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Hello all.
As I sit here alone and depressed in my log cabin, belly warmed with scotch and 500 miles from home...I hope that the sharing of what is sure to be one of my worst photography days ever (certainly the worst in my 32 years so far) will be cathartic for me. I hope it allows me to sleep sufficiently well to enable me to retreat home tomorrow a day early, tail between my legs.
The plan was simple: drive to the Scottish Highlands for 3 full days of photographing some iconic locations in beautiful autumn colours. So I packed up and jumped in the car, eager to leave Bristol in the rear view mirror.
9 hours of arse achingly boring driving later and my journey from Bristol was complete. It was after dark so I just got set up in the cabin and got some sleep.
Day 1 was tough, starting with a punishing hike up Bienn a' Chrulaiste for sunrise. I am coming down with a cold and the route I took was STEEP...I got some shots I am happy with, but I paid the price. I was knacked and felt awful to the point I had to just come back to base camp and have a nap. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful as I managed a nice sunset shot near Arisaig. Overall a decent day, no disasters.
Day 2 (today) and I headed out to Rannoch Moor to have a look around. I had decided to do more exploring as I'd missed some of the previous day through napping...and it started well. I got a few nice shots from wandering into the Moor, then disaster number 1. Out of nowhere my leg disappeared into knee high mud and was stuck. Luckily my other leg was free, but as much as I tried the stuck leg was not coming out. I decided to pull my leg free sans welly, and try to retrieve the boot after....to no avail. I just couldn't grip the thing no matter how hard I tried. Another welly lost to the depths. I made the luckily short walk back to the car and replaced the lost welly with a walking boot (incidentally I maintained the mismatched shoes for the rest of the day due to the woeful inadequacy of a walking boot on wet bog).
I brushed myself off and carried on, determined not to get too down.
I made my way into Glen Etive, which is stunning. Photographic opportunity everywhere. From the road I noticed a beautiful formation of birch trees set against the yellow and orange leaves of autumn bushes, so I stopped the car and started making my way over what appeared to be solid ground. All of a sudden, my other leg dissapeared into the ground. s***, I thought...not again! Luckily this time it was just water so I managed to get free pretty easily. I had kept the boot, but lost my remaining dry sock....I grabbed the shot and very gingerly walked back to the car.
As I was making my way out of the Glen I noticed one last shot to grab, where a river forms a nice S bend leading towards a mountain stack. I worked the composition, camera in hand, until I found the perfect place. So I set the tripod up and clipped the camera in (a Nikon D810 with 16-35 lens) . I turned to grab a different lens and out the corner of my eye saw the camera topple of its perch. It had not been clipped in correctly so fell forward, crashing to the rocks below In what seemed like slow motion it bounced towards the river...please no I thought...splash! It settled in about 3 inches of water for what couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds as I leaped towards it to grab it out. Immediately I turned it off and removed the battery, the comprehension of what had just happen yet to sink in.
Only time will tell what damage has been done, but for sure my polariser and Nisi filter adaptor are kaput - I can only hope the images on the cards are fine.
For the icing on the cake, as I was driving back to my cabin my engine management light came on which will make my drive home interesting...nothing like a game of car roulette!
...so I have just filled out a repair form with Wex and am leaving a day early, well and truly chewed up and spat out by Scotland. Hopefully the bill won't be too high, and hopefully I will be back soon (with a new, less s*** tripod head and some new wellies).
As I sit here alone and depressed in my log cabin, belly warmed with scotch and 500 miles from home...I hope that the sharing of what is sure to be one of my worst photography days ever (certainly the worst in my 32 years so far) will be cathartic for me. I hope it allows me to sleep sufficiently well to enable me to retreat home tomorrow a day early, tail between my legs.
The plan was simple: drive to the Scottish Highlands for 3 full days of photographing some iconic locations in beautiful autumn colours. So I packed up and jumped in the car, eager to leave Bristol in the rear view mirror.
9 hours of arse achingly boring driving later and my journey from Bristol was complete. It was after dark so I just got set up in the cabin and got some sleep.
Day 1 was tough, starting with a punishing hike up Bienn a' Chrulaiste for sunrise. I am coming down with a cold and the route I took was STEEP...I got some shots I am happy with, but I paid the price. I was knacked and felt awful to the point I had to just come back to base camp and have a nap. The rest of the day was relatively uneventful as I managed a nice sunset shot near Arisaig. Overall a decent day, no disasters.
Day 2 (today) and I headed out to Rannoch Moor to have a look around. I had decided to do more exploring as I'd missed some of the previous day through napping...and it started well. I got a few nice shots from wandering into the Moor, then disaster number 1. Out of nowhere my leg disappeared into knee high mud and was stuck. Luckily my other leg was free, but as much as I tried the stuck leg was not coming out. I decided to pull my leg free sans welly, and try to retrieve the boot after....to no avail. I just couldn't grip the thing no matter how hard I tried. Another welly lost to the depths. I made the luckily short walk back to the car and replaced the lost welly with a walking boot (incidentally I maintained the mismatched shoes for the rest of the day due to the woeful inadequacy of a walking boot on wet bog).
I brushed myself off and carried on, determined not to get too down.
I made my way into Glen Etive, which is stunning. Photographic opportunity everywhere. From the road I noticed a beautiful formation of birch trees set against the yellow and orange leaves of autumn bushes, so I stopped the car and started making my way over what appeared to be solid ground. All of a sudden, my other leg dissapeared into the ground. s***, I thought...not again! Luckily this time it was just water so I managed to get free pretty easily. I had kept the boot, but lost my remaining dry sock....I grabbed the shot and very gingerly walked back to the car.
As I was making my way out of the Glen I noticed one last shot to grab, where a river forms a nice S bend leading towards a mountain stack. I worked the composition, camera in hand, until I found the perfect place. So I set the tripod up and clipped the camera in (a Nikon D810 with 16-35 lens) . I turned to grab a different lens and out the corner of my eye saw the camera topple of its perch. It had not been clipped in correctly so fell forward, crashing to the rocks below In what seemed like slow motion it bounced towards the river...please no I thought...splash! It settled in about 3 inches of water for what couldn't have been more than a couple of seconds as I leaped towards it to grab it out. Immediately I turned it off and removed the battery, the comprehension of what had just happen yet to sink in.
Only time will tell what damage has been done, but for sure my polariser and Nisi filter adaptor are kaput - I can only hope the images on the cards are fine.
For the icing on the cake, as I was driving back to my cabin my engine management light came on which will make my drive home interesting...nothing like a game of car roulette!
...so I have just filled out a repair form with Wex and am leaving a day early, well and truly chewed up and spat out by Scotland. Hopefully the bill won't be too high, and hopefully I will be back soon (with a new, less s*** tripod head and some new wellies).
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