We have all heard horror stories of photographer’s who didn’t mind their surroundings. Typically these stories occur while taking photos on the shore and include the tide coming in and wet camera gear. Over the past month, I have had two separate incidents of not minding my surroundings that I wanted to share. They both involve my current nemesis…ice.
As I alluded to in my recent posting on photo walks, ice is the reason that I wasn’t able to do a photo walk yesterday during my time here in
This past December, I was visiting my parents back in
As I turned the corner, just out of view of my family, my foot hit a patch of dark ice. You can probably image what happened next. Just like a cartoon, my fee went up in the air while my back and head slammed into the concrete walk way. I was seeing stars…both figuratively and literally. Oh yeah, and remember the camera…that slammed into the walk way lens first! Remarkably the camera, lens, and lens filter survived the impact with out any harm. My head did not. I never did get my photo of the locomotive but did go home with a concussion.
That was round one with my nemesis. This past Friday was round two.
I have spent the past few days in the
The
I got the shot that I was after (see image to the right) and continued to hobble around campus for another hour taking more photos (just at a slower speed than normal). But I left the field of battle wounded with worst sprained ankle that I have ever had. And I’m sure the mile walk back to my hotel didn’t help my ankle’s condition. Thus, I spent yesterday in my hotel room with ice on my ankle instead of walking around the
The moral of my stories is to Mind Your Surroundings. As photographers we are so used to minding the view through the camera, but we tend to get lost inside the camera and loose sense of everything else around us. Next time your out shooting, try to remember to consider everything else around you. It can help prevent loss or damage to your gear…as well as yourself.