HOT LLAMAS AND COLD RIDES

It is the late 1980s in Kansas City, Missouri, and Art Rosser is a photographerÕs assistant. ÒWe didnÕt have an animal wrangler for the day, so I was [wrestling] this llama for a Ray-Ban shoot,Ó Rosser says.

The llamaÕs job as model was to sport an oversized pair of Ray-Ban sunglasses. And as Rosser reports, the animal was not very happy about it. RosserÕs part in the shoot was much less glamorous. ÒMy job was to keep the llama within a certain [area] so that he could be photographed. To do that, I had to be within his spitting range, while everybody else was out of the spitting range,Ó Rosser says.

ÒI learned very quickly that llamas are deadly accurate with their spit - up to 15 feet,Ó he adds. ÒI got really, really, really moist at that shoot.Ó

When Rosser graduated to shooting the photos himself, the Midwest still proved to be a somewhat hostile market. During a commercial photography gig in Warrensburg, Missouri, Rosser nearly froze while shooting strapped to the outside of an airplane. ÒWe actually calculated the air temperature to be a bit less than 20 degrees below zero,Ó Rosser says.

While strapped to the plane, Rosser shot railroad crossing equipment for a manufacturer. ÒWe were up [in the air] for close to an hour, but I was in and out of the [heated] plane,Ó Rosser says. A daring design allowed Rosser to be mounted onto the plane at two points so that his body was stable when the plane banked. And the set up allowed his arms and hands to remain free to maneuver the camera. ÒI donÕt feel I was ever in real danger,Ó Rosser adds. Today, Rosser is owner of Decatur based Art Rosser Photography Inc. He is also president of the American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP), an organization that addresses the issues professional photographers face.

INJURED BODY PARTS AND JELLO

Five or six years ago John Haigwood received a call at his studio, Haigwood Studios in Roswell. A local lawyer was calling to offer Haigwood handsome compensation for photo documentation of yet another injured client. Right away, the photographer accepted the assignment. ÒI told [the lawyer] that IÕd have no problem shooting this injured person because stuff like that doesnÕt gross me out,Ó Haigwood says.

ÒWell, you might not want this. ItÕs a botched circumcision. The doctor messed up this gentleman and we need pictures of it,Ó was the lawyerÕs reply.

Haigwood did snap the shutter, but not before half heartedly trying to find a way out. ÒYou know, being a male, I told my wife that IÕd set it up and she was going to go in and shoot it,Ó he jokes. The studio was tense as a very nervous young man in his 30s showed up for the shoot, Haigwood recalls. ÒI had to get down on my knees with a macro lens to get in tight so you could really see the mistakes. The guy held it different ways and pulled back the skin. I try to forget that shoot,Ó he adds.

Haigwood met up with another uncomfortable situation early in his a career while shooting a family portrait. Just starting out, he owned a business called Portraits at Home. He and his wife were surprised one day when they showed up to photograph a white son-in-law with his all-black family. ÒHe was doing this picture for his wife, and his wife wasnÕt in the picture,Ó Haigwood recounts. ÒHe wanted to give her a picture of him with her family, and it was hilarious. The entire family looked so angry and hereÕs this guy sitting in the back. And the father looked like he could just rip his head off. Some people donÕt have a clue.Ó

Haigwood has also shot his share of lame inventions, like retail Jell-O treats, an idea someone tried around the time that frozen yogurt stands entered the malls. ÒA guy tried getting Jell-O into the mall in this business called ÔHello, IÕm Jell-O,ÕÓ Haigwood says. ÒSo I had to take pictures of Jell-O. Like people will be standing in line for Jell-O.Ó

NIGHT SWEATS AND INTIMATE EXERCISE

ÒItÕs all reality. Sometimes the results are unreal É sometimes the results are really bad É sometimes the projects are really unreal (good and bad),Ó says Atlanta based shooter Jon Kownacki. Kownacki is owner of Jon Michael Kownacki Photography in Atlanta.

When asked to recall some of the unreal projects, Kownacki faltered with so many to choose from. ÒI once worked with a guy that killed his Dad. Actually, I canÕt really talk about that because itÕs still under investigation,Ó he says.

But Kownacki did talk about a weird shoot he did six or seven years ago for a series of illustrations to accompany a ghost story. The series, for a Southern culture website called themoonlitroad.com, was produced by a personal friend of KownackiÕs. Thanks to the project, Kownacki found himself shooting at midnight, out in the middle of nowhere, in the woods and in an old farm shack in Palmetto, Georgia. ÒI donÕt remember how cold it was, but my lenses kept freezing up, not to mention my hands and there was no power,Ó Kownacki says. ÒWe didnÕt have much of a budget, so we were going at it guerilla style. All natural light É all high speed black and white.Ó KownackiÕs producer friend had a couple of local actors playing husband and wife for the shoot. ÒThe husband was dead and just wouldnÕt leave, but she kept trying to get him out the door,Ó is the way he described the ghost shack shots.

The last shot Kownacki needed was of the husband playing a fiddle. ÒAs we were setting up I heard a scream. Our wife character had fallen through the wood plank floor. It all happened so fast, IÕm not really sure how she got back out,Ó he recounts.

