Whacking My Head On Tree Branches
I went hiking the other day, and as I was merrily walking along a trail and commenting on how beautiful the dirt looked (seriously though) I whacked my head into a tree branch and fell on the ground.
I do dumb things all the time. Like that time I thought it would be a good idea to buy 300 copies of my own book, only to realize that it is very difficult to travel with so many books. Thus, I have a lot of books just sitting in my living room like some crazy narcissist.
There was that other time when I thought it would save time and energy if I just sent 100 different galleries the same e-mailed plea as to why I thought I should have my work represented by them. Every gallery turned me down because of my time and energy saving methods.
A few years ago I was rushing to get to a shooting location in the forest. By the time I had my camera set up it was so dark I could hardly see what I was shooting, yet I did it anyway. The only problem was that I had wrapped about 10 feet of yarn around my head and couldn’t get it off while in the dark without scissors. I drove to the nearest gas station before nearly cutting off my air supply, all the while chuckling gravely at how strange a death scene that would have been.
One time (re: a lot more than one time) I failed to answer emails and then left them for months because I would start to panic every time I opened my inbox (re: re: this is happening right now).
I went to the grocery store in my favorite skirt, went to the bathroom, and came out with that same skirt tucked into my underwear in the back. Thank you random kind lady for letting me know before I got to the dairy aisle. Yes, that was highly embarrassing.
You are going to do some pretty stupid things. From whacking your head on a tree branch to royally messing up a business deal, things happen, and sometimes they happen often. In fact, sometimes it feels like all you’re doing is messing up. But even though there are endless opportunities to make mistakes, there are the same amount of opportunities to get it right.
Laugh at yourself. Realize that few things are really that serious. Laugh at yourself because if you do it first you recognize your mistakes and take responsibility. Laugh at yourself because you know how short life is, and it can’t be spent in misery. Laugh at yourself for the mistakes you’ve made and the mistakes you will make.
Remember that whacking your head on tree branches is a sign of growth, no matter how much it might hurt, so wear that bruise with pride. And next time you’re out remember to keep your chin up, because you never know where the next tree branch will come from and you don’t want it to smack you in the head.
Tomorrow I’m going out to shoot another red yarn wrapped around the body picture, and this time I am determined not to asphyxiate myself or anyone else in the process. See? Always learning.
So, what dumb things have you done?
40 thoughts on “Whacking My Head On Tree Branches”
Lost the half of my wig in the middle of the party while I was dancing :p hahahah I felt like I wanted to die…
Haha that’s awesome 😀 Not so much at the time, but looking back…tehe 🙂 xoxo I’m hoping it was hot pink…
Knocked over the cake at a wedding reception… where I was the wedding photographer. Luckily it was a family I’ve worked with before and we all laughed about it. I just finished getting the cake shots and the table cloth seemed way too close to some hot lights so I tried to move it a bit, the entire thing collapsed in my hands and the cake went flying, table landed on me, camera ended up beside the cake and I had no where to hide.
Oh my GOSH!!!! I’ve been cackling at this for a while now. That is so amazing. And terrible. And mostly amazing. I’m glad everything worked out!
I was doing a shoot once at a park and I had to walk down this hill, that I thought was not muddy. (I was also wearing a dress) As soon as I took one step I slipped down the hill grabbing on to a tree branch for support. I got mud all over my legs and butt. I started laughing so hard that a few strangers came over and started looking at me.
I also one time thought that the store was open but it was closed. I grabbed on to the door to open it and I smacked my face into the door. The door was actually locked and I didn’t realize it.
At times I feel like the most clumsy person on the planet but it’s nice to know I am not alone. But you are right by saying sometimes you do need to laugh at yourself and not take life so seriously. 🙂
Your stories are amazing and are 1,000% the things that I do all the time. You have no idea how many doors I’ve walked into, or times I’ve slid down hills unintentionally. I LOVE it.
Went swimming at school and had my change of clothes but forgot my underwear…and I’ve made that mistake many times since
Ahhh gotta love that. I forgot my entire change of clothes last time I went swimming. I was cold and damp for hours!
There was the one time I had the opportunity to meet a very influential photographer I had recently become a huge fan of. As soon as I walked through the door, there she is.
I walked over to shake her hand and introduce myself only to realize that she was already deep in a conversation with someone else. I awkwardly shook her hand and walked off.
Then, minutes later she went outside shooting clouds as did I but due to the already awkwardness I had created, kept my mouth shut.
