I was taking photos of a graveyard when a photography colleague yelled: “The spirits will punish you!” I spun around. “Huh?” And the lens that came with my Mark III kit, the EF24-105 mm popped out of the body. I mustn’t have twisted it in all the way. Time seemed to slow. The lens did a graceful arc to the ground and I thought: “This isn’t going to end well.” I tried to catch it on my foot, football style, but that only flipped it from one end to the other. It landed on the gravel and you can see the result below. Fortunately, I had put a floater on my home insurance policy, so when I got home, I called about making a claim. The rep took all my information and told me I’d get a call from an adjuster. The next morning, I got my call and he told me to send him a link to sites that quoted the replacement cost. I found three quotes, he took the cheapest, and cut me a cheque on the spot. Taking account for the deductible, I recovered about two-thirds of the cost to replace the lens. The lesson is obvious. Insure your gear. It’s cheap. It’s no-fault. It’s a painless way to minimize photographic grief.
