Tuesday 1 April 2008

CAUGHT ON CAMERA

Wherever I go, nowadays, I carry my camera - just in case a photo opportunity arises that I would, for ever afterwards, be kicking myself for having missed.

For example, the other month, I saw a man waiting at the bus stop at the end of our road with a life-size stuffed toy tiger over his shoulders and I didn't have my camera. I dashed back home, grabbed the Panasonic and hurried back down the road, but the bus had obviously arrived and the hunter and his prey were nowhere to be seen.

So, now I have my camera at the ready and just the other day got an astonishing shot of an extraordinary scene that, bizarrely, I have not seen reported anywhere in the media.

I accept that what I am about to tell you, strains somewhat at credulity but walking down a deserted London street on a dark, stormy afternoon in London I glanced up suddenly and saw a naked youth in mid-air, looking as if he had leaped from one of the windows of the nearby building.

Admittedly the camera angle is skewed and the shot is extremely underexposed, but you will, at least, get a strong sense of what I saw.


What was so remarkable - miraculous even - was that despite having seemingly fallen in this dramatic way, the youth was quite unhurt and seemed less concerned by the experience than I was as an observer.

Being the only person around at the time, as soon as I had recovered from my shock, I made an attempt to speak with the young man, but he repeatedly declined to reply to my various questions. So, in default of discovering anything further on the subject, I am left with nothing other than an extraordinary photograph of an amazingly bizarre occurrence.

But it has, at least, confirmed me in my habit of carrying my camera at all times.

8 comments:

David Weeks said...

Sounds very 'fishy ' to me, or should that be mammalian?

Anonymous said...

Oh, imposible... where is the trick?...a strange youth, with a strange hair, strange feet, strange...

I carry a camera, not always but some days of the week, is part of my job, but I have no sense of artistic chance, some times I see something amazing or funny, but I lose the chance... Then Brian, you have a gift of course.

Boll Weavil said...

A remarkable story Mr B ! What I would have done is immediately rush over to him, persuade him to don a pair of underpants (thus fufilling all relevant criteria for inclusion in your blog) and then turned him into a caption competition ! Its a long time since we've had one of those and such a chance encounter should surely have stimulated your creative juices...

SharonM said...

Nice one Brian - it took me all of five minutes to realise what day it is!
Mind you, I have more serious concerns on my mind at the moment - like fears for the welfare of Buttons.

Unknown said...

Hmmmm - isn't that one of the old photographer's tricks - make it impossible to see who it is by making it dark ??
Anyway - you can't say he was UNDERexposed ha ha !

Brian Sibley said...

GILL comments (somewhat belatedly - my fault)...

And Happy April 1st to you too Mr Sibley!

Somewhere on the Chelsea embankment isn't it? Great picture though!

Feel free not to post this comment until you see whether anyone is actually fooled.

Do the newspapers still do April Fool stuff do you know? And would we actually recognise it? So much nonsense is generated by this Government we might not.

Currently I particularly like the plan to ban shops from displaying cigarettes and making them sell such terrible things 'under the counter'.

So it is possible in future that your local general store will have pornography and alcohol on display to children (as they already do} but not cigarettes. I wish this was my own attempt at an April Fool, but it isn't!

Brian Sibley said...

Thanks for all the comments - sharp cookies, the folk who read this blog!

Full explanation tomorrow, but FULL MARKS to DAVID and GILL for their especial cleverness!! :-)

Ryan Rasmussen said...

I smell a Pulitzer!