Ugh! Beautiful spot. Had my camera, light peeking through clouds after rainstorm (but still raining), waterfall, even had my tripod!
Ran, no, sprinted down to the bottom of the falls (about a fifteen minute walk normally) in spitting rain. Had my co-worker in the car who is pretty long suffering...
Got down there, took a few preliminary shots to check area exposures, wanted good, clean cotton candy like water movement, etc.
Spun my backpack around (had just finished shooting some interior design wokd we had done) and heard a nice plastic-y bang. I knew the main compartment was zipped because I had just pulled out my camera. I was pretty sure it was the SB800. Took a split second to make sure I placed the camera in a stable location (wet rocks about 1/3 the way up a several hundred foot cascade), and looked around. Sure enough - debris field. Flash laying in about 1/4 inch of water with batteries, external battery holder, etc scattered about 20 feet below me. Since I was in a good spot, and the apparent damage had been done, I set up a shot, bracketed a few, and then scrambled down to clear the flash rubble. Good news, the flash hadn't gotten all that wet, but it WAS in water. Had trouble finding the lid from the external battery pack, but did manage to locate it. Stuck everything back in my bag. Recomposed another few shots. These promised to be good. A few minutes passed, so I took the SB800 back out, checked it for water, loaded up the batteries and switched it on - YES. All was well. Fill lit a nice little grotto and was getting nice exposures and good saturation. All in all, got about 30 shots in a total 5 minutes! Got back to the car and asked my cohort to drive so I could see what it all looked like. First thing I noticed - I was in such a hurry I left my @#$% camera bag in the field of view!! :Angry: Got back to the office, and loaded the pictures onto my computer. I thought "hmmm, that didn't take long..." Stuck my card back in my camera to reformat, and saw why...
I had the quality set to jpg basic because the interior shots I had taken a little earlier were strictly for emailing a client.
If I had turned a five minute session into a ten minute session so I could have taken my usual time to check everything, I wouldn't have wasted a great opportunity to get some lovely shots!
Still, it was a fun outing. Sprinting down the trail, taking some pictures in the rain, throwing gear all over creation, lungs burning from the 3/4 mile sprint through mountain laurel back UP the waterfall to the car, NOT getting anything particularly usable, and most importantly - LEARNING THAT I STILL NEED TO TAKE MY TIME :tongue:
I'm going to take my shoes off now so my feet can dry...
Ran, no, sprinted down to the bottom of the falls (about a fifteen minute walk normally) in spitting rain. Had my co-worker in the car who is pretty long suffering...
Got down there, took a few preliminary shots to check area exposures, wanted good, clean cotton candy like water movement, etc.
Spun my backpack around (had just finished shooting some interior design wokd we had done) and heard a nice plastic-y bang. I knew the main compartment was zipped because I had just pulled out my camera. I was pretty sure it was the SB800. Took a split second to make sure I placed the camera in a stable location (wet rocks about 1/3 the way up a several hundred foot cascade), and looked around. Sure enough - debris field. Flash laying in about 1/4 inch of water with batteries, external battery holder, etc scattered about 20 feet below me. Since I was in a good spot, and the apparent damage had been done, I set up a shot, bracketed a few, and then scrambled down to clear the flash rubble. Good news, the flash hadn't gotten all that wet, but it WAS in water. Had trouble finding the lid from the external battery pack, but did manage to locate it. Stuck everything back in my bag. Recomposed another few shots. These promised to be good. A few minutes passed, so I took the SB800 back out, checked it for water, loaded up the batteries and switched it on - YES. All was well. Fill lit a nice little grotto and was getting nice exposures and good saturation. All in all, got about 30 shots in a total 5 minutes! Got back to the car and asked my cohort to drive so I could see what it all looked like. First thing I noticed - I was in such a hurry I left my @#$% camera bag in the field of view!! :Angry: Got back to the office, and loaded the pictures onto my computer. I thought "hmmm, that didn't take long..." Stuck my card back in my camera to reformat, and saw why...
I had the quality set to jpg basic because the interior shots I had taken a little earlier were strictly for emailing a client.
If I had turned a five minute session into a ten minute session so I could have taken my usual time to check everything, I wouldn't have wasted a great opportunity to get some lovely shots!
Still, it was a fun outing. Sprinting down the trail, taking some pictures in the rain, throwing gear all over creation, lungs burning from the 3/4 mile sprint through mountain laurel back UP the waterfall to the car, NOT getting anything particularly usable, and most importantly - LEARNING THAT I STILL NEED TO TAKE MY TIME :tongue:
I'm going to take my shoes off now so my feet can dry...
