The Internet: for More Than Cats

We’ve had a day and a half of pretty steady rain so I thought I would go down to the creek crossing and take some of those “water rushing by” photos like the one below.

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Unfortunately Kasey tangled her leash in low hanging branches and while pulling it out I bumped the tripod. The camera tilted over and fell into a pile of mud while I tried unsuccessfully to grab it before it hit. The accident caked the top and side of the camera with a coat of mud, which I brushed off and continued taking photos.  I really thought nothing more of it until I got back home and tried to take a photo in automatic mode – one that would normally pop up the flash.

The flash did not pop up, and nothing I did would get it to do so. I got out my old toothbrush and some small dental picks (most good technicians keep a couple of those,) and cleaned out the mud coated hot shoe, and the cracks of the built in  pop up flash – but it still wouldn’t work.

After fiddling in the camera menu awhile I discovered that the camera thought that an external flash was attached, which meant that the mud was either depressing something in the shoe or that there was a short in the ETTL contacts. Either way it needed more than just an external cleaning, which is pretty scary since I really can’t afford expensive camera repairs or replacement at present.

So to make sure I disassembled things right I Googled “canon hotshoe repair” and discovered Conrad Erb Photography’s flash repair page here. It was a lifesaver, showing exactly how to disassemble the hot shoe correctly. I was able to get the hot shoe off, cleaned, and reassembled which fixed my flash problem – so hat’s off to Conrad and if you are in Philly and need any type of photography he’s your guy. Trust me someone who loves cameras enough to meticulously detail a repair like this will get your wedding photos done well.

Anyway, here are the rest of my photos – you can see where I was “chimping in” onto the best settings for the light & water speed, and you can also see a series taken through a bridge railing that demonstrates the difference between f 4.0 and f 32.

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