H.J. Ruiz – Avian101

Last Friday was my wife’s birthday, instead of staying home we decided to go outdoors and we picked the location for our picnic to be High Falls near Jackson, Ga. because it’s only 2 hours drive and we have been there before, we like that beautiful area. We couldn’t ask for better weather to have a picnic, it was perfect!. 

We got there early and after driving around the site a bit  parked the car. I picked a good spot to try shooting video so I set up my camera and 120-400 mm zoom mounted on my sturdy tripod and shot a couple of minutes of video. The tripod was standing on grass but near a part that is paved. My plan was to shoot video of a Great Blue Heron by a cascade, but this time for a longer period of time. I was approximately 3 feet away from the tripod when I head a sound behind me! My tripod was on the ground and the camera and lens had hit the pavement hard! 😦

I just couldn’t believe it. It must have been the wind, once in a while you could feel gusts of wind but I never thought it would tip a tripod over!

The result of this disaster: The Canon 500D T1i had a direct impact and had a cracked bottom corner, the shock had affected the circuitry and now is not shooting, the display works but if I want to use the shutter the screen black out and  warns me of high temperature in the circuitry and shuts off all functions. It’s useless!

The collar ring support for my Sigma 400 mm zoom lens broke in two pieces but the  lens is okay, the lens shade is scratched but I don’t care. I have ordered a new collar ring support already. The camera is shot so I’m thinking of buying a Canon 7D.

I haven’t lost or damaged any of my camera equipment ever! When this incident occurred  I felt hurt!

I think one solution to avoid this problem to occur again would be to hang some weight under the center of my tripod when using my big lens.

I wouldn’t let this ruin our day!  It was a good thing that I always carry a backup camera in my bag. This time a had the Canon SX30 IS so I felt I had some consolation after all!

I shot a bunch of pictures to several birds and had some great shots of the Great Blue Heron! 🙂

Some time in the afternoon we got to the end of our picnic. Tyler had a great time and a great deal of exercise.

We returned home very satisfied and happy to have spent a beautiful day outdoors. Happy birthday Lucy!

All photos are © H.J. Ruiz – Avian101