Back to the Scene of the Crime

One year ago I was wandering along Ruby Beach in Washington's Olympic National Park. I was looking at small tide pools when along came a rouge wave. As I turned to get away I tripped over a rock and fell into less than a foot of water. My $7500 1Ds Mark II also went for a little dip. At first I was laughing. Then I could smell the electronics burning. Bummer. End of vacation. End of my 1Ds? (I'm sure to get letters from Nikonians telling me that not only can their D whatever tread water but it can do the backstroke. C'mon let's keep it real.)

Hey I thought maybe, just maybe, Canon could repair it. After all the water didn't go into the chamber with the sensor and mirror. The tripod had kept some the camera above the water line. I drove straight home. It's 1400 miles and took over 22 hours. Then I took the camera to Canon Repair. The day after I got the bad news. It could not be repaired. Bad Sensor, Broken Shutter, the list went on and on. I tried to turn it on everyday for a week, but I finally gave up.

Three months later I decided I would sell the camera for parts on EBay. I bought a 5D and and life would move on. (At least as far as photography goes. It's rather hopeless in rest of my life.) I put the battery in, and much to my surprise the camera came on, and the shutter fired. Wow! I checked it out and everything was working except the buttons on the vertical grip. I took it apart and tried to clean it. I could see a little corrosion on the battery terminals but nothing else. The vertical grip controls still didn't work, but it was obvious that Canon Repair had never taken the camera apart. Bad Canon, bad!

Fast forward to a year after the mishap. What else could I do except go back to the scene of the crime. The famed Ruby Beach of Olympic National Park. Take that. (Well I really don't have much of a line here. I was never good with words that's why I took up photography.) I just had to go back and finish what I started. Two beautiful sunsets later I felt great. Things had come full circle, or so I thought.

Now as for the rest of the trip. I had always wanted to see Sol Duc Falls and driving inland from Ruby Beach it's about an hour. I got up at 4:30 packed and left by 5:15. Then there's the hike in. It's a little less than a mile in, but I had to hurry. There were no overcast skies for me and the sun would be up over the trees in no time. I got there just in time to get a few snaps. I couldn't get the entire bridge in since direct sunlight had begun to hit it. Now for the hike back. I was tired, very tired. About half way back I tripped on a tree root and did face plant. Ouch! I quickly got up and checked out the camera. What ya know - the vertical grip controls now work. Everything works! Now I know as your reading this you think that I must be some klutz, but I've only slipped one other time and that was in deep snow and I managed somehow to keep the camera from hitting the ground. I'm sure my reputation is forever ruined, but my 1Ds Mark II is just fine, and that's what counts.


The pictures above are all from my 1Ds Mark II. Below is a slide show from my trip. 95% is the 1Ds MK II - 5% is the 5D. In 12 days from L.A (10 days of Shooting) : I went to: Olympic National Park, Mt Rainier, Columbia River Gorge, Crater Lake, Redwood National Park, and Rodeo Beach CA. You can also see more in my Washington State 2 Gallery, Redwood National Park Gallery, Misc Central Coast Gallery (Just the Rodeo Beach Photos) and a few of the top photos in my Oregon Gallery.

What! Using Flash For Nature Photography!

I'm slowly coming to grips with using a flash for Nature Shots. I generally prefer natural light, but there are situations that call for additional light. Here's one example on a foggy morning along the coast in the Redwoods. There wasn't much light and the wind wouldn't stop blowing.

Now, I just wanted a small piece of this web to really show off the dewdrops, but I couldn't resist trying to get the entire web at 2.8. (ISO 400.) The background is too bright in comparison to the web and too close to the web for the background to blur out. Even at ISO 400 and f2.8 it's still too windy to keep the web tack sharp.




Pumping it up to ISO 800 helps the freeze the motion and moving in a little closer helps separate the background. (The more you magnify the less depth of field you'll have.) It's still not tack sharp.

Now my flash comes to the rescue! With a Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2 you can get the flash off the camera. Once it's off you can try it in different positions until you get the correct balance between the foreground and the background. At 2.8, only part of the web is in focus. Since I wanted all of the dewdrops on the web to be sharp I set the camera to f16. Not a problem since I'm using a flash and it will freeze the motion. You just have to set your camera up so it's not letting in the ambient light. Nice shot, I like it, but I'll try ISO 100. Nope, the background went black. (Just like I thought not enough power.) I'll stick with ISO 800 at f16.

So I was able to freeze the web and still pick up a little of the background at ISO 800 with one flash. With 2 flashes I would have been able to light them both up properly at ISO 100. Of course I left the 2nd flash at home. (What good was it doing there? Guarding the house?) I did run into some poison oak and picked up some rubbing alcohol to clean off my tripod. (And me!) Anyway, I like the shot, the dewdrops look like a pearls on a necklace.

Tech info: Canon 5d, Canon 580EX Flash, Canon Speedlite Transmitter ST-E2, Canon 100mm Macro Lens, Gitzo Tripod, Kirk Ball Head and L-Bracket (No spiders were harmed in the making of this photograph.)

For more on flash photography go to strobist.com - a "Must See Website"