After about 6 weeks and a number visits to therapy, I can finally talk about what happened on a recent trip to Glencoe, Scotland.
A number of friends and followers have wondered why I hadn't shared many images from the trip. Well, the thing is, I lost my camera and a large number of images due to an accident and also my negligence on "Best Practice" while on a planned shoot or any other session for that matter.
To keep a long story short; while setting up for a composition of waterfall and mountain my tripod gave way in the current of the shallows of the river. Tripod falls forward, I fall in the river, camera comes off tripod as it hits the river bed. Camera gets caught in the current and made it's way to the edge of the waterfall with me soaking wet and in hot pursuit. I slipped a number of times before losing site of the camera as it approached the edge of the fall. The camera had disappeared.... for ever.
They sat that "everyday is a learning day"
So what did I learn?
Don't cut corners. I know to backup images from our SD Cards. If I had done that then I would of only lost those morning's photographs before the camera did a pike with a half twist over the waterfall. By following my own advice I would have had 2 days worth of images to share instead of only one day. If you can't backup to a laptop or the cloud, put a new card in every session and keep the previous one safe until you can back them up somewhere.
Insure your gear. My camera gear is insured but make sure you have good records of your photographic equipment. For example all of your reciepts and the serial numbers of lenses, bodies etc. The insurance companies will be insistent on these details. I have all of those deatils, yet I had to go through an interview with the insurance company and I am still awaiting payment.
Know your gear and your own limitations. At the end of the day my camera should not have come off the tripod. So why did it? The answer in this case is just down to bad luck and perhaps me not being fully aware of my limits/capabilities. Earlier this year I had the diagnosis of having arthritis in both of my hands. Gripping and twisting and tightening things is sometimes getting a little more difficult.
The tripod head attaches to the camera via a bracket. My bracket is fixed to the camera by a "Twist Knob" I can only conclude that due to the osteo-arthritis, I couldn't have tightened the knob sufficiently. Cold wet hands and arthritis are not very good for tightening things sufficently. Therefore, even though the camera was fixed onto the tripod, it can't have been on tight enough, so off she came never to be seen again.
So there you are, that's the reason for not having very many images form the beautiful location of Glencoe.
I now have a new camera and a new tripod head. Currently I'm still out of pocket as I await the insurance payment. I plan to go back to Glencoe in the New Year. Hopefully I'll get some beauties to share with you.