Stuff you just can't make up...

Let me start out making it perfectly clear that this is NOT an attempt at dark humor... it's a weird, freaky, extremely unfortunate event.

This happened in Italy where at a wedding, while the bride and groom were posing with a gun, the wedding photographer (45 year old Calogero Scimeca) was accidently shot dead (full story here).

It's a story a read a few days ago (and had no intention of blogging about) but it just has lingered with me, a little because here's this man kissing his wife and kids goodbye to head off to photograph a wedding (where's the danger in that) but never comes home.

And maybe because I have photographed a few weddings myself that have involved military and law enforcement and these weddings also involved posing with firearms... just makes you think, maybe that's not such a good idea.


7 comments:

JLI said...

Wow. First of all, the firearms should be PROPS, not loaded and ready to go! What an awful, awful shame. And why would you want to pose with guns in your wedding pictures anyway? That whole idea is just lost on me. Where's the romance? Perhaps it's not so uncommon in Italy. :)

Anonymous said...

Firearms photography is perfectly safe... just ask Oleg Volk, the owner of www.A-Human-Right.com . The key items to watch for is that someone is physically checking that the gun is empty, and that those handling the firearms know the key rules... Those key rules...

1. Always treat the gun as if it's loaded
2. Always keep the gun point in a safe direction
3. Always keep the finger off the trigger
4. Always keep the gun unloaded until ready to fire.

Unfortunately, this particular photographer wound up as many do who are filming other dangerous sports, such as car racing.

Scott said...

I absolutely agree that with the right safety precautions the situation can be absolutely safe for everyone.

That being said, I am already busy enough with all that is required to photograph a wedding that I don’t have the time to go through the necessary precautions and am reluctant to depend on (almost) absolute strangers to have done that for me.

Thanks for reading the blog and taking the time to comment,

Scott

Gabby Malcuit said...

How sad. People can be so careless sometimes. I agree. Safety is paramount.

Paul Kremer said...

That is unbelievably sad. However, that photographer should have verified that the guns were not loaded. Certainly it couldn't be said it was his "fault," but a simple check before starting would have saved his life. :(

Maryann [MF*****Fotos] said...

Yikes! Horrible tragedy! How will they be able to celebrate anniversaries?! Wedding photography is not supposed to be a dangerous job! Guns have no place at a wedding anyway.

Stefan said...

I don't know whether the image you posted is by the deceased photog or not, but the Bonnie and Clyde theme for a wedding photo is really original.