I was having an off week, and this was the proverbial straw:

I was helping some friends out with a shoot, and went to change the cameras position on the tripod. We had taken the strap off earlier so we could mount the camera to a gimbal, and when I fumbled the camera I reached for a strap that wasn’t there. The camera fell, 6 feet, onto a concrete floor. Amazingly, the lens took the entire brunt of the fall, breaking in half and leaving the bottom barrel still wedged in the camera. I carefully unscrewed it to reveal that miraculously, the lens contacts (and indeed the entire camera) were completely undamaged.

I took this pic right after it happened to test my autofocus. I love the look on everyones face; it’s like they’re waiting to see whether I’m going to explode or not.

I finished the shoot, using another lens, got home, and freely confess that I treated myself to a good long cry.  Tito was super supportive, and reasoned that we could break out a little from our wedding savings to replace the lens (see why I’m marrying him?) so on Saturday I treated myself to this:

That is Canons 100mm prime f2.8 L-series lens. It’s gorgeous, fast and sharp. I haven’t really had a chance to test-drive it yet, but I’m shooting in (and blogging from) beautiful downtown Montreal this week so it’s time to take it for a spin!

It’s probably the saddest I’ve ever been while purchasing a lens, but it died while bravely protecting a 5D Mark III from harm, and you can’t ask for a better end. In memory of that lens, here are some of the best pics I ever took with it.