On the job

I'm sure he had a good stiff shot of whatever he likes drinking around 70 proof after this... BTW the pictures in the camera were surely stunning, probably priceless for him (as he's a pro)... I kind of feel with him about losing it...

Those photos were stunning & the latter few did sort of point toward this chaps death. Thank goodness he survived.

Agree with others that loosing a camera is not a loss compared to actually surviving through it all.

Wow! Losing the camera would be the last thing on my mind here.

Not for a photographer! I knew a sports photographer once, who got knocked down by a bunch of footballplayers on the sidelines, his first question was "is my camera all right!".

He said he is happy to be alive but regrets losing his camera amid the chaos

But the guy shot picture of him has archives of the tsunami like we can see now.

There have been some amazing photos and footage of the tsunami. Many up on youtube. Quite a lot of people basically threw caution to the wind in the hopes of getting that "money shot" - not just pros but also amateurs. Sometimes obsession with photography and video can be life-endangering...but we at least have the most awesome footage of tsunami probably in history... Anyway, Im glad this bloke survived!

This reminds me of the first time I tried surfing and all they could lend me was a shortboard.

As for the photos...stunning.

As for the guy pictured...lucky, lucky, lucky!!

Well, I guess I am calming myself enough that I can share stories. One family I am helping from Oshika lost everything. Every stick of everything they owned. Their house was 100 meters from the coast, and grandpa's story is unbelievable. He was taking abalone or something and hears the sirens, so he jumps into his truck and DRIVES HOME! By the time he is in his living room, the water is up to his chest. Then. The water receded. He said to his wife, and I quote, "Ya. yabai kamo". Then they ran to higher ground and sat around for several days eating and drinking A LOT, and believing that everybody else had it a lot worse. He lost one friend, but almost everyone he knew was ok.

A friend has set them up in condo. Sweet. I opened my front door to them and told them to take what they wanted. Two tables, microwave oven, hotplate, hot pot, coat rack, chairs, zabuton, bookshelf, china hutch and they were good. Well. OK!

I guess point being that there were places where the water eddied and others where it rushed and smashed things. The guy in the picture is hating life because of the cars and vending machines in the mix. In a fishing village, you just start swimming, I guess.

Chiba san is so lucky to be alive...

Oh, and @porter, same here. My hands were shaking too much to switch on my mobile phone video camera. The 18th floor of my building was swaying far too much.

He was lucky that he did not grab a still live high voltage wire.

While I'm sure Chiba kun's boss would've lavished praise on him for his heroics ("うん、悪くないな、君”）, I really hope his mother gave him a good clip round the ear. He's a very lucky fella.

What was he thinking at that time? Should he be thinking of how to escape , how to get the hell out of here , how to climb on that suv and hold on its rail... or he was just thinking he was going to die anyway , so at least leave something for others to see later? crazy guy.

People like this are the reason life insurance is so expensive.

" He said he is happy to be alive but regrets losing his camera amid the chaos. "

Wow! Losing the camera would be the last thing on my mind here.

Lucky SOB!

Was he still taking pictures in that last photo while the waves were engulfing him and the dark car above him about to mow him down? LOL

"Great, now I need a faster shutter speed with all this sloshing around. Now if I can just bracket these exposures first..."

Personal feelings more luck than brains, especially with the cars and vending machines floating around.

One lucky guy.

Impressive journalist. During the quake in Tokyo, I thought about filming from my keitai but was frozen with fear.

Is that a dive camera;)

Impressively frightening! He's a lucky man.

(oops) journalist v idiot

meant to say, there's no reason to believe the two don't go hand-in-hand, 2020.

A real journalist. A real idiot more like it.

A real journalist.

A real idiot more like it.

A real journalist. Even in the last photo, where it looks like he is about to go under, he is still trying to film things. Too bad he lost his camera. It would have had some great footage on it.