If you ever get sick of somebody tirelessly taking photos of you, take cue from one octopus that turned its photographer into its own subject.
Digital media producer Ben Savard was working on a video about science so he set out to take some images of octopuses in the neuroscience department of the Middlebury College in Vermont.
He asked for permission to film the cephalopods that are used for student research and as part of a test run, placed his GoPro camera into a waterproof case and set the camera to automatically take a rapid number of photos. Savard then placed the camera into an octopus tank with the aid of a neuroscience student.
They did this a number of times with different octopuses until one of the cephalopods grabbed the camera and took a couple of photos of the filmmaker.
"We did this a few times with different octopuses and one of the more cheeky cephalopods grabbed the camera and turned it around on me for a quick couple of pictures," Savard related.
Within those few seconds the octopus has taken remarkably good photos of Savard, who shared them on Reddit. Two photos were posted on Tuesday morning and these immediately reached Reddit's front page.
"I tried to get some photos of an octopus, but it grabbed the camera and got some of me instead," Savard wrote.
Some users accused Savard of staging the photos but he assured that they are real. He even came up with a GIF that documented the photo shoot.
In an interview, Savard said that researchers wanted to know if octopuses can learn from each other particularly by watching others open boxes of food.
The octopus may have been smart enough to take photos but it appears that it did not know that GoPro was not a food because he tried to eat the camera, something that did not surprise the students in the lab.
"I was just trying to brainstorm different ideas of how to show off the kind of unique research that's going on here and in ways that would be engaging," Savard said. "I think the octopus' timing was great. I was just in the right place at the right time."
The species of the sassy Octopus is known as Octopus bimaculoides. Also called the two-spotted octopus, this species are known for their intelligence and is one of the friendliest species.
