Thursday 9 December 2010

Night Light Photography & Camera Calamity!

I attended a night photography course this evening, that I've been looking forward to all week...
This is Suncoast Casino & Entertainment World.  A Durban landmark - Art Deco in style, with different coloured lights all around the outside, which I LOVE & my husband loathes!
There was a group of about 10 of us & we all set up our tripods in a line on one of the pavements, much to the amusement of passers by (sooooooooooooo annoying...)  so we had fun answering their questions, telling them that Beyonce & Jay-Z were staying in the hotel etc, etc!!!  {They thought we were the paparrazi}
I got the chance to put into practise the theory that I already knew concerning slow shutter speeds.
This one is a happy accident.  The bokeh effect is caused from raindrops on my lens as it was spitting all evening, which made it difficult to manoevre our bags, tripods AND umbrellas all simultaneously, which explains how I KNOCKED MY TRIPOD TO THE FLOOR WITH NIKON D5000 & MY BEST LENS ATTACHED...
Time has never moved so slowly as I watched it crash to the ground.  I felt like projectile vomiting.........................but........................amazingly enough it appears unaffected, lens, flash {which I didn't use but keep permanently attached} & all.  

I read last week, on Karen Russell's blog, that she had driven off with her camera on her roof (I kid you not), only realising when she drew to a halt & heard the rattling on the roof, followed by a missile careening past her windscreen & smashing into the ground in front of her.  

Her Nikon was unscathed, as was mine.  How's that for an advert for Nikon?  Titanium I tell you!

Of course I am not naive enough to think that there may not be some internal damage but I have disconnected flash/camera/lens & shaken all 3 to my ear & not a sound to be heard...

The crash happened before I had taken even one picture.  I then went on to take 300, using all different apertures, shutter-speeds & my self-timer & everything seems to be working fine...

The cynic in me says it's too good to be true but the Nikon repair centre is in Johannesburg & they are probably closing down for Christmas any day now so I'm not sure what to do...  Whether to send it in "for a check-up" or just keep going & hope for the best... 
 
All praise to my guardian angel ;-D





8 comments:

Kirsty Vittetoe said...

OH wow, those night photo shots were impressive, I still can't figure it out, we went to a christmas light event here in Vegas, non of my picture turn out decent. I probably need to take a class!

Stefanie said...

I love what you achieved.
Glad I have a nikon too.
Not that I'd like to test it's crash ability either.

Shayne said...

Amazing what you can do when you're shown how to maximise the use of your camera? I felt the same after our course.

Great pics.

I think cameras are a lot more resilient that we give them credit for. xxx

tania said...

Oh my word!! I also had a mishap one day when i had my laptop on my lap, with my camera and usb attached to it, so i got up,forgetting about the cable and wham bang! camera hit the floor! of course i got the "EYE" from my husband, but the camera was just fine:)
love the result of your photos!
Do you watch Sharpshooter on Mnet? Sunday's at 5 or 6.

LG said...

OW those are perfect!

Lynette Jacobs said...

Wow...stunning photos Helen. What a relief that your camera had the "great fall" and is still undamaged.

Pearl said...

wow x 3 indeed Helen ! love these !!!

Jessy Christopher said...

Awesome shots! Love the lighting and the colors are very cool!!