Saturday, I took the most expensive hiking trip of my life. This journey to the pinnacle could have cost me more than my entire journey to Peru!
Here, is the last image I will ever have taken. With my faithful 24-70 2.8mm lens and my canon 5d mark iii…

I have loved this combination dearly over the past number of years.
Atop the mountain after about 2.5 hours of hiking, I walked over to take one last picture.  The sun had peaked out, and the blue skies appeared. And I wanted to capture the rock formation with the beautiful sky in the background.

I snapped, prepared to look at the picture and in slow-motion, I watched my camera tumble down 30 feet to a rock and heard the inevitable smash. My friends off to the side feared the worst, but to everybody’s relief, my health is perfectly fine, the camera however is fatally injured.

As I <safely> scrambled down the rocks to see just how much damage was done, my iPhone slipped out of my hand <I wanted to take a picture of how far the camera fell> and down another 100 feet into a dark and damp cave (thanks dad for the lifeproof case)  quite shaken, I discovered the situation: it looks trashed.  The lens seems irreparable with deep gashes in the glass, and I’m not sure what’s going on with the body. But this was the state of things. After I gathered all the pieces.

Next we needed to find my phone… It fell through the recesses of caverns I had explored 20 minutes before.  Dark and damp, I saw where I thought it fell and asked god “what are you trying to teach me?” Well, my friend Adam found the phone by the light of his phone, stroke of a miracle and Gods grace, and it was unscratched and safe. (Minus one little piece of the case)

Rejoice in the lord always.  There are so many things to be thankful for in the midst of this.  I even was able to replace the camera and lens.  I didn’t get as “good” of a lens (24-105 f4 IS) , but i’m really happy with it.  in fact, I’m thankful that I was able to afford to have a new lens and camera at all.  My local camera shop, cardinal allowed me to use the warranty without going through the whole repair process, so the day i left for a new time and season in ukraine, i also had a new camera.

what trial have you gone through lately only to realize you came out stronger?