Photography, Happy Accidents, and 50 shades of Gray

I have been photographing people most of my life.  First family members, then more people than I can count.  Occasionally, back in the film days, when I got the results days or weeks later, there would be something in the photo I hadn't noticed.  Now with digital, I get these surprises a lot quicker.  On August 4, 2015, I got my latest accidental image - well, sort of accidental.  Below is the photo...the female skater with 4 arms, caught purely by accident.  Two skaters, actually, their bodies so perfectly perfectly aligned that I doubt I could have arranged that, especially as they were skating and not standing still.  Below is the photo of them separated.  So how do you get these accidents?  Always carry your camera with you (I guess cell phone would be appropriate, too, these days) and always be ready.  Oh, and stop aiming the camera/cell phone at yourself, LOL.

Another photo, from back in the film days, if an accidental double exposure - back then, I would shoot something in color, then take that roll of film out of the camera to shoot B&W, then reload the color film.  Sometimes I'd accidentally overlap a frame.  Now, of course, with digital, I shoot only color in RAW format and can process it (aka edit) for B&W or color.  The B&W can be way more than 50 shades of gray.  This double exposure is from a shot I took in NYC (outdoors), and my college student union (indoors).  The lines on the floor are lines from the street in NYC, as is the garbage behind the lady, but the floor is the student union.  What is amazing about this accident is that it was shot on color slide film which has almost no leeway in exposure.  And the two shots added up to an almost perfect exposure!

And since I mentioned 50 shades of gray, below are 8 shades, although there really are an almost infinite number of shades.  I thought it better to just play with my own images in this case, LOL.

Hope you've enjoyed this post about photography for a change.