Photographic Klutz

Over Memorial Day weekend, we traveled to the Gunnison-Crested Butte area.  (My husband was a participant in the Gunnison Half Growler Mountain Bike Race.)  He raced on Saturday, so Sunday we decided to take a short hike up to the Dillon Pinnacles at Blue Mesa Reservoir, drive to Lake City, then go check out North Clear Creek Falls, which is purportedly one of the most photographed falls in Colorado (although I have my doubts this is true due to its rather isolated location).

When we arrived at the falls, I found a viewpoint I liked, set up my tripod and camera and started shooting away.  Unfortunately, a portion of the safety railing kept showing up in my frame so I had to do something.  Since I’m short and moving the camera up a bit was not an option (because I wouldn’t be able to see through the viewfinder to compose), I shortened the front tripod leg a bit and leaned the tripod over the railing a tiny bit.  Bingo, that did the trick!  I was shooting away happily and decided I wanted my 10-22 mm lens, which was still back in the car.  (I was shooting with my 24-105 mm.)  My husband ran back to the car to get it.  Now, I don’t know how this happened, but while fiddling with the focus ring, etc. on my lens – suddenly, the lens fell off my camera, over the railing!!   My heart stopped – it was around a $600 lens after all…  My first thoughts were “Oh **** (insert your favorite expletive here), it’s going to roll all the way down into that deep gorge, never to be seen again, and I’ve just lost my very favorite lens!!”  When I was forced to take a breath again, I looked and the lens had stopped in an indentation a few feet away from the railing.  By this time, my husband was coming back from the car with the other lens.  I had to have him climb over the railing (because I’m scared of heights and there’s not much real estate between the railing and the edge of the gorge) and retrieve it for me.  Very lucky for me, the lens was not scratched, and when I put it back on the camera, it functioned perfectly.  There was another couple there at the same time, and later the husband came by and said he saw what had happened and he witnessed “the look of sheer terror” on my face.  (I can laugh now, but I was scared!)

North Clear Creek Falls (before the lens fell off!)

This isn’t the first time I’ve had moments of clumsiness with my equipment.  Just a couple weeks ago, I went to Moab for the Spring Fling gathering of the Rocky Mountain Nature Photographers.  Sometime during that day, my camera caught the edge of a rock and chipped my polarizer.  (I didn’t even notice it until I was shooting later that evening.)  I’ll have to order a new one because the chip can be seen in my images, depending on the angle of the sun coming in through the lens and to some extent my subject matter (some things mask the chip better than others).  I was able to use the clone brush in Photoshop to fix it well enough in this image so it’s not so noticeable.

False Kiva

Back in October, when I was hiking in Dominguez Canyon, I decided to follow the creek rather than the trail to see if I could find any little cascades or intimate scenes.  After the bushwhacking, I got back on the trail and some time later I stopped and realized my polarizer was GONE.  It had come unscrewed from my lens, which was really unusual since I almost always have trouble taking the thing off the lens!  I tried to backtrack my steps and fortunately found it.

Dominguez Canyon – one of the last images I took before my polarizer fell off

And of course, my ultimate faux pas was back in 2010 when I was shooting out in the Flint Hills of Kansas.  I was shooting this character-filled cottonwood in a pasture and decided to switch out the 10-22 mm with my 35-80 mm lens.  I laid the 10-22 lens down under my tripod, changed the lens, kept shooting, then walked off and left the 10-22 lying there!  I didn’t shoot any more photos on the way back so I didn’t realize until several days later that it was gone.  It was nearly a month before I had the chance to travel back to that spot to see if by the grace of God the lens was still there.  During that time (late May/early June), the area saw windy conditions and several bouts of thunderstorms with heavy rain, wind and hail.  When I finally made it back, believe it or not – the lens was right where I had put it!  I cleaned it up and it worked perfectly.

Lone cottonwood in a Chase Co. pasture

 

THERE you are!!

Obviously, I’m a photographic klutz.  I try to keep track of my equipment, but sometimes I get distracted and perhaps am not as attentive as I should be.  I really need to work on that…  All I can say is, good thing the Canon lenses I have are pretty tough.  Knock on wood, I haven’t hurt the glass itself in either lens.

Have you ever had equipment emergencies, such as dropping or leaving them somewhere?  Lost filters, batteries or memory cards?  Tripod legs fall apart while you’re shooting (I’ve had that one, too!)   Feel free to share your experiences with me, it will make me feel better to know I’m not the only moron out there 😉