The Rocky Horror Picture Show!

A "breaking" news story.

I don’t have an estimate from Fujifilm on repairs, I don’t even know if it can be repaired yet.

In the interest of accuracy in reporting, this is indeed BREAKING NEWS!!

In my last Substack I wrote about the dilemma of taking pano gear with me to Patagonia and how that relates to printmaking. Turns out I needn't have worried about it at all because... here come the BREAKING NEWS... a gust of wind estimated at 75+ mph toppled my tripod with camera mounted.

A digression; if ever there was a sickening sound, it is that of a Fujifilm GFX 100, with attached 100-200 Fujinon lens and a tilt EVF crashing onto a stretch of stones. For those of you who have avoided this initiation, I would describe it as a mix between a car crash and a softball breaking through your living room window.

In any event, as you can see from the image at the top, the rocks won.

The last image made strait off the card in the broken camera.

So, what to do? Fortunately I had a GFX 50S as a backup and it took up the slack for the rest of the trip. However, the wind persisted, making panos in some cases difficult and in other impossible. Our guide, who has lived in Patagonia for 30 years, said he had never witnessed such sustained, high velocity winds.

On one beach area it was impossible to stand up without getting blown over. I had to take all images either on my knees or lying down. For a sunrise shoot, we all had to sit on our rumps, tripod splayed open over our laps, and hands holding down the tripod while the camera ticked down a 2-second delay.

What to do in these conditions? I did a lot of extraction shots, intimate photos of scenes within the scene that I hope will be fodder for some fine art prints. All in all, the trip was actually wonderful, except for the damage to my pocketbook. My camera setup is now on its way to Fujifilm repair. I'll keep you posted.