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.