December Pond reflection, Sterling Heights, Michigan #TR9352
Yep, that’s right… Law School. There’s a slight clarification that I think would be prudent however, it is just for 1 day. 🙂 What can one learn about law in one day? Well, that’s where the second clarification comes in… it is not for law classes, but a National Geographic seminar on Nature and Landscape photography. It just happens to be at the Wayne State University Law School auditorium in Detroit. It will be cool to pay a visit to my ol’ alma mater, though I think this auditorium didn’t exist back then.
Ok, so my little fun ended in a couple of sentences. Things have been slow lately. It has been awhile since I have been to a photo seminar, and this one seemed to land in my lap with a B&H email I received, sweetening the deal with a $20 discount. I am not quite sure what to expect, but the two teachers are Eddie Soloway and Michael Melford, two very talented pro photographers that I hope to pick up some tips from, and at the very least enjoy some great photographs.
The seminar is towards the end of September, and by then I hope to have my D800 back from Nikon and some fresh motivation. Yeah, my D800 with my 14-24 lens (a fairly heavy combo) on it took a rather nasty spill on to my driveway from about 4 feet up. It landed right on top of my Vello wireless remote module that was in the flash shoe. Smashed that thing into pieces, and surprisingly very little cosmetic damage to my camera or the lens.
I actually glued the Vello module back together, and since the circuit board wasn’t damaged, the thing still works. Impressive. And at first, I thought my D800 was just fine also – built like a Nikon tank, and I avoided a real disaster. That is until I tried shooting with some older AF-D lenses, and found out it wouldn’t read the aperture, just giving the dreaded fEE error. Well, all of my AF-D lenses exhibited the condition, but AF-G lenses were fine. So something must have broken lose internally.
This is my first experience with Nikon Service over all these years, and so far so good. We’ll see when the camera comes back. If not, well they better watch it, I’ll have some law schoolin’ by then.
Dropping a camera is my worst nightmare!
I had one of my video cameras fall over while it was on a tripod and I had speed away. Luckily there was tall grass where it fell so it cushioned the fall!
It was in Yellowstone early on in a trip and I’m not sure what’s would have done had the camera broken!
Back in my still photography days I attended a couple seminars put on by Rod Planck and John and Barbara Gerlach.
Even if they talked about things I already knew, it was a nice validation that I was doing things “right”.
I came away from every seminar feeling energized to go out and shoot and more knowledgeable about one of my passions in life.
Hope you post some of the things you learn from this one!
Yeah, my worst nightmare also, that just happened to come true and fall on the worst possible surface. The camera repair wasn’t too costly, but I just got the estimate on the lens – and OUCH!
My first photo workshop was with Rod Planck! Great guy.
The seminar is tomorrow, so I am hoping to kick this flu so I can at least concentrate on what is being presented without the influence of cold meds.
I’ll be looking forward to hearing what you learned and what you thought about it. As for the camera, ouch! I don’t think that it was built to take that many Gs. 😀 BTW, I hate the fEE error! Mainly because it spells FEE! LOL
I’ll be sure to file a brief Paul. 🙂 That’s funny – I guess I never saw it – right there in front of my own eyes – fEE.
Like you, I haven’t been to a seminar in ages, Mark. The last one was not a pleasant experience so I have not been to one since. I am sure yours will be more enjoyable.
That is unfortunate about the camera spill. If Nikon is as good as Canon, and why would they not, the D800 should come back just fine.
Very nice reflection image.
Thanks Steve. I am hoping this one will be good. It’s pricier than most for a 1 day deal, so there had better be a good lunch! 🙂
Mark, that sounds like a good use of your time, even if it means going back to school. 🙂 You are just about guaranteed to learn a worthwhile thing or two from those guys.
Sorry to hear about the camera. That’s one of those things we all hope will never happen but eventually experience. Despite being well built, they are very much precision machines, and it doesn’t take much to get them out of kilter. Hopefully you’ll have the same good luck with Nikon’s service that I had with Canon’s.
Well I am just glad it didn’t happen during or just before a major trip. A funny part is that besides just fixing the camera, I may be looking more forward to them cleaning the sensor of those spots I can never seem to get rid of. Thanks for the comments Tom.