What I Sacrifice For Art!

Painting: © Niko         Photo: © Stan Banos

So I'm walking back home after a mostly* fruitless photowalk this Sunday. And I'm two blocks from home walking through a small park that was recently renovated. Now, I've seen good renovations, and bad- this was the latter. Previously, South Park (near downtown San Francisco) was like the little park that time forgot. Generally unmanicured and as 'wild' a park as one city block long by one half block wide could possibly get. But neither was it abandoned nor garbage strewn. I loved it... 

The renovation featured a nice upgrade of a small playground, but then they created a wide curving sidewalk right through the middle that covers half the damn park- there's enough concrete and sidewalks outside the park!

Anyway, I'm still looking around as one is apt to do on a photowalk and my foot lands right between the edge of the sidewalk and the lower grass area. Down I go- this wasn't a slo-mo, uh-oh I'm losing my balance fall. This was a BOOM! shot by a shotgun immediate deadfall... I couldn't believe how hard and fast I went down- no ice, no banana peel (yeah, I've done both)! And a split, split second after I hit the ground HARD, I hear my camera hit- HARD! My mighty weekend warrior, my one and only L-E-I-C-A! 

Hell, I'm probably headed to the ER, and even worse, my dream camera is dead after a year and a half. Anyway, I usually spring right up when something like this happens- but I thought discretion the better part of valor in this instance, and I decided to stay down for the count to assess my remains, and I sure as shit didn't wanna look at my strewn about camera innards... Finally, no sharp pains and I slowly rise as my body supports its own weight- looks like I escaped major damage! Now, I turn to the camera and the part that didn't hit is fine, of course- and the side that did take the brunt of the impact, also seems... OK?

The pants may be fugly- but they saved the day!

The bottom of the camera had its pants on (ie- its leather half case) and the bottom of said case is rimmed with thick aluminum that had absorbed the majority of the impact. The case bottom was markedly scratched, but the camera itself was unscathed and seemed in good working order! The Leica lens hood, which can double as armor on a Tiger tank, while scratched on the bottom, was unbent and unbowed! This was the second time one of my cameras has miraculously survived a fall to concrete- the first time was completely my fault when I haphazardly placed my Fujifilm in my bag without securing it, and slide on out it did. And once again, the lens hood and thumb grip saved the day, although both of those were good and deformed. 

*I did manage to get a snapshot of what I'm calling the best art show of the year- the portrait above by an anonymous painter (named Niko) on the side of a vacant restaurant put a much needed smile on my face! And hell, I did get a good shot just the previous Friday coming home from work with my GR.  All in all, a bit sore for damn sure, but (fortunately) not the worst weekend.