Okay, I'll keep this short cuz it's the witching hour and slumber beckons. Driving home tonight, I found the light near the end of my journey absolutely stunning. Plenty of cloud around, but a rift had opened allowing the sunshine through as it slowly settled towards the horizon (hey, could be the opening lines of a great book here). I was awed.
In the last few minutes of its life, the sun was still blazing away through the rift, surrounded by a haze of yellow and orange. In the other direction the trees across the fields were on fire. The hues on the trunks and premature buds were magical. I dashed inside and gathered up the tripod. Quickly I opened up the rucksack and retrieved the 14mm and stashed it into a jacket pocket. I pulled out the 70-200 and mounted it onto the DSLR, caps and hoods shooting across the room. I sprinted outside and, wary that I had only a few minutes left, headed out and across the lane to my neighbour's. A long gravel drive there would give me the ideal vantage point. I reached it just as the absolute climax of the sun's rays were scorching the foliage at near horizontal incidence. Fumbling with giddiness, the lens mount was slammed home, the camera hanging on for dear life. I swung into the sun, lowered my eye to the viewfinder and steadied for a shot. But wait - what's this? No viewfinder information? D'oh. It's digital, dummy. You gotta switch it on! Too many years wielding MXs. Wayward digits groped for the button as the birds were screaming at me, 'Hurry up - it's now or never!' Click. On. At last.... I lowered my eye to the viewfinder and steadied for a shot (this Groundhog Day?) and still no viewfinder info. Wha.....? Of course, many cameras will not work without batteries. Many will, but many will not. None more so than digital ones. My two were happily sat on my desk in the charger, keeping warm. Dawning realisation, I look up as the sun is now heading straight into a cloud the size of New York. The birds are all falling about laughing. I couldn't have written a better script. The last shot would have been a wide one of me standing there in the gravel drive, camera on tripod, looking up going: 'D'oh!', and one of those huge pyramid-shaped weights with '2 tons' written on the side falling on me from a height. Cotty _____________________________ Oh swipe me! He paints with light! http://www.macads.co.uk/snaps _____________________________ Free UK Mac Classified Ads at http://www.macads.co.uk/ _____________________________
