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Wednesday, February 14, 2018

Risk ~ insurance - and the ones photographers take !!!


Photographer’s enthusiasm knows no bounds when they are trying to take pictures – and I was more than a bit worried in the two photos that I am posting here.

Risk is the potential of gaining or losing something of value. Values (such as physical health, social status, emotional well-being, or financial wealth) can be gained or lost when taking risk resulting from a given action or inaction, foreseen or unforeseen (planned or not planned). Risk can also be defined as the intentional interaction with uncertainty.   Every  human endeavour carries some risk, but some are much riskier than others.  There are many risk classifications such as :  Pure, Speculative, Particular, Fundamental, Static, Dynamic, Financial and more .. ‘not all risks are insurable’ – though the fundamental of insurance is risk coverage !

The Winter Olympics is on – and its concluding smoothly without a hitch will provide the Organisers a toast of success and Insurers would be celebrating with profit.   The Games are being staged about two hours' drive from one of the world's most heavily militarised borders, in a host country that is technically at war with its neighbor (yet participating as one Unit !!)  and with teams that include two nations -- the United States and North Korea -- which have swapped nuclear threats. There are also concerns among Olympic organisers and sponsors that the Games, at the ski resort of Pyeongchang, could become a target of cyber hacking, a threat that could disrupt competition in the event of a major cyber attack.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has reportedly taken insurance  protection for around $800 million at each Games, which covers the vast majority of the roughly $1 billion investment it makes in each of the host cities.  The coverage includes  pay out for a range of mishaps, ranging up to declarations of war, actual war, or acts of war.   The IOC declined to reveal the premium it has paid for the Pyeongchang, but insurers said it was likely to be around 2-3 percent of the total cover.   At the IOC's coverage of about $800 million, this would represent a cost of around $16-24 million. One underwriter said this would be relatively high and could reflect the greater security risks surrounding the Pyeongchang event. At the summer Games at Rio de Janeiro in 2016, when worries were centred on an outbreak of Zika virus, and at London in 2012, the IOC paid premiums of about $13 million.

Getting back, there are moments whence photographers break conventional methods, trying for great angles and rare photos.  First is to get out of their comfortable zone ! trying out something new, warding off stagnation.  Though having a good mentor helps in having your basics right, there is no stopping when it comes to innovation



in the first friend Rajagopal Madhavan standing on a truck covering purappadu at Thiruneermalai  (Pic Keshav Rajagopalan)
~ the one above was taken from mid sea in a catamaran during masimagam by Thirumalai Vinjamoor Venkatesh.

Elsewhere in UK, MailOnline reports of the  moment a driver risked his life and stood in the middle of a busy motorway so he could take some photos.  It appears that the man had just been involved in a collision and had decided to risk traffic for some photographic evidence.  The footage, filmed on the A45 near Northampton, shows the brazen man standing in the middle of three lanes of traffic and almost getting hit by two cars before having to jog away. In what could be termed as negligence, the man in the video looks to be in danger of being hit from two sides as he plants himself in the centre of the road to snap the photo.  Video of the incident also shows that one of the motorists involved in the collision stopped in the fast lane of the 70mph dual carriageway in Northampton without his hazard lights on. It describes the scene as  the shocking moment a man was almost hit by two cars as he stood in the middle of a busy road in order to take a photo - the one who uploaded captioned the clip: 'It's not a good idea to stand in a live lane to take a photo.'

The footage begins with Karl's vehicle in the middle lane as he approaches a busy roundabout. As he gets closer to the roundabout, two black vehicles in front of him have slowed down - and a man wearing a black jacket can be seen standing in the middle of the road taking a picture.  This forces the first car to swerve to the right to avoid the man while the second vehicle has to weave around him too.  The footage, captured on a dashcam, shows the man standing brazenly in the middle of three lanes of traffic on a busy motorway.  The man finally gets himself off the road realizing the danger , and approaches another man wearing a white shirt and tie, who appears to be the other motorist involved in the collision.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar
14th Feb 2018.
Tailpiece :  Risk is a 2017 American documentary film written and directed by Laura Poitras about the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.  The film's original premise was to address the life of Julian Assange, documenting scenes showing "motives and contradictions of Assange and his inner circle, focusing on the risks taken by persons involved in the well-known Wikileaks website, the most notable risk being taken by Assange himself. The film then presents documentation of Assange's asylum claim, and the disguising of himself to sneak into the Embassy of Ecuador in London for refuge.  Originally titled "Asylum", the film becomes a journey into the perception of Poitras, who, in the re-cut of the film, altered the film's focus on the experience of risk-taking left-leaning media work, towards a critique of Assange as a flawed character under attack, including for his alleged mistreatment of women.

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