A Bridge Too Far …
This is the most dangerous photograph I have ever captured. It is a photograph of Hong Kong's Ma-Tsing bridge which I had first noticed a few years earlier on a previous visit. Back then, I didn't have the time to stop, but I made a mental note to return when I had the chance. An unexpected 14-hour flight delay while passing through Hong Kong provided that chance. Rather than remaining cooped up in an airport for my impromptu stay, I grabbed my camera and headed out.
Reaching the bridge, I quickly realised a photograph from sea level, rather than high above, where the bridge was situated, would make for a more pleasing image. So, ignoring a sign marked "Keep Out", I clambered over a wall to access a storm drainage system leading down to the dark, murky waters of the South China Sea.
Scrambling over the rocky beach which fringed the coastline, I found a perfect spot to shoot my photograph, a few hundred meters from where I had first descended from the bridge above. With the sun still a little high in the sky for the sunset shot I had in mind, I waited for an hour or so before capturing my photograph.
It was only when I was packing up that I noticed how much the tide had risen during the time I had been waiting. Waves easily big enough to sweep me out to sea were now crashing against rocky cliffs behind me, and the beach I had scrambled over a short while before was now totally submerged. I was stranded at the base of a ridiculously high cliff, with nowhere to go but up. I was going to have to climb!
And so it was that I found myself – dressed in clothes more suited to an airport lounge than rock climbing – inching my way towards the safety above, with nothing more to grip than the roots of a few sparse plants growing out of the rocks. During my climb, I experienced some of the most terror-inducing moments I have ever known, especially given the fear of heights which has dogged me most of my life. But finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I arrived, battered and bruised, back at the "Keep Out" sign I had ignored hours before.
I suppose there are many lessons which could be learned from my experience, depending on your point of view. It could be a story of dealing with whatever life throws at you, of persevering through the challenges you face. Or a story of never making assumptions about the road ahead, of always being prepared for every eventuality. More likely, it's the story of never being so reckless as to ignore a warning sign clearly in place for a reason.
Either way, this is the photograph I now regard as the most dangerous I have ever captured. Perhaps I should leave it to tell its own story of just another sunset over Kowloon.
