National Geographic: Cameramen Who Dared

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Behind every exciting

film image is a cameraman.

Behind his camera he is unseen

and forgotten

by viewers

but dangerously exposed

to his subjects:

animals the could

easily maul or kill him,

cataclysms of nature

that could swallow him up

tumultuous human combat

pulling him

closer and closer

to the epicenter

of violence.

Sometime with

only the camera

between himself

and mortal danger,

other times separated

from danger

by the flimsiest

of protection,

but always driven to

shed protection,

to get out of the cage

and push even closer.

Stretching the limits,

pioneering in places where

the limits are unknown,

stretching luck

and boldness

until limits are found

and exceeded.

The cameraman

is David Breashears,

shooting a climb on

an ice face in New Hampshire.

Action.

Just watch your left leg

on my

To do it right,

Breashears must climb

as well or better

than the climber.

Keep going.

While the climber

thinks about climbing,

Breashears thinks about

climbing and shooting

about camera position,

angles,

focus and changing light.

About storytelling,

lenses, equipment.

He thinks ahead and

climbs ahead.

Breashears is one of

the top

mountaineering cameramen.

He's been on six Mt.

Everest climbs,

twice getting to

the summit with his camera.

The job is never over.

You don't crawl into

your sleeping bag at night

and just go to sleep.

There's always some

fooling around with equipment,

loading a magazine for

the next day,

being more prepared than the

other people have to be,

and also getting up earlier

to get that extra shot,

to be in position

when they begin their ascent

or when they leave camp.

It doesn't matter

if you're cold;

it doesn't matter

if you're tired;

It doesn't matter

if you're hungry;

you just do it.

By the 1920s,

cameraman were traveling

to exotic and faraway places

to film wildlife

and adventure,

and one of the most

spectacular locations

was Africa.

Americans at home had never

seen such images as these.

They were thrilled by them.

This was the golden age of

photographic exploration.

Carl Akeley

as an extraordinary

figure of the times:

an American taxidermist

who went to Africa

to collect his own specimens.

Trying to shoot a leopard,

he only wounded it;

it counter-attacked,

and he managed to kill it

with his bare hands.

Akeley's insistence on

recording accurate details

for his taxidermy led him

to photography,

and his frustration in filming

fast-moving African scenes

led him to invent

a better camera for

action photography.

The distinctive

rounded Akeley camera

revolutionized

nature photography

and was also used to film

newsreels,

combat in World War I

and Hollywood movies.

In Africa Akeley joined

forces at times

with the celebrity

filmmaking couple

Martin and Osa Johnson.

As filmmaker the Johnsons

were less interested

in documentation

than sensational entertainment.

They raced about Africa

elaborate photo safaris,

seeking thrills and

narrow escapes,

heightening their adventures

when necessary with deceptive

film editing or staging,

Occasionally lapsing

into antics that,

seen today, seem like satire

of a very bygone era.

The Johnsons were

a glamorous pair.

Martin was an all-American guy

from a small town in Kansas

who started out as a cook

for Jack London.

Osa was a singer who'd never

been anywhere

until Martin carried her off

to a life

summed up

in the title

of her autobiography,

'I Married Adventure'.

In the water, crocodiles

are especially wicked.

They would pounce upon

the unfortunate

victims of a capsized boat

like a pack of wolves.

If a person were to fall into

the water here,

he would not last one minute.

We begin to feel uneasy lest

one might charge the boat

and this surly monster does,

almost upsetting us!

For all their showmanship,

the Johnsons are recognized

today as

intrepid and

talented filmmakers.

They developed film

in the field and

overcame a vast array

of logistical difficulties

and personal hardships.

Their movies,

even with moments

that now seem silly,

were remarkable achievements.

It must have been

incredible to go there

with primitive cameras,

Primitive transportation,

and how they actually

got any material out of it,

out of Africa at all,

was a miracle.

Wolfgang Bayer,

who's photographed wildlife

in all sorts of conditions,

all over the world.

Of all the animal

that I filmed,

I must say the primates

are probably

the most enjoying

enjoyable ones

They are so much like us.

Like the orangutans:

we had to climb 15ft.

tall trees in Borneo

in order to go up

in their environment.

Everything else before has

been filmed from the ground up.

We wanted to go back and we

brought mountain-climbing gear,

and we went up into the trees

and all of a sudden we were

face to face with orangutans.

then they came over and they

climbed up and down our rope.

They were right above us;

they peed on us, you know.

I'm looking up there,

and what are you gonna do?

You hang,

you're totally helpless

and some orangutan decides

to pee on you.

All you can do is

just keep your head low

and hope he doesn't do it

too long.

And we'll be hanging up

which actually

came up over our branch

and we would tie the rope

off down at the bottom

on a different tree,

And we'll be filming up there

And we looked down all

of a sudden

there's an orangutan

trying to untie

our rope on the very bottom,

and it's not a very good

feeling.

We of course had to try to

shout and throw things down

and then get down as fast as

we can to chase 'em away.

Looking through a camera

when filming wildlife or anything

that could be potentially

dangerous,

It puts a barrier between you.

It's almost like

watching television,

and you don't realize

that danger could be

just feet away from you.

I was filming and I got

in the middle of a fight

and I just was an innocent

bystander.

But a female came by at

full speed

and she just grabbed

my hand and bit me.

And drew quite a lot of blood.

The only weapon

I had along was my camera,

Which is a, you know,

$50,000 piece of equipment.

But in a case like this

I used it

and started on hit the chimps

over the head with my camera

and get out back in the water

where I was supposed to be.

Chasing animals over the years

I've been bitten, scratched,

attacked and uh,

other-wise mutilated by coyotes,

cougars, leopards, jaguars,

baboons, chimpanzees,

and of course numerous

little creatures.

Lucking

nothing really poisonous.

Nature and the animals give me

so much enjoyment that,

what the hell, a few bites

and a few diseases

and a few injuries here and

there are not gonna kill me.

You go out on these films

and you're with very professional

people who really

stay out of trouble,

and of course part of the fun

for an audience is too see

how people handle trouble.

Filming an Alaska's

Yukon River,

Jim Lipscomb came up against

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