To top it all off, I get in line for her to sign a copy of her book and am hoping to engage in a decent conversation only to realize that in front of me is a kid who swept PSW with his work and behind me is her former teacher. Both of whom were quite pleasant to speak with in line by the way, but basically sucked all the wind out of my sails by the time I got up to have my book signed. So I stood there like an idiot and muttered something like, “I love your work.”. Ugh.
So embarrassing. Anyone who knows me will tell you I’m quite the people person but in that situation I felt very awkward and reserved. Not everyday you get to meet the person who you consider the bar to reach in your trade.
Hopefully Brooke, our next meeting will be less awkward:/ haha
You are simply the best, and I consider you a friend and all around amazing person. That show was a circus act/whirlwind and next time, we’ll connect 🙂 xoxoxo hugs until then!
Oh dear Lord, the list is endless! I love that you have borne your soul to let us see how mortal and human you are – yet one more thing that make you special!! I once decided it was a brilliant idea to use my right index finger to wipe the dust off the front fork of my bicycle…while I was going about 35 mph on top of it…resulting in my arm slipping into the moving wheel and flipping me several feet in the air before landing square on the top of my head. Thankfully I had a helmet! Another time I felt sure that on my 31st birthday I would learn to ski and took on a hill which was clearly well beyond my skill level…about 10 years down the hill my skis crossed. That lapse in judgment necessitated reconstructive knee surgery. It would appear that my stupidity is not good for my health! LOL Time for a bubble wrap jump suit! Hope your head feels better Brooke 🙂
Oh my gosh you DO need to be protected somehow!! Come stay with me, I’ll push you around in a padded shopping cart or something like that ;-D
Wow, now that would make for some really interesting images Brooke!! I feel an idea brewing….<3
Haha yes!
Brooke – this made me lol….I’ve also made crazy mistakes – ie more than once taking off my glasses at a shoot location only to lose them, step on them, break them and then try and figure out how I would drive home without being able to see. Or there was the time I had to cut myself out of a costume only to get the scissors stuck in a very precarious position…luckily my husband was home and managed to get the scissor unstuck without stabbing me in the chest. #photographerproblems
Cheers!
Hahah Patty, I love the scissors bit!!! How random and funny and scary!!
Like Michelle, I slipped down a muddy hill. I was going to the place where I wanted to shoot and just few seconds later, I was on the floor, mudd all over my butt. I was with a friend and we laughed a lot!
An other time, I forget my remote (I was used to do this a lot! now I learn to double-check 🙂 ) so I had to run to be in place with the timer. I did a couple of pictures, and for one, I put unintetionnally my foot in a hole and I wrung my ankle during the exact moment the photo was taken. It was the best picture of the shooting! Hahaha.
I learned to not be afraid of being ridiculous and to not be that serious. This kind of things are the best memories!!! It brings personnal memories and stories to the ones you create.
Oh my goodness! Well if you’re going to hurt yourself, might as well get a good picture of it!
Hopefully I was not hurt. In a way that I can’t explain I am a very lucky person 🙂
I only have bruises and cold from taking pictures. My friends says that if I don’t suffer for a picture, it’s not going to be a good picture 😉
Oh my god, I admire you for laughing off the skirt incident. I think I would’ve cried!
The first thing that comes to my mind is one time I was discussing a paper with my professor (who I thought was super cool and okay maaaybe I had a tiny crush, maaaybe), and he told me he thinks I could make a career out of writing and I got so awkward and shy and nervous and instead of saying “thank you”, or “thanks”, I said “thanks you”.
I’m sure he ended up doubting what he said earlier hahaha
Heheh sometimes you just have to laugh 🙂 I have done that sooo many times. Or like the one time I met a guy named Dan, and he said “Hi, I’m Dan” and I replied with “Hi, I’m Dan”….yeah…that was really dumb 😛
I’m always tripping over, one of my favourite things to trip over is my own feet, my second being slightly uneven surfaces. Tripled over my tripod leg before too, that one was an expensive mistake as the whole lot came crashing down lens first.
I normally walk into stuff too, my boyfriend says it’s like I gravitate towards things. My own awkward gravital pull 😀
I normally laugh hysterically at myself though, like a crazy lady so it’s all good!
Ahh that is great. I’m super clumsy too. My husband is always saying “WATCH OUT FOR THAT DOOR!”
I bought a green screen to do composite portraits for a middle school drama club. School colors are green and white. Moral of the story, don’t hang your composite hopes on one color background if you can’t control what your subjects wear.
Phenomenal! I love when lessons are learned that way…though the actual learning of them isn’t so much fun!!
