Almost catastrophie for my Pentax Analog Spot Meter

[esearing]

I have lost many loupes , a couple of lens caps, and a pair of rayban sunglasses to the north Georgia rivers. My light meter is on a wrist strap and I "usually" put it back in its case in the pack when done.

[Doremus Scudder]

If you keep your meter in your pack except when using it, then a simple neck strap works just fine. Extract meter from pack, slip strap over neck, begin metering. No problems dropping your meter.

Doremus

[Chauncey Walden]

Steven, the hike down from Schofield Pass (your jumping off point on the Crested Butte side) down to Crystal is maybe only 4 1/2 miles but there is a 2000 foot elevation drop. When you are fresh in the morning it might be easy for you but coming back up in the afternoon with your camera gear, well it may not be fun. There is also the matter of we are now getting afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains. The trees west of Denver are prime right now but with the wind that comes with the storms, some areas are already losing leaves. May be different west of the divide. Oh, the mill is not a mill per se, it was a powerhouse for the town. There was a turbine at the end of that vertical structure that drove the generator. It is beautiful, especially with the turned aspens behind it, and worth the effort. Waterproof your hiking /camera gear. Have fun. Enjoy.

[Alan Klein]

Neck lanyards.

[Steven Ruttenberg]

Steven, the hike down from Schofield Pass (your jumping off point on the Crested Butte side) down to Crystal is maybe only 4 1/2 miles but there is a 2000 foot elevation drop. When you are fresh in the morning it might be easy for you but coming back up in the afternoon with your camera gear, well it may not be fun. There is also the matter of we are now getting afternoon thunderstorms in the mountains. The trees west of Denver are prime right now but with the wind that comes with the storms, some areas are already losing leaves. May be different west of the divide. Oh, the mill is not a mill per se, it was a powerhouse for the town. There was a turbine at the end of that vertical structure that drove the generator. It is beautiful, especially with the turned aspens behind it, and worth the effort. Waterproof your hiking /camera gear. Have fun. Enjoy.

Thanks for the info! I will definitely waterproof. There are two ways to the "mill" I have gone down from the end of the road you go on after passing thru Crested Butte (the one you mention). I"ll try to find a map. Is that the pass you are talking about? What about coming from the town on the west side?

[LabRat]

One of my earliest foto "life lessons" as a kid was never put a camera carry strap, lanyard etc in my mouth...

Had an old plastic Brownie as my first camera, and was on vacation on Mt. Desert Island in Maine one early summer... Was near a cliff, and there was a big rock in my path that I needed to climb over... Needed both hands to help climb over it, but camera was in my hand... So I put camera carry handle in my mouth for a moment while I lifted myself over it... But one hand grabbed a sharp spot on rock and I yelled OUCH!!! Camera proceeded to fall from my mouth, as I watched in fall (in slow motion) down the cliff, but just grazing the steep high slope intact... Thought I might be able to save it, but camera hit a hard spot, disintegrated (with film and backing paper flying like a ribbon), and left many little splashes in the sea below... I was stunned with horror staring downwards, when I started to be painfully swatted by my mother who saw most, but not all the event unfold (she thought I destroyed the camera intentionally) and almost ended my photo career right then and there...

But the burning "bug" still haunted me, so when in the tourist trap town, bought one of those novelty "Hit" type micro cameras as a temp replacement, but while shooting it, it didn't seem the shutter was firing, and at a few points, the back popped open and another ribbon of film fell out...

Seems like the gods didn't want me to photograph, but the hubris was me buying other dirt cheap cameras (in rapid succession) even broken, where at least I started learning camera repair (before even shooting)... ;-)

Steve K

[Vaughn]

The only thing that should hang from around one's neck is one's girlfriend.

[Bob Salomon]

The only thing that should hang from around one's neck is one's girlfriend.

Especially when you’re with your wife,

[Drew Wiley]

Cameras and neck straps - hah! There is a famous autobiographical story by former Chief Justice Black, who was a climber in his early years, and once nearly lost his life due to a box Brownie hanging across his chest which he was reaching for a tiny finger-hold climbing in the Bugaboos of British Columbia. I had the same predicament when I was being chased by a bull and suddenly had to climb a vertical basalt cliff, with my Pentax hanging below my neck.
Once it was even worse, when, stuck on a cliff under similarly dire clumsiness, a yellow-jacket bee landed on my nose too, and trying not to fall to my death clinging onto a crumbling cliff face, had to wiggle my hose side to side and direct my breath trying to dislodge the insect before it stung me. I obviously survived, and lived to do stupid things over and over again.

[Chauncey Walden]

Steven, it is a level approach along the stream from Marble.