Oh, the Carnage!

So my mom was in town visiting a couple weeks ago and she wanted to go to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens. I didn't plan on taking a lot of photos while I was there. Don’t get me wrong…it’s beautiful, and a photographer’s dream, but I’ve been there a handful of times shooting. And really, how many photos do you need of flowers? But I thought I would take a few shots to remember the occasion.

I didn’t want to bring my camera bag to the gardens, so I put all of my gear into a LeSportsac. Whenever I put my gear in that bag, I ALWAYS separate my lenses into separate zippered compartments. Well, I did the usual, and separated the lenses. But then I realized that I wanted to sneak a bottle of water into the gardens. (Don’t hate…it was crazy hot!) So I put the water in my bag as well…right next to my 50mm lens. I started worrying that the combination of the hot weather and cold water bottle would create a lens-killing amount of condensation. So that’s when I made the dreaded decision; I moved my lens into the compartment with my camera.

So we were walking through the gardens, enjoying the day, when I found a water lily that my mom liked. Just like that I grabbed my camera out of my bag. That’s when it happened. (You will have to imagine this all happening at once in slow motion.) As I whipped my camera out of my bag, the camera strap caught on my extra lens and projected the little guy across the garden, smashing on the brick walkway. Meanwhile, I realized what was happening and reached and ran to catch the falling lens, all while yelling, “NOOOOOOO!!!!” in slow motion. But my short little legs didn’t get me there in time and lens carnage is all that remains. SAD TIMES!

Yes, I know that the dead lens is a cheap lens and "gasp!" plastic. It’s nothing that special, but I loved it! It was so wide open and took the most beautiful low light photographs. (It took the photos of little baby Brooklyn in my previous post.) If I had to choose one piece of photo gear to break, it would probably be that lens, but STILL! It’s so sad! He’ll be replaced by a newer, shinier, better version, but I’ll miss my little guy. RIP. Sniff.

Poor little thing.


And the water lily that caused it all...