Why are you beating that camera against the tree?

[RichardRitter]

Why, to dry it out so I can go back and take the photograph.

I have a long run tradition of going through the ice and /or snow ever year this year I stayed dry all winter, until today. Both the camera and me went swimming in the West River. River was warm. The last couple of days there has been fog and there is this bend in the river with a field that has dead trees in it that at the right time they just glow. Only problem is to take the photo the bank is very steep. I had the camera set up went back for the lens meter and film holder set everything down in a safe place and started to move around the camera to the front to put the lens on. Slipped and was grabbing for a tree it was not the tree I grabbed it was the tripod and 7 x 17 down we went in to the water. With the camera making a lot of noise going down.

I was glad for few things one I had just sold my last piece of ground glass and had to use plastic for the ground glass. The glass would have been broken. Second the lens was not in my hands and was ok and the river was not too deep at this spot. I climbed up the bank and was taping the camera against the tree when the park ranger came by. She is used to seeing me do strange things to cameras in the name of taking a photograph. I did go back and take the photo.


Richard T Ritter
www.lg4mat.net
www.finefocusworkshops.com

[Scott Kathe]

Richard,

I hate to say it but I'm glad to hear things like that happen to a pro like you. Last winter I lost my best lens in the snow while walking from my house to the school just down the road to get a nice picture of snow on a crabapple. I got in front of the camera to set the aperture and shutter speed and the lens and lens board were gone! Panic set in! I walked/ran along a snow covered road and our driveway. Not a lot of traffic since we live on a dead end road but my wife was due back and I could just picture her or someone else crushing my lens, or a snowplow could come by and throw it to the side... After retracing my steps twice I calmed down and hoped it was near where I set up my shot. Two swipes through the snow and there it was! The lens still works perfectly and I learned a valuable lesson better learned in snow than on rocks or near water;)

Scott

[Walter Calahan]

You didn't damage the tree did you?

Grin.

[Bruce Watson]

<sarcasm>
You can avoid accidents like this is you'll just cooperate. You know, sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat plenty of quasi-nutritional factory food loaded with a chemical stew of preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, and of course plenty of corn syrup. When you aren't at the mall buying stuff you don't really need of course.

What were you thinking? It's dangerous out there! ;)
</sarcasm>

Seriously, the only way to make an omelet is to break some eggs. Here's hoping your omelet is spectacular. Please post it when you get around to it so we can all have a "taste" if you don't mind. And many more photographs to ya!

[Darryl Baird]

this is when we bi-pods are at a real disadvantage, a four legged species would just lean over to balance
... when in doubt, bring another person to brace you or bring a heavy-duty pair of suspenders/bungie cords (to tie oneself to the trees)

Jerry Uelsmann is quoted as saying, "photography is an excuse for strange behavior" -amen

good story, thanks for sharing

[Bill_1856]

Is that the 7x17 you were advertising for half-price (as-is, no warranty)? :-)

[Alan Davenport]

You have no idea how pleased I was to read your story! Until now, I thought I might be the only person alive who had drowned a large format camera. Misery loves company...

[Scott Knowles]

Thanks. I read awhile back researching large format photography the writer warned about a disease that afflicts large format photographers, Acquired Klutz Syndrome (AKS) where you exhibit momentary loss of reality between your camera and something else, and often your camera is the worst victim. In a recent case in trying to beware of experiencing symptoms of AKS with my 4x5 setup I managed to bang my Canon 5D against a concrete wall. Fortunately it has a very durable composite body and only scratched. It made me think to find a psychologist specializing in AKS, but I guess they'll only look at me and say, "And you thought you were immune to this disease?"

[RichardRitter]

This is not the first prototype camera that has taken a bath of some sort. I put one in the shower of the inn I was staying at one February on the Maine coast twice. There was a wonderful ocean storm and the mist and waves were out of this world good for the area I was in. Camera got socked with salt spray and started turning white as it dried, so into the shower it went. The next day did it all over again not as bad. I take really good care of lenses they are the important part of taking the photo next to the film. Light meter, camera body, tripod, photographer that’s what they make duct tape for.

Quote
“You know, sit on the couch, watch TV, and eat plenty of quasi-nutritional factory food loaded with a chemical stew of preservatives, artificial colors, artificial flavors, and of course plenty of corn syrup. When you aren't at the mall buying stuff you don't really need of course.”
Quote

I thought this was the stuff I was photographing when I was photographing toxic waste dumps. Thou corn syrup does make good mouse bait.

I have to go out and try it again. Some water dripped onto the negative and it glued itself to the dark slide.

[RichardRitter]

Alan there was a spot where I was photographing and I did have the tripod tied off to two points. Third rope was tied to me.

[John Bowen]

Richard,

Thank goodness it wasn't Cavendish!!!

FYI Bruce Barlow sells a really wonderful video about field repairs for Large Format Cameras. Sounds like you should probably purchase a copy for future reference. See www.circleofthesunproductions.com

Stay Dry!

[Steve Barber]

Richard,

Thank goodness it wasn't Cavendish!!!

FYI Bruce Barlow sells a really wonderful video about field repairs for Large Format Cameras. Sounds like you should probably purchase a copy for future reference. See www.circleofthesunproductions.com

Stay Dry!

Yeah, Richard, be sure and buy a copy. You could really use it. :D

Steve Barber

[naturephoto1]

Yeah, Richard, be sure and buy a copy. You could really use it. :D

Steve Barber

Steve,

I tried to avoid responding to John's posting, but....:eek: :D

Rich

[John Bowen]

Steve and Rich,

Richard is a friend and he got the joke!

Best,

[RichardRitter]

I have a copy I though the opening is a repair technique.

[naturephoto1]

Steve and Rich,

Richard is a friend and he got the joke!

Best,

John,

Just one of the little things of being here for only a year or so; I do not know who everyone else knows. :( But, I certainly know who Richard is since I got my Zone VI Modified Soligor Digi Spot II back in 1988. :)

Rich

[John Bowen]

I have a copy I though the opening is a repair technique.

Laughing out loud!!!

[Renato Tonelli]

One of my mishaps was so humiliatingly lacerating that I cannot share it, even after more that ten years.

[GeorgesGiralt]

I know a guy which saved all money he could to buy this gourgeous 13 mm Nikon lens without distortion.
On the first try, he was above a well and thought this nice lens will make the innards of the well make a nice foreground to the nice landscape the was photographing. So he took the lens out of the bag by the lens hood and the lens hood stayed in his hand when the lens said "plouf" into the well....
I can give you the location of the well if you like digging for gold coins ;-)

[Alan Davenport]

I can give you the location of the well if you like digging for gold coins ;-)

That reminds me of the fellow who was seen emptying his wallet down the hole in an outhouse. When asked why, he said he'd dropped a quarter down the hole, and he certainly wasn't going down there for a quarter...

[jetcode]

this thread made my day - you folks are a fun lot

While I haven't lost any equipment (other then a lens or two falling off my Canham, ouch!) the most humiliating moment was during a slide presentation after a workshop in Death Valley. While I was busy seriously capturing images on my hands and knees on the desert floor, this waif took a long shutter speed photograph of me hunched over my camera complete with plumbers crack and bald head, my best side, displayed for everyone in attendance. You could hear a pin drop in a crowd of 40. It was humiliating. Of course she posed nude for me in one of the old cement structures out in the Nevada desert and I showed that so I suppose it was a fair exchange. She was much easier on the eyes. I really wanted that photograph she took but no dice.