National Geographic: Cameramen Who Dared Page #2

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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

a conflict familiar

to action cameramen:

things were too safe.

The Yukon raftsmen navigated

smoothly post all perils,

and Lipscomb was filming

an uneventful trip.

But then they came to

Five Fingers Rapids,

and suddenly they were

losing control.

It was sort of a funny,

perverse pleasure as I realized as

the raft was swinging out,

swinging out...

I could line up the shore

behind it

and I could see they weren't,

they weren't gonna miss it.

Looking pretty bad, boy.

So I realized, oh boy,

these guys are into it at last.

They've really got themselves

in trouble and I'm so glad.

And then I thought,

but I'm with 'em!

And the 10-ton raft stopped

with the loudest noise

I think I've ever hard

in my life.

And we knew we had it

and we had it

with three cameras going.

So it made a marvelous

scene in the film.

Jim Lipscomb has made films

about people and about animals.

He says people are

more treacherous.

But it was the animals

he photographed

for "Polar Bear Alert"

that taught him a

personal lesson about fear.

It began with his own brave

insistence on getting

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