March 4th: At Jane & Griffin's Wedding Eve party, snapping away. All of a sudden, my pride and joy Nikon D80 just STOPS. No dead battery, no full memory card, no lens that has slipped out of it's ring - nothing. Just d-e-a-d. Below is the last photo taken on that camera. I think it pretty much sums up who is responsible for this problem. These guys:
Yes, I think you 4 broke my camera. But I digress...
Luckily, I still have my first DSLR, a D70. Ann Parke had been borrowing it, but I savagely reclaimed it early Saturday morning so that I would have something to use at the wedding that night. Good thing, because we had a large time...and it needed to be documented!
April 15th: After much research and being in no HUGE hurry with the D80 since I had a safety net, I finally shipped the D80 off to Nikon in New York for repair. That afternoon I took off to Pinehurst for Bill & Lauren's wedding.
That night we had dinner before their Wedding Eve party (I love the South) and before leaving dinner, a whole big gaggle (yes) of us went to the ladies' room before leaving. I very carefully put my camera on the shelf above the toilet and then watched in slow motion horror as it slid off and right into the toilet. I snatched it out like a mother pulling her child out from in front of a bus, but everyone in there heard it happen. The room went from lots of chitter chatter to silence to sweet Meg gently asking me if she just had just heard what she thought she had just heard... Mind you, this was less than 12 hours after I sent the other one to Nikon. For the love...
I completely took it apart right there on the bathroom counter, handed different pieces to the 9 or so people that were in there, all in snazzy cocktail attire, dried it all off, and somehow, it survived and I was able to capture the whole weekend. Whew.
April 20th: Nikon calls from NY about the D80. They can't fix it. No, I'm sorry, they can't even touch it. I'm sorry??? Turns out (please read carefully to not ever make the same mistake), when I got 'such a deal' on eBay 3 years ago when I bought the thing, it was because it was a 'grey market' camera, meaning it wasn't to be sold in the U.S. Nikon USA literally wasn't even allowed to touch it after tracking the maybe-not-quite-so-terribly-legal serial number. FABULOUS. They couldn't even tell me what country it was meant for. Great. My speed-limit driving, census completing, straight and narrow self felt sure the FBI was going to show up with handcuffs on this one.
I had lunch with Mom that day and told her about it all. I was certainly frustrated but at the same time, this was nowhere near the end of the world. I later had a call from Dad that he and Mom were planning to get me a new camera for my birthday this year anyway (30 - how has THAT happened?) so they'd like to go ahead and get it for me. Who am I to deny them? :)
After some research and consultation with the photographer that did Elizabeth's wedding (thank you Brian!) I figured out what would be best for me, what would still jive with all of my 12 years of lens collecting, and about a week later this gorgeous thing showed up:
The new Nikon D7000. This girl has died and gone to heaven. It does everything but fold my laundry, from what I can tell.
Y'all think I was annoying with a camera before? You just wait. Buckle up.
And, for good measure, here's a cute picture of Parrish. Just because. :)
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