One of my favorite self-deprecating stories happened while I was in Singapore one summer. It was hot and humid day and I was walking down a street of endless stores filled with cute little sun dresses. I found one that I liked and immediately went into the dressing room to try it on. My American standards I am a small. That doesn’t equate over in the Asia Pacific region and I didn’t realize this until I was stuck. Dress over my head (no bra because it was a sundress!) stuck. Wiggling around like a cat with a sock on my head, stuck! I had to call the poor woman working at the store into the dressing room to assist me. Mortified, I could help laughing and apologizing. Repeatedly. She was a good sport the entire time and help free my from my fabric prison. How embarrassing!
Note to self: I am a large by Asian standards!!!
Hahahah that has me rolling laughing!! Oh my goodnessssss!
Brooke, haha. While shooting only a few days ago, I was running to my model to hold a prop while I put my camera on a timer. As I ran back a thick tree branch skewered my hair in a bun and threw me back. I managed to still get the shot, but man did that hurt a lot.
It’s these stories that keep life interesting.
Oh my goodness, I have found my tribe! Thank you Brooke and everyone for sharing your stories, I have laughed so hard! I am a certified clumsy, klutzy, spacey person. I work very hard at not being that way but sometimes… One time when I was a teenager I was at a party and the boy I liked was casually chatting with me as we walked, I got a head of him a bit and promptly tripped on my own feet and my dress went up fully exposing my behind. I can now laugh about it but 14 year old me literally wanted to die! A few years ago we were at a family gathering and I walked directly into a glass sliding door and I literally bounced off of it and landed on my butt. Very embarrassing. Another time I was walking down some interior stairs at work while I carried several staplers in my hands (that was a bad decision) and I tripped and fell and rolled down the stairs. I landed on our office lobby where several customers waited. So embarrassing! Another time I went for an job interview as a translator and I totally blanked out on a few super easy questions they asked me in Spanish (I am a native speaker!). I so not got the job. And like that so many many more. I constantly bump into walls, furniture, trip, spill stuff on me, it’s a miracle that I am still in one piece. I’ve always been this way so I just laugh at myself 😉
I have too many embarrassing stories to count. I’m easily embarrassed a bit clumsy. Once I walked few blocks on a crowded city street thinking that people kept staring at me because I was looking particularly good that day. I was wearing skirt. I’d actually taken time to put on makeup. It wasn’t until caught a glimpse of reflection in a bank window that I saw that my skirt was tucked into my underwear. LOL At least someone had the decency to tell you at the grocery store. No one told me anything. Everyone just stared as I walked by. Now I always double check my skirt before leaving the bathroom.
When I was younger I was cast as one of many little angels in my churches annual Christmas play. So, I was never really graceful as a child(nor am I now), and with the added wings strapped to my back, I was a weapon of mass destruction. On the last song sung by the little angels we all turned and trooped up the stairs and I was the last one to climb, and as I did I came too close to the tree and my wing bumped it, then I bumped it, and well…. The whole Christmas tree fell over in the middle of the Christmas play, and I was standing there in embarrassment as several women came up and tried to get it upright again. It is pretty hilarious looking back on it, I think someone may have even recorded it. Man would I love to see that now! 🙂
Just remembered another funny moment! I was shooting senior portraits for my best friend, and also shooting some fashion shots later on. So there was me, and three other girls taking pictures. I was wearing boots because the ground was still kind of muddy and wet in places and they were the easiest and fastest shoes I could get on. My friend was seated on a stump in the middle of a foresty place, and there were roots and small holes everywhere, and then there was a larger one. I pointed these things out to my friends so that they would keep an eye out and not kill themselves during the photoshoot. Unfortunately, at one point while I walked around and got shots from different angles, I overstepped when I moved backwards and went right into the hole up to my hip. Worst part is that it was a little bit muddy from the rainfall, and the bottom had water that got into my boot. It wasn’t a really embarrassing experience, but one that made me facepalm at my clumsiness. We all got a good laugh out of it and I trudged around with a soggy foot for the rest of the shoot hahaha 😛
Hello Brooke! In these past few weeks I could not visit your blog, because my computer was broken, more precisely the graphics card. Finally is arranged and here I am again. I missed to read your posts, Brooke. I’ve done some dumb things … Among them, I remember once being photographing birds in the lagoon. But suddenly I came across a fantastic sunrise, with reds, oranges, yellows, behind some trees. It was a breathtaking view … I had to take that shot, but I was with a telephoto and for that photo I needed a wide-angle lens. To my bad luck I didn’t have that lens and I had to snapping the shot with the lens I had. I tried by all means to find the best position to take the photo and suddenly I found myself in the middle of a creek. I was with my brother who asked me greatly admired: what are you doing? And I said between laughs: Everything for photography… Of course, the rest of that morning I walked with wet tennis and wet pants.
