All my own work...

I've not taken a single shot since last week, despite having some photogenic weather (read: strong winds and rain), but during that period I did spend some time checking over my camera gear - cleaning here; adjusting there - and in particular, attention to my backup camera body. It gets little use, these days, and it is prudent to give certain functions on it some exercise from time to time - such as firing the shutter - to keep things working smoothly and reliably.

Everything checked-out as it should, but I had noticed that the (two) batteries in the grip needed a charge before any serious use. Despite this, I pick the spare SLR up and leave the house this afternoon, along with a single optic. I am not too concerned about the staying power of the batteries, since the light is flat; the sky heavily overcast, and I don't expect to be taking many images. In fact, I take none until I arrive at Boscombe Pier, Dorset. Even then, there is little in the way of inspiration, although I do expose several frames of a dog walker of the flat sands at low tide. It is at this time that I become aware of the low battery warning symbol in the viewfinder. This proves to be worse than I imagined, since a check in the function menu shows that one of the cells is now exhausted, and the second has only 16% of its charge remaining.

No matter, I think to myself. The way things are I won't need it, and continue producing token photographs until shortly before the sun sets... and the light changes. A thin crack appears in the cloud bank shortly before this happens, and the scene is transformed. Not only that, but a man and his dog unwittingly oblige to add a human (and canine) element of interest in the foreground. I know this ephemeral gleam won't last long, and working quickly I start to make photographs. At which point the camera locks-up. I manage just three pictures before this happens, and no matter how much I attempt to cajole the thing to work (as the light gets better and better), it is simply not having it; both batteries are dead, and the camera is now just functioning as ballast.

All my own doing, of course, and I did get something (above), but it is a lesson to be learned; that if something is going to fail, it will choose the most inopportune moment to do so (slaps wrist).


50mm f/1.8 AF Nikkor. 1/250 second at f/5.6. - 0.33 EV compensation. ISO 400


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