Shutter Failure and a Lightroom Fix

Shutter Failure

Every 150k shutter actuations or so I expect the shutter to crap out on the Canon T3i. I didn't keep track this time, but it usually happens within a 5k actuation range.

Yes, here's what shutter failure looks like... some of the connecting springs end up binding/breaking at some point and the shutter doesn't snap fully back after being deployed. The repair for this is usually around $250 for this type of camera which isn't worth it. More importantly, I have a timelapse to produce and got very lucky in that only a handful of around 900 affected images displayed the shutter in the frame. There's no point repairing images like this (at least not for a timelapse), unless you want to go mad.

Perhaps you've noticed the strangely warped image and wondered what is going on with that? When shooting upward on verticals (buildings), a certain distortion appears (unless you've corrected it with a tilt-shift lens) and I've tried to reduce this effect on the entire image which will later be cropped.

Using LR's adjustment brush, I was able to even out the sky that had a strangely shaped 'shadow' cast upon it. At first, I didn't have a clue that the camera shutter was going out - I thought perhaps it was a strange reflection from the sun being nearly overhead this time of year. I likely could've spent more time trying to get the masking done to a higher degree of 'doneness', but this shutter phantom isn't identical across all the frames and I'm not going thru 900 frames to tweak it as I have another 15k to deal with... plus, this section of the time lapse may be cut out anyway when I get down to editing for low activity spans.

This camera (at a different location) has been in place since April of 2014. I haven't tallied the number of images captured here yet (>200k) (I'm way behind on delivery). The pigeons had taken up residence lately... somewhat better than wasp nests at 19 floors up (they've caused me to lose my composure more than once while standing on the edge). Before his passing, my grandfather advised me to keep moth balls in the housing to keep the wasps/yellow jackets at bay... worked quite well.

Recently, I took this camera off of the building and ended up getting a very nasty flu and the effects of which seemed to be spreading into my left eye. I did some low effort google search and figured that I must've gotten: Ocular Histoplasmosis - fairly sure I don't have this currently, but be very wary when working with large amounts of pigeon poo (airborne spores mixed in with 600lbs of pea gravel).

#photography #life #story #blog #timelapse