Photography Life: Yesterday was mostly a good day–until the end.
I photographed the Coaches vs Cancer event down in Albany It was a wonderful event. Then it happened. Busted, in the truest sense of the word.
I got home a little after ten. I went and pulled my bag out of the trunk of the car. And was immediately horrified to hear everything come crashing out onto the ground. I was really horrified to hear a camera being separated from a lens as it hit the pavement. That is just a really awful sound. I honestly did not know whether to cry or scream. I think I actually threw up a little in my mouth. And I was so annoyed at myself for not having the bag closed. When I loaded the bag into the trunk, I realized my phone was in the bag, so I went and got it. And never zipped the bag back up.
So after I had a tantrum and cursed, I then ordered a new lens to replace this one. But I got to thinking how lucky I really was. First off, it did not happen at a wedding–that would have been awful. Luckily, I have backup gear and lenses so if it did happen at an event, I could just continue. Still, it would have been really disconcerting and could really mess with your head. You would not believe how many horror stories I hear of people who hired some hack photographer for their wedding who only had one camera, lens and flash and the system failed, leaving them with no pictures. Second, I always, always budget every year for camera repair/replacement. While I am annoyed to have to replace the lens, I have the money in place to pay for it. Hopefully, that will not ever happen again.
Major takeaways: Never, ever leave your bag unzipped in the trunk of your car–you are bound to forget and catastrophe will ensue. Always, always budget for equipment failure.
Sometimes you have to learn things the hard way. I make lots of mistakes, but I try not to make the same mistake more than once (or twice). Photography Life is never dull and boring.
Want to learn more things I learned from photography? Read some of my Life Lessons Learned.
