM on 03.16.10 |
| ->> I had to shoot a nudist resort a couple years ago. They asked the writer and myself if we cared to take our clothes off. We declined. Funny pics though. Why is it most of the people at these places should not be seen without clothes? It is never full of hotties running around. |
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Robin Loznak, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Roseburg | OR | USA | Posted: 4:35 PM on 03.16.10 |
| ->> I once gave Brian Schweitzer, the Governor of Montana, and Jag his border collie a ride in my Honda civic from the capital building to the Governor's Mansion. |
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Troy Thomas, Photographer
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Kansas City | MO | USA | Posted: 4:48 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> I was once asked by a nice older couple, picture grandma and grandpa, to do photographs for their website of a product they manufactured. SEX SWINGS!
The shoot never happened though. |
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Kirby Yau, Photographer, Assistant
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San Diego | CA | USA | Posted: 6:11 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> Nic, I had a similar experience at my college paper a few years back.
For the longest time when you googled Kirby Yau, the photo (a large purple sex toy) and article, named "Girl's Best Friend" was always the second search result.
Pretty embarrassing, but always a great icebreaker when meeting a client that ran a google search. |
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Max Lashin, Photographer, Assistant
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Fort Lauderdale | FL | United States | Posted: 6:49 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> Ohhh man how could I forgot about this one.
Every year at FSU the gay and lesbian club brings some transexual group to Tallahassee and they put on a, I guess, "transexual show?" It's a huge hit at the school but man was it awkward to be photographing that (thankfully, there was no nudity!) |
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Stew Milne, Photographer
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Providence | RI | USA | Posted: 7:14 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> I shot a local nudist resort for a feature story at my university newspaper. They encouraged the reporter and myself to get nude, and after all the photographing and note taking we did. It was a great day. We went back a few years later and did the same thing. Then again, I'm cool with nudity.
I've done every odd assignment, from breast feeding seminars (women feeding all over the place) to sensitive funerals, but never had to photograph a sexual toy for an article. Even that isn't that awkward. |
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Jesse Beals, Photographer
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Tracyton | WA | USA | Posted: 7:42 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> I had a 21 year old editor (I know the job fell in her lap) at one of my my weekly newspapers that I shot for that was fascinated with the fact that our town was getting a Chuckie Cheese Pizza Parlor.
She actual had me go down and shoot something new being done to the building from first stages to the final stages over a six month time window.
Nothing like shooting the sign being installed, then the windows being installed, then the carpets, then the window decals and on and on. The kicker, she felt this should be the lead story each week. Probably why she longer works as the editor LOL. |
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Jody Gomez, Photographer
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Murrieta | CA | USA | Posted: 8:13 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> I did a pre-wedding boudoir shoot and my bride got totally nude about five minutes after we started. It was a little unexpected - I guess I didn't ask the proper questions before hand.
Guess my adventures are a little boring. Ha Ha |
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Mike McLaughlin, Photographer
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Neptune City | NJ | USA | Posted: 8:15 PM on 03.16.10 |
| ->> Not weird in the sense of most of these, but awkward as hell. A few years back I got an assignment, from a paper I regularly shoot for, to cover a big Survivor's Walk-A-Thon for cancer survivors. About a month or two earlier my mother was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer at 59, no chance of survival. I should have turned the job down, but have never turned down a job, so off I went. I had to go and hide a few times while breaking down, but the most awkward part for me, a normally very compassionate and empathetic person and shooter, was the feeling of resentment I felt toward all of these survivors, knowing my mother had no chance. I know it's not right, but that's what I was feeling. Rough and awkward day. |
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N. Scott Trimble, Photographer
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Lake Oswego | OR | USA | Posted: 8:53 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> When I was at the East Valley Tribune (then Mesa Tribune) a reporter was doing a day in the life series on odd jobs. One week was a zamboni driver, Andy got that one. My week was follow the adult book store manager. I had to spend a day with this adult store owner and her interactions with the store and the customers.
Okay first, the rather conservative paper wasn't going to run any photos of the products in the store. Second, really, who was going to be happy with a camera in their face shopping in said store??? I got lots of pics of the manager, and rejected on everything else.
I had to go back and spend another day there!
So this time I just said screw it (err..well, bad choice of words there, ummm..)and just shot the store, people's feet, shoulders, and a rather risque pic of the manager dressing the sex starved mannequin. I didn't believe it would get chosen and it ran six columns! The managing editor demanded the photo editor never use me again (I was freelance) but luckily, the photo editor spoke up and said A) Scott didn't pick the assignment and B) he didn't put the photos in the paper and c) whose idea was it anyway to choose such a stupid topic? In the end, that was the finale to the reporter's Day in the Life project, and I got to keep working. Ugh. No one, and I mean no one should have to spend 11 hours in one of those stores!
