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Abandon Ship
Posted By: Darius4522, 10-02-2008, 03:00 AM

Hardly a brilliant photograph, but taken under extreme conditions after we had been forced to abandon ship while cruising the Upper Irrawaddy in Burma. A freak 90mph wind slammed into the vessel causing it to list at an angle of about 40 degrees. The rain was torrential and driven by the high wind. We escaped to a mud island where we huddled together under the driving rain for an hour or so as I cursed myself for not having my camera with me.

I later managed to scoot on board, rummage through my belongings (by this time everything was scattered on the cabin floor, which was also covered in water and broken glass) and found the Pentax, which was saturated.

I boosted the ISO up to 1600, shot manually hand-held at 1/45th assisted by a powerful search light from the ship. This was one of the resulting photos. The EXIF shows the flash was used, but most times it never worked.

Burma is so secretive that no-one apart from the passengers and crew, knew this had happened. In any other country (such as on the River Murray in Australia, or the Mississippi River in the US) this photo, despite its poor quality, would have made the newspapers.

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Last edited by Darius4522; 10-02-2008 at 03:07 AM. Reason: removing breaks
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10-02-2008, 04:25 AM   #2
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Holy crap!

By the sounds of it, I'm surprised the camera worked at all. Glad you got off safe.
10-02-2008, 06:22 AM   #3
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Pentax... Take a dunkin' and keeps on clickin'

(I know, it's not a perfect rhyme but it works)
10-02-2008, 06:28 AM   #4
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Pentax built to withstand a Storm

Glad your OK


cheers

10-02-2008, 06:42 AM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by MRRiley Quote
Pentax... Take a dunkin' and keeps on clickin'

(I know, it's not a perfect rhyme but it works)
Even after a dip, the mirror still flips?
10-02-2008, 07:04 AM   #6
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It is brilliant for me.
10-02-2008, 07:36 AM   #7
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Hehe! True photographer there Where other people just try to make it alive you start photographing...With Pentax you can!

10-02-2008, 08:23 AM   #8
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You should definetly send that story and pics to Pentax!

Would make great marketing! (and maybe a new camera for ya)

Pat
10-02-2008, 08:53 AM   #9
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QuoteOriginally posted by Maffer Quote
Hehe! True photographer there Where other people just try to make it alive you start photographing...With Pentax you can!
Well said! You ever think about a career in photojournalism!?!??!!?

Glad you all made it out OK.
10-02-2008, 09:34 AM   #10
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... and the moral of the story is, never go ANYWHERE without your Pentax strapped to your body.....

j/k, lucky everyone made it out safe and cudos for the shot in the extreme conditions.
10-02-2008, 11:25 AM   #11
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Now if only Pentax can start including flotation devices and air bags in to the battery grips.
10-02-2008, 12:48 PM   #12
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See if you had a Nikon D90 you could've filmed!

Only joking; it takes some guts to pull your camera out in the middle of a freak storm after going through what you did. Good show.
10-02-2008, 01:47 PM   #13
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Very REAL LIFE photography!
10-02-2008, 02:40 PM   #14
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QuoteOriginally posted by Damn Brit Quote
Now if only Pentax can start including flotation devices and air bags in to the battery grips.
If I put my plastic cosina 28mm on the K20D it might very well float, but lens up and body down ...not so good...and it wouldn't keep me floating. Would be interesting if they applied the same level of sealing on a DSLR as they do on the Optio W.... cameras, water proof to a few m. That would be something.

Once fell into a river with most of the lenses etc in water proof bags in the backpack, but the LX I was carrying got quite wet...not as wet as me since I tried to keep it out of the water even at the price of getting myself even more wet...but enough to make me very worried, but once I got myself into spare clothes and tested the camera it worked and still works. I wonder how good the current DSLR sealing is compared to the LX? Not that I'm going to test jumping into a melt water river again.
10-02-2008, 05:10 PM   #15
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Original Poster
The dining room after the storm abated

Thanks everyone. :-)
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