Stabbed! In the eye. By my camera strap.
It doesn’t look like a dangerous weapon, but as I raised my D300 to my eye yesterday to photograph some morris dancers, I felt a sharp pain in my right eye and the image in the viewfinder suddenly went very, very blurred.
My immediate response surprises me in retrospect. I switched the camera to my left eye and went on taking pictures for several minutes. It wasn’t even as if I were photographing anything very urgent or important, but I kept at it rather than worry about my sight.
I did realise I had poked the strap into my eye, but hadn’t realised how much damage it had caused, though fortunately I don’t think anything particularly serious. The strap was a normal nylon webbing one, but there were a few loose inches coming out at the end of the fastening, and it had been cut off by the manufacturer at an angle of about 60 degrees, leaving a sharp corner.
Lately I’ve been trying to take pictures wearing bifocal glasses. Although my cameras have dioptre correction that I can use to see through the viewfinder, my poor close vision means that I was constantly having to put on reading glasses to read the dials and external screen displays on the camera. Both the D300 and D700 viewfinders are more or less OK with glasses and the bifocals allow me to see the settings as well. I’m getting used to working with them, and I was doing so when this incident happened, the glasses probably serving as a guide to deflect the end of the strap into my eye.
After a minute or two working, I took the glasses off and was considerably relieved to find my vision returned to its normal clarity (or near clarity), but slightly disturbed by the mixture of fluid including blood on the rear of the right lens. Peering in my dim reflection in a shop window I decided that the damage seemed to be limited to the corner of my eye, and decided there was no need for urgent medical attention.
The next day I bolted the stable door, cutting off the sharp corners from the straps and taping down the flapping ends.
Rochester, apart from that wasn’t bad so far as I was concerned, though the photographer I went with lost a credit card and didn’t have a good day at all.
I don’t know if I’ll go there again, though I’m told the earlier couple of days can be more interesting, with a lot more happening around the town. Rochester itself is an interesting place and I’d perhaps enjoy it more without the festival.
More pictures at Rochester Sweeps Festival.