Ever have one of those days?

I had to cover a state championship girls semifinal high school basketball game tonight at a state university campus in the next county. I was excited to shoot this one because the gym, while being dark, has a nice railing to clamp my lights onto around the balcony. So I got there and talked my way into the parking lot close to the gym. After that, I set up my lights and started shooting. A couple of minutes into the first quarter, I set my other camera body on the bleacher next to me. Two seconds later, the camera hit the floor with my 35-70 2.8 and flash attached. Either the thumping from the band in the bleachers or the kid leading the band accidentally hit the camera and it hit the floor. I saw it on the floor and it looked fine at first. Then I picked it up and saw the lens was busted in half. Great.

The flash was not working either because the battery door was loose. It seems to work fine now. The camera also seems OK. But the lens doesn't.

OK, so I broke some gear. I still had to shoot the game. One school was from our coverage area, so they were the main subject. Unfortunately, the team was getting their butts kicked. It was something like 20-1 in the first 5 minutes, so the action on my side was non-existent. It went that way pretty much the entire game, although they started getting close towards the end. The final score was 55-41. I got a few shots for the paper, but nothing great.

I loaded my gear and started walking to the car, only to find a parking ticket. I figured that since I was allowed into the closed parking lot by the campus cops, it was a media/VIP lot and I did not need to feed the meters. I was wrong, not that I had a pocket full of quarters anyway.

Oh joy, I get to go back there tomorrow for another game. I will have quarters this time.

Let's here your stories in the comment section.