The Man Who Threw His Camera at a Musk Ox
The Man Who Threw His Camera at a Musk Ox
While on assignment in the northern part of Greenland, my father had an opportunity to photograph fox kits coming out of their den.
With a guide, he went out in search of the kits. Unfortunately, they had already left the den, and despite an offering of liverwurst, nobody came out.
It was summer — a time of endless light, and the fox kits should have been everywhere.
As they considered cutting their losses, they saw, far off on the horizon, a lone musk ox. The Greenland equivalent of a buffalo.
My father drifted away from the fox den to position himself for a great shot of the musk ox silhouetted against a mountain range. It’s the kind of image a photographer lives for – beautiful, powerful, dramatic.
And then the musk ox turned…and charged.
At first, my father thought it would stop—that it was a false charge designed to scare off a potential predator.
But it kept coming.
He looked around for the nearest tree to climb.
There wasn’t one for a thousand miles. Just the vast land stretching out in every direction.
With the tundra flying up beneath his hooves, the musk ox kept charging.
My father gathered his camera case, not knowing what would happen.
When the musk ox was only about ten feet away, my father threw his entire camera case at him.
It hit him squarely on the nose and burst open, lenses and equipment flying and bouncing in every direction.
The musk ox skidded to a stop, and shook his head.
Meanwhile, my father had his last camera in his hands and was winding it up on its strap, preparing—if necessary—to fend off the animal with his final Nikon.
The confused musk ox looked at the scattered gear…
looked at my father…
…and then turned and trotted off.
As if deciding he didn’t want to deal with a creature that could do that.
The guide had witnessed the entire event from a safe distance.
When my father returned, the guide said:
“You can always tell a professional from an amateur.
The amateur would have died clutching his precious camera to his chest.”
And that’s the point of this story.
To live a full life, you must know what’s important and be willing to take a stand for it.
Everything else is incidental and you need to be willing to let go of anything that doesn’t matter— especially when it matters most.
Because when something real comes at you, you don’t get philosophical.
You don’t pause to remember your ideals.
You act on what you believe is most important.
What you protect.
What you refuse to lose.
What you’ve decided—consciously or not—matters more than anything else.
And in that moment, there’s no time to negotiate.
My father lived because he didn’t hesitate.
He knew—instantly—that the gear didn’t matter.
Most people don’t know that, until the moment they’re forced to choose.
You don't have to wait for the musk ox.
The clarity my father acted from wasn't born in that moment. It was already in him — built from every quiet decision he'd ever made about what mattered.
That's what this work is about. Not preparing for crisis. Building the kind of inner ground that's simply there when life demands it.
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