Adventure Time

Barnegat Light

We’re nearly half way through 2024.

Not gonna lie: I’ve had little time for photography.

And bluntly, little motivation.

A lot of that is me trying to keep up with work, seeing what is going on in the US and around the world, and so on.

The usual stresses we all deal with each day.

It does seem like a lot more to cope with over the last several months as we approach an election in which the US will choose democracy or fascism.

And in which the fascist side will do all they can to take power even if we do collectively reject them.

Some getting older stuff making its way into my life, too. I’ve started wearing contacts, for instance.

Glasses when my very narrow eye sockets aren’t cooperating.

Case in point: the contact for my left eye popped out this morning after rubbing said eye.

So I’m a contact pirate today, since I don’t want to have an uneven number of left and right contacts to work with going forward.

I’m still not a pro at putting the contacts in. I probably still spend 10 to 15 minutes each morning on average.

Little time wasters like this leave me wanting to spend hours each day doing nothing to balance it all out.

By the time the weekend gets here, I’d rather rejuvenate and recover than go on a strenuous hike with lots of camera gear on back.

I did make myself do all that on Friday, since I took the day off from my day job.

I’m moving to New England in about 6 weeks. I’m definitely excited.

Also feeling a little nostalgic.

With that in mind, I drove down to Long Beach Island and spent the day between there and nearby Barnegat Light.

I last visited the area in May of 2018. I came away with a nice black and white composition of Barnegat Light on that occasion.

Of course I took photos with my phone while I was puttering around LBI. But I opted not to lug my camera pack around with me during that part of the day.

I reasoned, correctly, that I’d needlessly sweat for several hours and not see anything that moved me enough to want to stop, rummage through my bag, set my tripod up, and compose something.

So I just leisurely strolled on the beach and around town while occasionally stopping to take a quick photo on my phone or message friends.

I got to pet two beautiful dogs their human was walking. I stopped for salt water taffy and a sub for a picnic lunch before heading out.

I was more business like when I got to the light house around 1 PM or so and scouted the park for likely compositions.

This was not quite so straightforward given the time of day I arrived and the number of people who were there.

I grew impatient more than once waiting for slow movers to wander out of frame at the first place I set up.

I was able to get it down to just one person in frame but couldn’t do better.

I might try using AI to see if I can get rid of that lone figure.

I also think Photoshop might have a lot of difficulty with that, as the person is leaning against guard rail.

So I moved farther away to see if that would present me with a view that eliminated any tourists.

:: In my best Lumpy Space Princess voice:: And then the drama started.

I’ve been at this for about 15 years now and do most things by rote. Including checking that I have secured my camera to my tripod before turning away from it.

I did check it on this occasion.

So I thought my camera was secure.

It wasn’t.

Maybe a second after I went to put things back in my pack, I heard the sound of my camera smacking into rock.

It fell lens first, as you might expect.

The “bad” news: my nifty 50mm was destroyed in the fall.

That isn’t upsetting at all. My first thought was that I got more than my $50 dollars worth out of it, as I had bought it used 10 years prior.

The okay news: my far more expensive camera works and did not take any serious damage.

However, the battery door no longer stays shut on its own.

This particular mechanical problem is common enough that I was able to buy two replacement battery doors on Amazon when I got home for like $10 each.

I was surprisingly calm in the moment.

In saying that, I’m imagining that younger me would have been extremely upset before checking things over and still extremely upset after assessing the damage.

Younger me, though, doesn’t have the life experiences I’ve accumulated over the last 20-30 years.

I’m not going to pretend I would be happy about having to replace a camera I paid $3200 for if the damage had been more extensive than a flimsy piece of plastic that springs to latch the battery door.

But I’ve been through far, far worse.

I ended up taking photos handheld for about another 15 to 20 minutes. I was able to hold the battery door closed with the palm of my right hand and still steady the camera well enough to get sharp photos.

I also had to switch to my 85mm lens.

I considered using my 24mm, too, but that would have made the lighthouse much less prominent. And I would have ended up with people in frame.

I’ve also taken to using my camera phone as a back up in case for whatever reason photos on my dedicated rig don’t turn out.

I came away with several decent compositions that way. Though with people in frame…

I’m not going to get into what I like and don’t like about this photo. Overall, I’m pleased with what I was able to get after a rookie mishap.