Water (and ME) Falling Over Things 2008: Part IV

[regnaD kciN]

Family outing to Rainier yesterday afternoon -- since it was overcast, I wasn't planning on doing much in the way of photography. Nearing Paradise, however, I realized that this was my chance to actually visit Lower Ruby Falls on an overcast day (every other time I've tried it, the sun came out at precisely the wrong moment).








At this point...well, I'll just reprint the account I wrote for a different site:

Anyway, I walk down the trail, take a few fair-to-middling shots, then start heading down the slope from the vantage point. I decide to put the tripod down so I can put the lens cap back on and, since it will only take a moment, don't care that the place where I'm putting it down is not level. I'm just taking the cap out of my pocket when my daughter calls me, so I turn around and take one half-step...right into a patch of slick mud. My foot flies out from under me, and I make a spectacular landing on my gluteus maximus in the mud...and, of course, as I'm going down, my other leg brushes the tripod, and all I can do is watch helplessly as the tripod topples in slow-motion and my A100 comes down hard in the mud.

After I drag myself out of the mud and retrieve the tripod...well, I wish I had a camera to take a picture of the camera. The left side had about a half-centimeter coating of mud over the entire body and lens. I drag the whole thing up to the road and, with much effort, manage to get the lion's share of the mud off...and then realize the camera is still on! Well, as long as that's the case, I might as well take a few test shots of the upper falls...

...and, as it turns out, there was no damage done.








By the time we got to Paradise Meadows, the promised rain had begun, and it was time to beat a hasty retreat...but the grab shot below gives you some idea of just how plentiful the wildflowers are right now.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

1. woah... lucky

when I did something like that I ended up in the freezing water along with my camera.... I recovered. the camera not so much

[JeffR]

2. Sorry about your accident

but you sure brought home some gorgeous photos.

[regnaD kciN]

3. Actually, I came out just fine...

...aside from being a bit sore and looking a mess. I'm more relieved about the camera, since I was heading out for a few days photographing the Oregon coast today and, if my (camera) body had been toast, I would have had no time to mail-order a replacement, and hence would be stuck shelling out big bucks for an A700 at a bricks'n'mortar store.