It was the first shoot I ever went after. I made deals and fought hard to get my one chance to photograph Mythbusters. It was less about the photography and more about the opportunity to be a part of something that until that time I existed only as a viewer.
In all reality I felt there was very little chance to photograph Mythbusters because I was young and felt it was something that was more representative of an accomplished photographer’s job. However, I would work it into conversations as much as possible when I was on set shooting shows like Deadliest Catch.
And then the phone call came…
All my rep said was, “you wanted Mythbusters, you got em.”
It was very surreal, but I was on a flight to San Francisco a week later, and standing at the M5 Headquarters watching Adam ride a unicycle no more than an hour after I landed. I will always hold those memories dear as it was one of the first times I saw the shoot as more of a privilege than a job.
There were many great people I met during the years that I photographed the show and many great conversations I had along the way, but now that Mythbusters is ending, one stands out in particular. I was standing on the roof of the shop with Adam, and we discovered that we had something in common, we both were in love with a specific hotel. Both of us enjoyed sitting at the same bar watching the sunset, however, for him it was often blanketed by fame.
In this I mean, while we both sat at the same bar and toasted to a day’s end, I remained anonymous, while he was always in danger of being approached by someone who knew him from TV. We talked about a day that the fame would pass and he could be just another person, peacefully enjoyed nature’s beauty.
The idea was a romantic notion that seemed to entail his return to normalcy in so becoming the guy he was before Mythbusters began. So to the many years that he and the crew shed light on science to our amusement, and to the ability to realize a life post celebrity, I lift a glass.
Cheers
