[Hacker]

It's my youngest son's birthday tomorrow so as part of his 'treat' we took him to Thorpe Park today. One of the rides was water slide with a big splash at the end of it which I thought might make for some pictures. I watched a few come down and picked a spot about 15 yards from the Splash Zone where you are almost guaranteed to get wet and I also made sure I was behind a building on legs which the boat thing goes underneath once it has slowed down. The area was completely dry and not a drop of water had landed there in the few minutes I'd been watching.

The next boat was fully loaded but I didn't think much of it.

Here it comes making it's big splash...







At this point I started thinking "This is creating a much bigger splash than the rest....."


"OH ****!"



Before I could move this tsunami broke over me, not just from the front as you can see but it also came over the top of the building and I was caught right in the middle of this deluge. Not only was I drenched right through but the camera caught a lot of it. The D200 body is fine (at the moment) but my 18-70mm lens has gone tits up, I can see four or five large water drops inside the lens and there is now a load of condensation as well. A couple of drops have dried up but left marks which obviously I cannot get to.

With the admission price, food, drinks and now the lens it's been a bloody expensive day out. And I've got a wedding next week.

[Angela]

Oh dear, Hacker, I'm so sorry about the lens, that must be a real bummer but.......I really couldn't help but chuckle at the drenching!

[fionaB]

omg............. not knowing anything about lenses i cant offer any suggestions......... but its an expensive lesson to learn i guess!

Fi

[P-E]

Oh dear..........sorry to hear about the lens

[Soupdragon]

I think it was worth it!

[Sonsey]

Nightmare Colin!

[namllihs]

I like the way you kept snapping up to the end, top man.

[JMitchell]

Makes a great series though, sell it to Thope Park! You might get your money back! Shame about the lens, I have the same one, quite nifty, but I am not surprised water ended up inside it, the build quality isn't wondeful....
Sorry about that mate!

[Markulous]

As Jack says, great series of shots - interesting methodology (which I won't be trying!). Sorry to hear outcome!

[Dave]

Although I hate what happened to your lens, I would have loved to seen the personal soaking

[Hacker]

Originally Posted by Dave

Although I hate what happened to your lens, I would have loved to seen the personal soaking

I must admit that as I was standing there with water dripping from me all I could hear were great guffaws of laughter from all around.

[Rob Barron]

Hacker, you must have been well hacked off! (sorry!) Have you given your nearest service centre a ring to see if the lens is serviceable at a realistic price? Cheaper lenses usually aren't worth the cost but better ones definitely can be.

I did get caught like that once at Disney World in Florida. I counted the splashes carefully and noticed that every 4th one was a big one (not like the every 7th wave that the sea sticks to!) so I got ready to run. Can I run fast enough? Well, yup.... of course, what kind of an idiot do you think I am?....

Yup, you guessed it.... the kind of idiot that can't count to 4 without messing it up!

The only good thing was I had decided Disney World was not a great place to carry my big camera around in so just had an old thing for snapping with and didn't care that it got ruined! Not quite the same as your case but, sorry matey, I tried hard not to laugh, honestly.... but I failed! <g>

Sell the shots and use the money to buy a new lens.

Cheers,
Rob

[skipper954]

Hack

It is clear that you have the heart of a photographer.

Keep shooting until the end.

However, we won't speak of brains

Your photos and narration were great. I could just picture the scene.

skip