Falling Away From Me..

Well what an afternoon I had yesterday.

If your following me on Instagram you'll know why.

Put simply it involves, my photography backpack, 2 lenses, a few filters, a 10 metre cliff and my pride.

I was out at Malabar Headland for sunset and was trying to get the Battery (bunker) at the end of the headland in to frame, which involved me getting pretty close to the edge of the cliff, which is a 10 metre straight drop below on to the rocks. It was a little windy so I had my bag latched on to my tripod for stability, and when i decided it was time to move on I grabbed my tripod and camera, and suddenly my bag slipped off the latch, took a short tumble on to a ledge below, almost stopped, but just had enough momentum to tumble over the edge, a few seconds later... THUD!

I had just put my new Sigma lens in the bag too as I changed lenses to my old Sony so I could use my ND filter for some longer exposures, So i was expecting the worst.

I was a little shaken up as I was climbing down the cliffs, which luckily have a lot of hand holds as it's frequented by fisherman quite regularly. But i made it down safe and sound, had a quick check of the two lenses that we're in my bag, first my fisheye, nothing wrong with it except the cap that protects the lens mount had cracked a bit, no biggie, and my Sigma, which at first glance looked fine, so I put my backpack on and climbed back up, which was much easier than going down.

Although the lenses looked fine I thought I better take a few test shots to make sure, and as I went to take the lens cap off my Sigma, that was when I found my shattered filter. Which didn't really bother me to be honest, as the lens still worked, there is a slight scratch on the lens from a bit of glass that had broken off inside the filter, but only seems noticeable when shooting at F/18 or higher, which is never. I think it may just be the protective coating that is scratched.

Anyways, all in all it was a bit of a win in a way, for the following reasons:

1. I didn't dive after my bag and fall to my death
2. It was low tide, so my bag and lenses didn't get washed away
3. There was no one standing under it
4. My $40 filter saved my $400 lens
5. It wasn't my camera and tripod that fell

So in the end all I can say is, Be careful when shooting near cliffs, and always make sure your gear is secure!

Matt.
meimages.net

Hard to put in to scale but it was about 10 metres up to the top!

Shattered...

And as I was so excited about my broken filter, I decided to have a little jump for joy!
I guess I didn't really learn my lesson about playing too close to the edge did I..