You Cannot Be A Real Photographer Without Breaking A Few Eggs

Never mind the idea of omelettes - look up the process of albumen paper printing that was dominant in the latter half of the 19th century. Any self-sufficient photographer would have kept a hen coop and been collecting the cackleberries before starting the darkroom work. Indeed, the really dedicated worker might have been busy boiling a number of the chemicals needed - and equally busy avoiding the effects of the caustics, acids, and poisons that made up the rest of the ingredients. At the end of the day they then had a jug of leftover egg yolks to deal with - and there are only so many dishes that use hollandaise sauce... The current crop of digital workers are also exposed to workplace hazards. The animal photographers can be scratched, bitten, or tread in something disgusting. So, I suppose, can the wedding workers, but that's another story. The architectural shooters have all the opportunities in the world to fall off things and the landscape shooters can do this as well...miles from help. The studio product shooters are mostly safe unless some of the fake props they use to make food look good detonate under the lights. It pays to take insurance. How many digital workers have ended up with slipped discs and dislocated necks from peering into badly-adjusted monitors? How many have been overcome with printing ink fumes? Or had the lid of the scanner snap shut on their fingers in a moment of inattention? The war correspondents and sports shooters live lives of well-documented danger - documentary workers are in no less danger, as some of the speakers at Camera Electronic workshops can attest. We only hear the ones that got back... For myself, apart from a vindictive belly dancer or two, I am mostly safe. My wallet may suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous shopping, but my person is safe.