Error Prone Scotland Trip
Now that I've been home from Scotland for two weeks, I have had plenty of time to reflect on the trip. In short, I had a ton of fun. The first week of the trip I spent with friends in St. Andrews. They had to work most every day I was there, which was fine because I was recovering from jet lag, so I spent a lot of time sleeping in, taking afternoon naps with the dog, and wandering around town sipping on pints and snapping photos. The tripod didn't even make it out of the house.
The second week of the trip was my photography workshop with Dean Allan Photography on the Isle of Lewis and Harris. I've been on a few photography workshops, and this was the best I'd been on. Dean wasn't vlogging the entire time and wasn't concentrated on getting his photos, he was there for the participants. With each location, he dispensed composition tips for multiple shots for each location, and then every few minutes he'd make his rounds to see how everyone was doing, and to offer tips and help in any way he could. Fantastic workshop leader!
As for the title of this blog post, I made a comical amount of errors on the trip. I hate to admit to a lot of it, but I need to make sure it never happens again. Before I even got on the plane, I forgot to pack waterproof and windproof pants and spikes for my tripod. I picked up a pair of pants for $25 from local outdoors outfitter, and figured I'd be okay without the spikes. Buying the pants was a wise choice, not having spikes turned out to be terrible. The weather in St. Andrews was pleasant and mild, a bit of rain here and there, but the weather on Lewis and Harris was a different story -- rainy and wet, with high winds. It was downright inhospitable. A lens took a spill on the sand, pockmarking the optics, crushing my filters in the process too. I’d never seen such a mess.
The next day, to pour more salt on my wounds, I dropped my wireless shutter controller. While out photographing some bothies, when I attempted to put it in my pocket, it slipped down my pant leg into the heather. Never to be seen again.
To save the day, Dean loaned me a polarizer, and a 3-stop filter for the remainder of the trip. In the end, two new filters cost me $150, a new wireless shutter controller was $45, and there is no telling how much the lens repair will cost, if I decide to fix it. The lens will just be mine forever, if I decide to fix it. I took several photos with the lens and there is no loss of optical quality, but, any sort of damage to the front element, no matter how cheap the lens, generally scares potential buyers.
There will be more photos posted over the following weeks and months, here are a few to get things started!
