It happens rarely, but sometimes a photographer just takes a tragically wrong step.
Mike
(Thanks to Barb Haig)
Send this post to a friend
Please help support TOP by patronizing our sponsors B&H Photo and Amazon
Note: Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. More...
Original contents copyright 2012 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Featured Comment by Jamie Pillers: "Was the photographer's name 'Elmer'? He didn't mumble something about pesky wabbits, did he?"
I didn't need to read that. I will now go hug my dog.
Posted by: Mike Rainwater | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 05:03 PM
Is it wrong of me to find that article so damn funny? That poor poor cameraman...
Posted by: Garrett Bernstein | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 06:43 PM
May be it is just me but it seem after this post, your blog go back to Dec 2011! Why?
Posted by: Dennis Ng | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 07:29 PM
Live fast, die young, make a terrific-looking corpse...
Posted by: Chuck Albertson | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 07:46 PM
@Adrian. I love that Donald Rumsfeld quote even if it is somewhat diminished by the fact that he couldn't manage the known knowns let alone all the varieties of unknowns.
Posted by: Michel | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 08:22 PM
Some of the condolences left on the NPR page.
"His name was Tiny Til, his name was Tiny Til" (fight club reference)
"never heard him coming, one reason earless rabbits are so rare"
Posted by: Ned | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 09:41 PM
Ahhh, Mike...that's below you.
Posted by: Andrew Kirk | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 09:52 PM
Too many years ago was at a friend's house
having had one too many drinks, and backed up and unknown to me, his Yorkshire Terror
(a yappy dog) was behind me. All I heard was "crunch" stepping backwards and did the
dog some lethal damage, crushed it there and then. The host declared to the all and sundry
"Cousin Weakeyes just crushed my dog."
The dog was quite dead. He then invited to leave and never darken his doorway ever again. I never did and it was a pleasure, as his
drunken parties always ended as a disaster.
(Photo content: his daughter took a photograph of the dead dog with my big boot on top of it. She sent it to the Toronto Humane Society who were less than thrilled.)
Had solved the yappy dog problem.
The name Cousin Weakeyes though has stuck
and it's true, I rarely see anything before I step on it.
Posted by: Bryce Lee | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 10:44 PM
We've just had a reverse of this: a photographer was hit by a flying horse at the Cheltenham Festival (....of horse racing) and injured. The horse fell at a fence and crashed through the safety rail at about 40 mph, collecting a news agency photographer. Thankfully horse, jockey and photographer were only lightly injured with little more than bruising and some light cuts.
To my mind, that's lucky as a horse weighs over 1/2 ton and a horse hitting you at 40 mph is going to temporarily upset your framing and workflow.
http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/15032012/58/photographer-escapes-horror-fall.html
There's a whole genre of "sports freaky mishaps**" that print and online editors like to run for light relief. Even TOP carried last year the hitting of a TV camera during a baseball game.
**That includes the English Rugby team's performance in the last Rugby World Cup. Marketed as comedy around the rugby-playing world except for England, where it was released as a horror film.
Posted by: James B | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 11:08 PM
...I should add that since then as a fan I have done my bit. I have traded mutual support with the proprietor of TOP and myself between the Green Bay Packers and the English Rugby team, and Mike's influence has proved startling. A new coach, and the results are self-evident. We're picking up and getting back to where we should be. ;)
Posted by: James B | Thursday, 15 March 2012 at 11:23 PM
I'm afraid it is hard for an Australian to find anything tragic about the death of a rabbit. It ranks right up there with dead cane toads.
...Mike
Posted by: Mike F | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 01:15 AM
BTW, the reason the rabbit was named Til is that it is named after the German actor,writer and director Til Schweiger who has written, directed and starred in the film comedie "Keinohrhasen".
Greetings, Ed
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keinohrhasen
Posted by: Ed | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 03:12 AM
I am overcome with sadness, for the dearly departed and for our industry.
Posted by: Dan Rosenthal | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 03:54 AM
"We are all shocked. During the filming, the cameraman took a step back and trod on the bunny."
What exactly was in front of the camera if the "star" of the shoot was behind the photographer???
Posted by: Chris | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 10:56 AM
Damn papparazzi....
Posted by: PWL | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 12:22 PM
Oops!
With best regards.
Stephen
Posted by: Stephen S. Mack | Friday, 16 March 2012 at 07:05 PM
Where's Glenn Close when you need her?
Posted by: Bobby Salmon | Friday, 23 March 2012 at 01:22 PM