May 7th, 2008 : Shattered like a Young Man’s Dreams
Since mid March I have been using a convex lens to take macro photos. I haven’t used it much, but I have been able to do some neat things with it. Basically this was just a piece of glass with a few scratches on it which was about the same size as my camera lens. Up until today I had been securely fastening it to the front of my lens with a rubber band which ran around the perimeter.
I decided to take my lens outside today and get some nice flower or insect shots. It was windy, but I did get a couple of neat photos.
Then, to my horror, the lens came loose. The rubber band was not holding it well and simply brushing my hand on the rubber band caused it all to come crashing down. I watched helplessly as the lens fell three and a half feet onto a metal grate. My head was yelling a dozen thing, but no sound escaped my dropped jaw.
I stopped and stared. Then I picked it up. I stopped again. I put it back down and snapped a picture. Then I picked it up and looked it over. I took another photo.
Today was the first day I had actually taken this outside and up to this point I had actually had several visions of this falling and shattering. Each time thinking to myself that I just might be able to somehow break it’s fall with my foot or perhaps it would fall into something soft. In my mind though, I could imagine the lens shattering into a million pieces. And now it had happened. For the most part.
Even more glum then when I started out and already envisioning this blog post in my mind, I continued on my trek. A minute later I stopped again and decided to try taking a photo through the broken glass. Turns out, it still works for the most part, it just requires that it’s held in place by something other than a rubber band… such as, say, a hand.
I don’t know what exactly I’m going to do, I’ll probably go out and buy a new magnifying glass at some point, but for now I think I can live without.