How far to go to get the perfect photograph?

This story has nothing to do with cars other than it highlighted to me what some people will do to satisfy their passion for something. I see it regularly with people who will go to great lengths to restore a car or motorbike, or how much they will sacrifice to be able to enjoy the thrill of driving a particular car in an event or on a road somewhere around the world.

This coupled with the fact that in this day and age with drones and computer animation, I’ve become very sceptical about some photographs that I’m sure, I really should be quite impressed with. So consequently, when I saw this following article, I thought how nice (all be it scary) that there are still some photographers that go to extraordinary lengths to get their perfect photograph.


The following photos were taken by Hans van de Vorst from the Netherlands at the Grand Canyon, Arizona. The descriptions are his own and the identity of the photographer in the photos is unknown.
 

I was simply stunned seeing this guy standing on this solitary rock at
the Grand Canyon. The canyon’s depth is 900 meters (3000ft) here.

The rock on the right is next to the canyon and is safe.

Watching this guy wearing flipflop sandals, with a camera and tripod, I asked myself 3 questions:
1. How did he get onto that rock?
2. Why not take that sunset picture from the rock to the right– which is perfectly safe?
3. How will he get back?

After the sunset behind the canyon’s horizon, he packed his things and (having only one free hand) prepared himself for the jump.

This all took about 2 minutes.

At that point, he had the full attention of the crowd of tourists.

He’s now at the point of no return. He jumped in his flip-flops.

Now you can see that the safe rock on the right is higher.  So he had to land at a lower point, which was quite steep, and try to use his one free hand to grab the rock. 

Look carefully at the photographer.

He has a camera, a tripod and also a plastic bag, all on his left shoulder or in his left hand.  The weight of his stuff is a problem and only his right hand is available to grab the rock.

He lands low.  Both his right hand and right foot are slipping.

At that very moment, I take this shot.

He then pushes his body against the rock, waits for a few seconds, throws his stuff up on the flat rock, climbs up and walks away, presumably to a bathroom to change his pants.

I know I had to change mine, and I was just watching!

Hans van de Vorst

I’d certainly love to see the photo this guy took and thank him for restoring my faith in the fact that some photographers still do amazing things to get their desired shot. What a passion for photography this guy must have …. either that or he’s really crazy!!

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