no pain, no gain!

[outwithmycamera]

I was just reading a post where the OP commented about slipping and falling.. So here's a thread to post pics and tell the story about how you risked life, limb, and the pursuit of happiness to get a shot! Bonus points for pics of damage suffered!

To start out - photography in the desert is frought with lots of spiny danger, my nemesis being the teddy bear or "jumping" cholla cactus which drop spiny burrs that attach themselves to innocent passerby and can be difficult to remove as in the pic below (I have had these flip up off a boot to affix themselves to my rear end, making removal a rather delicate operation):

ouch by outwithmycameraVA, on Flickr

And here is one of these cactus in all its glory:

Cholla3a by outwithmycameraVA, on Flickr

[chauncey]

We all have crosses to bear...I might suggest that one should use foresight to diminishing the number of those crosses.

[bnnrcn]

What about a square crop for the beautiful cactus,I find BG a bit distracting.Sorry for the accident

[deetheturk]

Ouch Chris,are those things hard to come out?

[SpiderBob]

Wow Chris, didn't know you had the Cholla Cactus out your way, thought that was in the Southwest Desert areas. Been there done that. Perhaps if you had the whole cactus the space above would be more acceptable to my eye.

[MrB]

Thanks Chris - those points are worth bearing in mind.

Philip

[Shadowman]

Nice.

[Wavelength]

Nice image and a nice thread to start...

[outwithmycamera]

Sorry for confusion caused for those who think geographically... I took those pics when I lived I Arizona but am now in Virginia. The spines can go in deep and are a bit like a porcupine quill and can be hard to remove. I learned to carry a pocket comb to help remove the burrs since you can't actually grab on to them to pull them off.

[Mike Buckley]

I was foolishly standing on train tracks to capture this image in July 2003. I foolishly assumed that I would feel the vibration in the tracks with the train at a very long distance from me if one was to approach. Thankfully, I had carefully planned my escape route if I was to feel those vibrations. Instead, the train came around a gentle bend. The engineer's horn loudly honking at me was the only indication of the oncoming train. The horn was thankfully so loud that it scared the living daylights out of me. I immediately implemented my escape plan involving a leap down and away from the train tracks, bruising my leg in the process.

I was safe, sound and very lucky. I will never do that again.