Saturday, November 07, 2020

My Two Thousand Dollar Photo

This photo can be said to have cost me more than $2000 to shoot: too bad then that it is really such a very ordinary photo.


Wanting to take a picture looking down the river to the right, I had waded into the river. But I actually didn't get very far until I realized that I wasn't prepared to go any farther. So, I stopped, set up the tripod, and took the picture that you see, above.

I decided to pick the camera up off the tripod to have a closer look at the image. Disaster ensued, for the motion caused me to knock my cap off my head. It landed to my right and began to float gently down the steam.

When I made a futile motion to grab my cap, I dropped my camera to my left. It took me a few seconds to lift it out of the water, and that turned out to be the end of the camera.

Not knowing for sure that was to be the end and hoping against hope, I took it home and did the rice thing -- to no avail.

After two weeks of hoping in vain for the rice thing to work, I took it into the camera store where I had purchased it. While my extended warranty would not cover replacement for water damage, it would at least cover sending it off to Canon for evaluation.

Whatever was going on at Canon, it took seven weeks for them to decide that it was a write-off.

What to do then?

As part of the extended warranty that I had bought, the company would cover up to 20% of the cost for repairs for owner-inflicted damage.

The camera store came up with an offer, which I accepted, and after 10 weeks, I finally have a replacement. It is the same camera model as the old one, and let me tell you it hurts to pay another $2000 for the rather expensive camera that I had already purchased just over a year ago.

Accidents happen, but this was a very costly one.

15 comments:

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Ouch and that accident certainly hurt your wallet and how unfortunate, John. I was wondering if just the camera was a loss of did that include an attached lens as well. As a fellow photographer, I can really understand your anguish at this loss. I didn’t know the rice solution could also be applied to photo equipment. We have used it once with a cell phone to limited success. Wishing you no future mishaps and perhaps water shots will be off for the foreseeable future. Accidents do happen as you said and we have all had them. Maybe you could sell the photo?

Blondi Blathers said...

Oh shit. Sorry to hear about that. Beautiful photo though.
I, on the other hand, don't dare take my phone even into the bathtub, like my husband does with his. He can lie there looking at his phone and if it falls, which I'm sure it never does, it will be onto his dry chest. If I drop my phone it's wet, period. And I'd drop it for sure. -Kate

Margaret said...

I think it's a gorgeous and unusual photo, but $2,000 worth? Probably not! When those kind of events happen to me, I always go back and re-do the whole scenario in my mind. If only I hadn't...If only I had...An exercise in futility but perhaps instrumental in preventing another such accident.

Jenn Jilks said...

I am so sorry. What a terrible accident.
I have never been happy with any extended warranties.

Jean Winnipeg said...

I am sorry to read of your accident.

I am still trying to live down my accident- which I rarely tell people about. I decided to walk through
our Assiniboine Park, which has a garden they call the English Garden. It is rather nice, sedate, you walk and admire the flower beds.

In the centre is a pond. My husband said 'do you see the frog". and pointed -I said no, and stepped forward onto
what I thought was tiles that were wet around the edge of the pond.

There were no tiles. My foot went down and down, I tried to regain my balance - that didn't work, both feet were in the pond now. My husband looked on astonished as I tried to get out of the pond -"What were you thinking he asked?' When I managed to get out. Not a helpful comment by the way. An elderly woman passing by,stopped to stare -eying me with disapproval. Clearly she thought I'd been drinking. I had to sit on a towel on the way home.

I enjoy your blog.

DJan said...

That is really sad. But the picture is wonderful. I laughed at Jean Winnipeg's story. :-)

Red said...

I'm sorry you had an accident and lost your camera.

Joanne Noragon said...

Ouch.I'm sure we all have made an expensive mistake.

Rita said...

Oh No!!!
I would definitely have a nice large copy of that picture framed and hung in your house where when anyone comes over (if we can ever have company again) you can show off your most expensive piece of work. It truly is a beautiful photo.

Jenny Woolf said...

The kind of thing that must make you wish you'd let the hat go. But there isn't always a choice when everything happens so fast, I bet you moved to grab it before you had the chance to think, and I am sorry that it turned out that way. I actually really do like the photo, but obviously that is not much consolation.

Kay said...

I agree that it's a gorgeous shot. But OOOOOOWWWW! I really feel your pain. I know these things happen, but OOOOOWWWW!!!

Ed said...

Ouch! You win with that story. I bought my mother-in-law a brand new top of the line smartphone several years ago as a gesture of good will. I gave it to her Christmas morning. That afternoon we set out for the farm and came back later that evening to a cold December rain which had been falling all afternoon. As I pulled in the drive, I noticed an object lying in the puddle up next to the garage door. It turned out to be my mother-in-law's phone. Like you I tried the rice thing and it ended up costing my about half or your photo above. I still wince thinking about it.

Vicki Lane said...

Oh, that hurts!

MARY G said...

Bummer. At least you got it back to assess. The YG dropped hers into a river a few years back and it is still there. She also threw one down a cliff, having forgotten that it was in a jacket pocket.
Mine die of old age. Still expensive.

David M. Gascoigne, said...

If it makes you feel any better a friend of time dropped a $9,400 lens while changing it. As far as I can recall that is the only time I have ever literally seen someone turn white!