What's the funniest thing that happened to you while photographing a subject?

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fairybasslet

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The talk about turtles in another thread reminded me of something that happened to me in Curacao recently. I was intent on photographing this peacock flounder, getting all different angles and then concentrating on just his eye. I don't really know how much time passed...maybe a few minutes, and when I was done and looked up, there was turtle looking right at me. I had no idea how long he was watching me. It kind of reminded me of the animals at the zoo observing the humans. Anyway, I tried to fire off a shot but I was in macro mode from shooting the flounder's eye, and then the turtle booked. It was pretty funny. I was so happy I could provide some amusement to the dude.
 
Once while diving at Cozumel I was trying to take a picture of a eel and was having a really hard time trying to focus on his face. As I took my eye away from the eye piece and looked at the domeport the eels face was up against the dome port...no wonder I couldn't focus on him.

One time while at StingRay City after feeding the stingrays I moved on to a coral head where I noticed an eel was deep inside a hole in the coral head. As I decided if I could focus the camera that deep into the coral head I was adjusting the housing and looking at the focus knob when I had a strange sensation inside my BC. What I hadn't noticed, as I was looking at my housing, the eel had swam out of the coral head and had launched himself inbetween my BC and my wetsuit, he continued to wrap himself around me and then swam out in front of me back into his hole.
 
I've been attacked by Damselfish a number of times while taking photo's. The first time it happened, I almost jumped out of my wetsuit! :rofl3:

I look down, and here is this tiny fish with big attitude attacking my finger! :blinking: Now that I know what it is I find it funny, but the first time it happened, I was freaked out for a good five minutes! :eyebrow:
 
Two things, both occuring in the Casino Point Dive Park on Catalina. I don't think I found them funny at the moment, but in retrospect they are.

First, I was at about 30-35 feet lying on the sandy bottom filming some critter when I felt a fin on my leg, then another and another. They moved up my legs onto my back and even hit my head. It was a dive instructor taking his class out... walking on the bottom! They never seemed to notice they were stepping on me.

Second, I was on the rocky reef at about 20 ft filming a small kelpfish. As I filmed, a hand came into the frame and rested alongside the kelpfish, scaring it away. I looked up and there was a diver just hanging onto the reef top. He wasn't even aware I was there.

Amazing lack of situational awareness in both cases... tunnel vision.
 
I was taking a shot of something and hovering above the coral nose down position. I was pretty close to a hole and when I took my mask away from the viewfinder I had a big green moray staring me in the face. I don't know if he saw his reflection in my mask but he sort of lunged at me and hit me on what I thought was the bridge of the nose. I just backed away and didn't think much of it until my mask seemed to be leaking on the next couple of dives but only when I was equalizing. I looked at the mask, looked fine and then cleaned the skirt with soap and water. It wasn't until the next day when it happened again and I took a really close look at the mask did I realize he had nipped the mask and there were small slits in the silicone where his teeth had penetrated. No damage to my nose though...:D
 
I was taking a photo of a lobster one time. It came out of its hole to get a closer look at me. My buddy reached in and grabbed it. Scared the crud out of both of us; the lobster and I.
 
I was taking a photograph of a small octopus in Grand Cayman with my then MX5 Sea and Sea camera. I had to get close because I did not have a macro, so I got really close to try and get a nice shot. The octopus reached up and attached one tentacle to my camera and pulled it towards him. I was so shocked that an Octopus as small as that had so much power.
 
I once spent a few days diving in Puerto Vallarta. The DM told us that we would see big schools of fish, turtles, mantas, etc. Based on this prediction I put on my wide angle lens, but needless to say there were no big fish of any kind. I spent the time photographing the other divers. On the last day, I got fed up and put on my macro lens so at least I would have SOMETHING to show for the trip. Sure enough I found a beautiful snowflake moray. I spent about 5 minutes shooting him when I had the odd feeling that someone was watching me. I turned around and found a 14ft manta hovering over my shoulder watching me work. My wife had tried to tell me, but there was no way that she could without scaring off the manta. Since I had my macro lens on, I took some face shots. Here is the best one. Click on the image for more details.

 

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