Disaster Strikes
Many things can cause a man to cry; Seeing his bride come down the aisle for the first time, the birth of his child, or watching Simba pour tears over the trampled body of his father, recently murdered by the vicious villain Scar (just me?). All of those feelings, however, pale in comparison to seeing something of great financial value tumble out of his control, its future held only by fate and the gods.
You may remember my recent post about taking a trip to Frederick, MD to watch my wife and her friends compete in the Tough Mudder. In it, I described my distaste for their legal terms (which ended up really being a wash in the end) and what I was planning on doing at the event. Long story short, I took all of my equipment and shot and shot and shot.
And then it rained.
And rained.
This wasn't one of those normal showers, this was one of those Forrest Gump, "It was even coming up from the ground" rains. Thankfully, Canon weather seals most of their higher-end equipment, which just so happened to be the equipment that I brought to the event, so I had no worries about that happening. What I didn't anticipate, however, was disaster striking.
As we prepared to leave the event, well after the worst of the showers had hit, I made my way toward the exit. Through a freak accident, I felt my Canon 5Dmkii and 70-200mm lens dislodge from my BlackRapid DR-1 Dual Strap. At that exact moment, I looked down as the entire setup bounced into a large puddle of mud, left over from the rain. I picked the camera up and dashed off to the car. It was only when I got home that I realized the extent of the damage. My 70-200 had taken on quite a bit dirt and grime in the zoom and focus rings, and my 5D just...wouldn't turn on. You can see the extent of the damage in some of the images on this post.
As I evaluated what I needed to do, the thought of having to send this stuff in for repair made me want to cry. Remembering that I was one $100 step away from gold CPS membership made me look a bit more into that. I decided to join the gold level, and hope to document that process as it goes along.
For now, some of my favorite pieces of photography equipment are on a truck somewhere on their way to Newport News, VA. Stay tuned for updates.