Monday, May 18, 2009

Lost and Found

Greetings.

I was not ready to give up on the camera. I knew I had a chance to find it. I had a reasonable idea of where to find it and some idea of how to get out of the water. Yesterday evening I ran out of energy and motivation. Today I went back, I got to the lake near 10am and the water was calm and clear I had a chance.



I made a few passes over the area, I was trying to use the hull to block the worst of the waves and improve the view. My break through came when I spotted an area that looked like it had been trampled. There were other areas where the much had been broken up perhaps by ducks and loons but here it was foot print sized holes.



It was hard to keep Wessel moving slowly over the area. Wessel wants to move fast. Circling that area did not show me any thing, if the camera was down there it was covered in muck. So I went for a chance of tactic. I started with probing the muck with the paddle in the hope of feeling the camera. That did not work. I might have felt some thing hard but could not tell. I took gamble, I swished the paddle side to side like a big fan. I stirred up the muck. This caused me to drift sideways, over the foot print trampled muck. As the water cleared I paddled back to the start of my sweeping path. There it was pocking out from the drifting above the muck, a black camera strap.

I reached out and managed to get a weak hold of the strap, I dropped after I brought it up the surface. The second trip was a miss but the third try, I got the paddle clean through the strap and it was a peace of cake afterwards. No sign of my glasses, they are much smaller and lack a floating element short of snorkeling over that area extensively they are gone.



Now the camera is drying out. I don't know if I can get it working again. I also doubt that even if I can get it working will it have the same quality. I always loved that camera for its clear images, all that muck in its guts could cause damage beyond repair. Money being what it is I can not move to replace that item. I am going to get what I can out of my old little Nikon, and when things clear up and money flows in again I will take my time and look into getting a DSLR.



I will treat you folks to the photos dredged up from the depths, (<5 feet).

Note, all photos today are from the SD card recovered from my camera. They represent possibly the last good photos it will take. For I fear that any photos taken after will not be as clear due to muck and possible scratches.

1 comment:

chani said...

well, i am glad that you didnt die!! that would have sucked. and i am glad that you at least got your camera back...too bad about the glasses!!