http://www.photo-trekking.blogspot.pt/2013/08/my-first-stepped-forward.html
I needed to clean out the gutters on my small ranch style house from the leaves that had clogged it. I put the ladder to get up there on the wood deck and pulled a hose up the ladder with me. I sprayed the gutters at the end of the job to clean out the dirt that was still there. Some water got on the deck below. Where the rubber feet to the ladder were. I got on the ladder. Physics took over. The rubber feet started to slide on the now lubricated deck. I went for a ride. Time dilated. It took forever for me to slam the ground on top of the ladder. I kind of bounced to the side of the ladder. I laid there for a second, trying to figure out if I broke anything. Nope. I was good.
So, I jumped up, and looked around, like I had planned my little ride. No one saw it. It never happened.
I always get caught when I am naked in the woods. Some random dog walker or mushroom picker materializes out of nowhere.
I break things, run into walls, close the car door on my head, etc. on a regular basis. Probably my most stellar moment was when I was 19 and in college. It was Thanksgiving break, and I couldn’t go home (12 hour drive) as I had the lead role in a large Christmas dinner theatre production with rehearsal over the weekend. So I spent Thanksgiving with a friend and her family. She taught me how to ride a 3 wheeler, which was great fun.
The next day, we hopped on the 3 wheelers (mine borrowed from a neighbor) and took off. This huge crazy full sized German shepherd started barking crazily at me and chased me. Certain I was trying to escape being eaten alive, I drove like crazy as fast as I could away from him, paying more attention to him than where I was going. And promptly smashed into a cord of wood, totaling the 3 wheeler. The dog jumped on me and started licking my face. To top it off, I had broken my leg and had to be transported to a nearby hospital to have it set.
The doctors wanted to cut off my pants, but I had borrowed my friend’s Calvin Klein jeans and there was NO WAY they were going to cut them off because I couldn’t afford to replace them. So several people had to wiggle me back and forth to get them off (remember now that I had a broken leg), so THAT was fun. However, I felt quite triumphant until a team of super cute medical students all came into the room to learn how to set a plaster cast up to the hip. And there I was, no pants, a hospital gown and a shower cap on my head.
And I lost the role in the play.
at a local taco shop…i was scooting out of my seat to go get another drink….and i didn’t remember the bench stopped i thought it went all the way…and i landed FLAT straight downwards on my butt with my legs sprawled out. Mind you, i somehow hit my left leg on something and had a knot for 3 months after. 🙂 I said when i stood up….”i guess i didn’t have my fall for the day!” (as the guys at the next table looked over and wondered WHAT THE????) My hubby saw it all.
i think the dumbest thing i’ve done, at least that i can recall recently, was for a photo actually. i had acquired a vintage surgical eye lid holder at an oddities shop in madison, wi. i knew i needed to use it for a photo, and i knew exactly how it would look. however, i didnt realize quite how DUMB of an idea it was. after giving myself a prep talk for at least 25 minutes in the mirror, i finally got it in my eye, and had my boyfriend take the picture (i left the remote in the other room!) needless to say, it was extremely uncomfortable, and i actually almost scratched my cornea from the experience. the picture turned out, so at least something good came from it. haha!
Haha, this was fun to read 😀
Okay, I remembered this anecdote that happened last summer. I was attending a fashion photoshoot because my friend was helping out with the lights. So there I was, just standing and watching how it was all getting done.
The photographer was shooting beside pools of a hotel. The pools were all connected with one another, and in some places you couldn’t tell where one ended at the other began.
Of course I had to NOT WATCH where I was going, and stepped into one of them with my chucks!
I couldn’t believe what had just happened so I started laughing and caught an eye of a guy who saw me stepping into the pool, and then it got even funnier 😀
I walked back from the shoot thirty minutes barefoot and holding my chucks in my hand. 😛
Luckily, it was summertime.
my most embarrassing moment is when i was 14 i got out of the shower and my sister asked me to get the mail so i put on a towel then when i opened the door she shobed me outside and took my towel and locked it i was like that for 1 hour so after that i went the owners apartment and asked for a key so while he is getting the key his 12 year old looking son is just looking at my skin when then i ran back to my apartment with a lot of people looking at me then i got back in and grounded my little sister