It has been quite a while since my last post, but I have a good excuse. I left home right after my last post in early May for an extended trip to the Pacific Northwest. I always leave on a trip with the idea that I will post as I travel. That all sounds well and good, but it just doesn’t seem to work out for me. Other duties always seem to take my time like driving to the next location, downloading and keywording pictures, cleaning my gear, planning the next day’s shoot, eating, and sleeping. Some things just take priority…

I focused a lot of my shooting during the trip on waterfalls. As many of you know, the Pacific Northwest has plenty of those to go around! I am starting out my processing of new images with a waterfall along the Oregon Coast outside of Florence. Sweet Creek Falls is one of a multitude of waterfalls and cascades in the area. I chose this shot in particular because it has special meaning to me. It is one of the last shots taken with my camera before it was eaten by the “River Monster”! Yes, my Canon 1Ds Mark III along with my 16-35 lens took a spill into the creek and did not fare well. I was able to get the lens repaired (for about half the price of a new one) but the camera was deemed irreparable due to water damage (it took two attempts at plunging my arm into the deep pool before I managed to retrieve it). One of the legs on my Induro tripod also had to be replaced after being fractured in the fall. So this waterfall cost me a lot of money!

I should have known better than to climb up on a wet mossy rock in the middle of the stream. I had worked my way out to the area in front of it to get this shot. After taking this composition, I thought that would be nice to get a little higher for a something different. I stood the tripod with the camera attached up on the rock and then hoisted myself up. The rock was really slimy, but I was able to stand up and felt somewhat steady. I was peering through the viewfinder framing up the perfect shot when I started to feel my feet move ever so slowly. I grasped the leg of my tripod to steady myself and then it all went downhill from there. In a second, I went sliding into the stream and the camera came crashing down. The impact of the tripod slamming against the rock flung the camera off the head and into the dark, deep water. The tripod took off downstream and fortunately got wedged between a couple of boulders not too far away. I was stunned at first, but quickly came to my senses and went after the camera. It seemed like it took forever before I was able to fish it out of the stream. Needless to say, my efforts of wiping the camera down and storing in a bag of rice overnight were to no avail. It could have been worse I guess. I somehow managed to come out of the episode rather unscathed. Something unusual for me…

Click on the image to view a larger version in the galleries.