Hat's, Gloves, Skis & Poles?
By Dr. Jeff Johnson
This was a potentially very expensive shot to take. I didn't have a meeting for a change on Monday, 12/13) late afternoon and having checked my handy dandy Ephemeris program to see there was a sliver of a moon, I decided to leave work early and head out to Utah Lake and shoot some pictures. I set up in one location just before the sun went down and shot there for a while. I then realized there was a better spot a mile or so down the lake. I hurried and put all my stuff in the Yukon and headed off to the other location.
This is one of the shots I took from there. I had been shooting with my 100-400. When I got to the new location I went to put on my 24-70 and realized I had left it sitting on the back bumper of the truck. Can you say dumb? I needed you to ask "hats, gloves, skis, and poles?" I shot this with the 28-135 I picked up for my wife to use. Then I shot several multiple image panoramas with the 100-400. When it got too dark to stop the movement of the moon I packed up (much more carefully this time) and went back to the first location.
I spent about an hour looking there and along the road with no sign of it. I came back on Wednesday during daylight and looked again with the same results. I assume falling off the bumper would have caused significant damage, but was surprised I couldn't find even a trace of it. I checked with the Ranger at the State Park I was shooting in as well as the lost and found at the airport (I was just over the fence from their runway). Again no trace. The only good things were that my wife now doesn't feel she's the only one who forgets things and I have insurance on my stuff. Fortunately they believed my story and I have a new 24-70 on the way from B&H and a check on the way from the insurance company. I had just got it back from Canon about a month prior. The ring that the lens hood attaches to had come loose. I discovered that this is a problem with early versions of the lens and Canon fixed it for free even though the warranty had expired. (Nice folks to work with, at least in my two experiences.) I guess my take home lesson is to never set anything down except in my bag or my vest pocket. Anyway, you can see that I picked up some bad habits in the 8 months or so since the Monument Valley trip. I'm looking forward to the Grand Canyon trip even more now.