subtitled: When Emmy thought she broke her camera.

We went to the farmer’s market yesterday to get a few things.  I had snagged my camera because there are almost always great opportunities for photos.  I took a few shots – was happy with my settings selection as it was cloudy and under trees which makes getting the right colors somewhat tricky at times.  Not today which was good.

After I took the 5th shot, I shut off the camera as we bought a few things.  No big deal, really. Pretty standard practice with me.  We stumbled upon a performer that I was going to be a great subject for some shots.  On goes the camera, and I snap a few shots.  Then I noticed that I wasn’t seeing photos on my screen after I took them.  Hmm….I check the lens cap is off – it’s off. I double check my settings.  I make sure nothing is on a sensor or something.  Now I’m starting to panic.  What the fuck is wrong?!?

I reset my custom shooting settings – back to factory. I double check I didn’t bump something that I shouldn’t have (knowing that is difficult given how the camera works, but I’m grasping at straws now).  Nothing.

I am pointing the camera to the sky – which given my settings should have yielded an overly bright photo – it looked like it was dusk instead.  “Fuck, I did break it!” was my comment to G.  I start noticing my f-stop is no longer adjustable. I notice I’m not getting as much light as I should into my camera settings.  Nothing is working, so I shut off the camera and hope it can be fixed.

Twenty minutes later, I decide to try something. I take off my lens and put it back on.  And the camera started working again. I don’t know if I bumped it – if something got in the lens which was cleared after I did that.  Who knows. It is something I will have to keep an eye on.  The feeling of panic that I had was not one I want to repeat.

All I can say is that thank goodness I have the skill of troubleshooting.  If I hadn’t, I would still think I had broken it instead of trying to diagnose the source.  And that would have really ruined my weekend.