The exploding camera trick

I've just learned a very important lesson, never leave a camera unattended and unweighted in high winds on top of a mountain.

A bunch of us hiked up a local mountain called the Sugar Loaf yesterday, we got to the top and the views were fantastic. After stopping for a nice brew. we headed off to the other side of the peak where it was very windy. This side of the peak held an amazing array of huge rocks (conducive to photography I thought), so I stopped, set-up the tripod, put the camera on it, composed a shot and focused the lens.

I managed to get the scene metered with my spot meter, but just as I was getting the cable release out of my camera bag I heard an almighty crash; the camera had attempted suicide it seems, the back of which had conveniently found a rock to smash against. This had caused the whole of the film back to explode open, exposing the film within. I quickly rushed to put everything back together while checking that everything was in order. It was.

As if to tempt fate twice I decided that I really wanted 'that' shot so invited one of my friends to hold the tripod this time, it went well and the film was exposed without any more explosions. Luckily for me it seems that the old RB is built like a tank; I think the rock that it landed on took more damage than the camera!

After developing the film I got five and a half frames out of it, none of the scene where the accident happened.