Since I've been out on the road so much, and other publishing project priorities have eaten up all my time, my blogging went south. So sorry, but with only 24 hours in a day, what's a busy guy to do....

    Anyway, this short missive is my way of giving some credit where credit is due. I refer to much of my photography that gets published in Old Cars Weekly as guerrilla photojournalism.  I've used the same "old school" Nikon manual camera for every image I've snapped over the past almost 18 years, and that fine piece of equipment has not failed me even once. I've used it in snowstorms, rainstorms, frigid temperatures, scorching heat and dust storms, and all the film ever loaded into that Nikon over almost two decades has produced great images, both black-and-white and color. (And, I don't mean to brag about my images being great; I give all the credit to the camera).

    On my most recent road trip, I was doing a photo shoot in an Iowa salvage yard when my worst nightmare occurred. On only the fourth day of nine days of event coverage, I dropped the Nikon while trying to leap off one car onto another. I needed elevation to photograph a car in this particular yard, and not wanting to dent a good panel, I found a car that had a somewhat wadded up trunk lid. All seemed fine as I climbed aboard and took my shots, but unbeknownst to me, one set of hinge bolts connecting the lid to the car had been removed. When I went to "shove off" with my foot to make the leap, the lid slid and I went into a skid. More to the point, I crashed and burned against the car I was attempting to leap onto. Luckily, prior to making the leap, I was holding my camera by its strap, intending to allow it to swing freely once I landed on the other car.

    When it became apparent that I wasn't going to land on my feet after attempting the leap, I let go of the camera strap so I could use my hands to brace for the blow against the other car. The Nikon went skipping across the hard ground (it was 95 degrees that day, and the yard's surface was hard packed dirt and weeds). I spent the remainder of the road trip worried that all the film shot after that point would not turn out, due to some internal damage the Nikon might have suffered in the collision with the ground.

    Not to fear, as all the film shot on the trip turned out fine, as usual. I'm hoping to get another decade or two out of that trusted Nikon, but if not, it's performed admirably and deserves a shout out for going above and beyond the call of duty.