ÒThen we realized we were all standing on the same 170 year old rickety planks É [but] that changed very quickly,Ó Kownacki adds. ÒOf course at this point we all feared lawsuit.Ó The wife character escaped with only minor scrapes, and Kownacki managed to finish his outstanding shots.

Despite the ghost session, Kownacki says that, hands down, the most bizarre thing he ever photographed is a device that never needed an in-use photo. ÒThe strangest thing IÕve ever shot has got to be the ÔKegel Weights.Õ Need I explain? IÕm not going into detail,Ó he says.

NAKED INSPIRATION AND SERIOUS INJURY

"They lined up in orderly fashion and I was on a ladder taking pictures when people started to undress." Steve Williams

he sky was bright and beautiful over AtlantaÕs Freedom Park as Steve Williams, owner of Cabbage TownÕs S & W Productions Inc., set up for an outdoor shoot at 7:00 a.m. on July 19, 2003.

His subject? Twenty-five naked local artists, including 70-year-old performance artist Ronnag Seaberg and her husband. The group assembled for a Spencer Tunick-esque nude shot after chatting on an art news website and agreeing upon a time and date. Tunick is an artist and photographer who shoots naked pictures of large groups. And when local artists expressed interest in the concept, Williams volunteered to photograph the Atlanta ensemble.

Williams and his artist models chose Freedom Park as an open, yet still fairly isolated shoot site. Many of the artists were hoping this site would help them avoid arrest, and they did go undetected by police.

ÒThey lined up in orderly fashion and I was on a ladder taking pictures when people started to undress,Ó Williams says. He took shots of them undressing and trying out different poses. ÒThere was a fair amount of tension at the beginning. But once everybody took their clothes off, it all relaxed. It ended up being a lot of fun.Ó

After warming up, WilliamsÕs naked subjects decided to run over to a tree, climb up and strike various poses.

ÒThe Journal showed up with a photographer and a writer,Ó Williams says. Because of the subject matter, the AJC photographer simply took pictures of Williams shooting his subjects. The photo of Williams shooting the group was picked up by the Washington Times and United Press International (UPI). And Williams says the group will probably do another nude shoot in 2004.

When questioned by the AJC about the naked outdoor group photo, Atlanta police simply said that most cases of public indecency also involve alcohol, drug or disorderly conduct charges. ÒWe donÕt normally have sober people exposing themselves,Ó Sgt. John Quigley quipped.

In 1991, WilliamsÕs photography made news in a less lighthearted way. ÒI was taking pictures during the BravesÕ parade, and I was the guy that fell off É or jumped off É the billboard,Ó he says.

During the raucous parade, Williams climbed onto the back of the billboard to get better shots of the action. ÒThen a bunch of people got on the front [of the billboard] to view the parade. And it ended up getting too heavy and it tipped over,Ó Williams recalls. ÒSo I climbed down and tried to jump off and just fell too far. People thought what I did was a little crazy. I was surprised that more people didnÕt get hurt,Ó Williams says.

Williams sustained a back injury and wound up spending several weeks in Grady Memorial Hospital. Today, Williams adds, ÒIÕm pretty much recovered. That was a very bizarre day.Ó When asked if he climbs structures today to get shots, Williams says, ÒIÕm just more careful. I donÕt have a fear of anything. It was one of those things. And I shouldÕve just hung on.Ó

SURREAL SADNESS AT DAYTONA

ack in 2001, Greg Suvino, now owner of Decatur based Suvino Photography, was covering NASCAR racing for the Associated Press, shooting mostly at Atlanta Motor Speedway and Talladega Superspeedway in Talladega, Alabama. But he had always wanted to cover a race at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. His wish came true when he was assigned to cover the Daytona 500 in February of 2001.

ÒSince I was the new guy with AP at Daytona, I was assigned to cover the spot on the track that no one else wanted, which was in the middle of turns 3 and 4,Ó Suvino recalls.

Not much of anything happened in SuvinoÕs shooting spot for three whole days in the race, yet he knew from experience that his post held potential since it was the home stretch before the checkered flag. In the final moments of the race, Suvino stood poised. ÒI had my camera ready and saw Dale EarnhardtÕs car brush against Sterling MarlinÕs car, and that Dale was losing control and was going to wreck,Ó Suvino says.

The photographer shot the ensuing sequence until it passed from his view. ÒWhen it happened I really didnÕt think much about it. To me, it was just a two car wreck,Ó he says.

But moments later as Suvino was packing up to go and saying goodbye to Fox Network camera people, he caught the action going on around EarnhardtÕs car on FoxÕs monitor. ÒI had been shooting NASCAR since 1986, and I knew in watching this that something was terribly wrong,Ó Suvino says.

He then took his camera down to the crash site and began taking shots of rescue workers removing Earnhardt from his car. Next, Suvino ran with his footage to the on-site AP darkroom and told staffers to process the film right away.

The next day, Suvino and another AP shooter stopped in Jacksonville, Florida to gas up for the ride back to Atlanta. ÒThere it was. The front page of USA Today É my photo of the fatal crash,Ó Suvino says. X



© 2004, Carol Badaracco Padgett - All Rights Reserved.