The runner up was photographing a woman who had rescued pets during hurricane Katrina and I had to do an EP of her. I said, "wouldn't it be cool to get you in this pond waist up, too bad I didn't think to have you bring pants for it," and she just stripped her pants off undies and all and jumped in without even hesitating. Right.There.In.The.Park. |
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Alex Jones, Photographer, Assistant
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Quincy | MA | USA | Posted: 9:57 PM on 03.16.10 |
| ->> I had to shoot a pap smear of a somewhat more than middle-aged woman for a health care series once. |
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Andrew Link, Photographer
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West Bend | WI | USA | Posted: 11:31 PM on 03.16.10 |
| ->> A memorable shoot for me was of a college student getting a local bar's logo tattooed on his butt so he would get a free tap beer for life. I wasn't shy and got up in there with the wide angle. |
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Mike O'Bryon, Photographer
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Ft. Lauderdale | FL | USA | Posted: 11:34 PM on 03.16.10 |
->> SI assigned me to shoot Tommy Lasorda ( spring training / Dodgertown in Vero Beach...1986 ) after they had linked him to an organized crime figure... and they somehow neglected to mention that last part to me.
Mr. Lasorda was not at all happy to see me....
--Mike |
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Isaac Ginsberg, Student/Intern, Photographer
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Seattle | WA | U.S.A | Posted: 12:02 AM on 03.17.10 |
| ->> I had a request to shoot a home birth, I really don't know what I was thinking saying yes... ANY birth, is a very awkward assignment, but then you put it into a small cramped bathroom, where the screaming echo's about 5x louder... BAD BAD BAD idea... |
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Tami Chappell, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Atlanta | Ga | USA | Posted: 11:45 PM on 03.17.10 |
| ->> Alot of these assignments sounded familiar to me...especially the adult bookstore and home birth...but the most ackward for me was covering a protest for the AP to repeal a sodomy law. The protestors was laying in the street simulating sodomy with the police arresting them. It was one of the strangest and most difficult to cover in the manner of a pic that could run on the wire. |
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Rick Giase, Photographer, Photo Editor
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Arvada | CO | USA | Posted: 12:34 PM on 03.18.10 |
| ->> A female reporter and I did a story on in vitro fertilization (embryo transfer) of cattle. Eggs would be harvested from one cow and implanted in others. We interviewed and photographed a farmer for an hour with his arm way deep (he was wearing a shoulder length rubber glove) inside a cow. Every once in a while the cow would let loose and he'd hose himself off and continue working. |
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N. Scott Trimble, Photographer
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Lake Oswego | OR | USA | Posted: 1:29 PM on 03.18.10 |
| ->> Aww Tami, that would have been easy, a 15mm up super close to their face making the cross eyed expression-says-all face and whammo! The shot! |
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Patrick Kane, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Petersburg | VA | USA | Posted: 5:38 PM on 03.18.10 |
->> Man, mine is minor league compared to these. One of my assignments for a previous employer was to show up and photograph a blind date. It was a monthly contest where online voters would pick whom would go on the date.
I'd aim to show up at the restaurant early and chat up the first person for a few minutes. Once the straggler showed up, I would take about five photos then disappear. |
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Robert Scheer, Photographer
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Indianapolis | IN | USA | Posted: 6:18 PM on 03.18.10 |
->> I've shot the regular stuff (nudist camps, sex toy stuff, transgendered), and don't really get weirded out by much.
But, I have/had a co-worker who shall go nameless, who's a VERY conservative gentleman and had to photograph a flight attendant water rescue training course some years back. Basically, a bunch of young stewardesses removing their jackets/shoes and hopping into a swimming pool, doing various rescue swimming moves and climbing out of the water. Yes, there was a crowd around his monitor during the edit, and he blushed the whole time. |
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Jeremy Harmon, Photo Editor, Photographer
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Salt Lake City | UT | USA | Posted: 8:37 PM on 03.18.10 |
->> I'm 6'6".
When I was an intern I covered the Little People of America conference. If memory serves, there were about 3,000 people at the conference. None of them were 6'6". Just me. I have never been so self-conscious in my life. I walked into a ballroom where the big dance was going on. Hundreds of little people danced as the sound system blasted YMCA by The Village People. It was surreal to say the least.
Again, Im 6'6". |
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G.J. McCarthy, Photographer
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Dallas | TX | US | Posted: 10:17 PM on 03.18.10 |
| ->> That's great, J. Love it! |
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