Sony DSLR A900 at Dakar Rally

I have already mentioned that there were exceptions from the everyday dust: humidity, and sometimes we did ask for it. I owe you a short story here. There was one day in the area of San Rafael in Argentina. It was a fertile valley between high and barren mountain ranges, closely neighboring a desert. It was humid and exceptionally hot and at the end of the day it took 30 minutes for a storm and hailstorm to come. On one side it lightning and a double rainbow appeared on the other. I was at the camp at that time, somewhere near a stadium or some airport, but some of the rally drivers were still on the desert. It is difficult to describe what happened there. There were burning cars, sudden rivers appeared on the desert and visibility was zero. It was the stage that took some of the participants 24 hours to pass. Many of them withdrew after that experience. I can only imagine the images that I could take, had I been there... Luckily for me, on that day, the organizer made a grill-barbecue for the people involved in the rally.
 

Fot.: Jacek Bonecki

There was lamb stretched on metal crosses along 30-meter long bonfires. Visually, it was amazing, but a moral struggle.  What does it have to do with the camera?s resistance to external conditions? Well, to take a photo, I finally had time to fiddle with the settings. So I took the camera into the thickest smoke, heat and ash, which again turned the camera?s color into grey. And then it started raining on us and it became dark as if we were witnessing the Armageddon. The camera was covered with a muddy goo, literally sticking to my hands. My hair turned into dreadlocks. I did not stop taking photos and the camera didn?t give up either. There is nothing strange about that, but there were several dozen cameras and video cameras near me and most of them ran for cover in the restaurant tent.
 

Fot.: Jacek Bonecki

Fot.: Jacek Bonecki

Fot.: Jacek Bonecki

We had another wet moment in Vina del Mar near Valparaiso in Chile. There was one day the rally took a break to regroup and for the equipment and the participants to rest. It was a free day for me, so I went... to the beach. There, I found an amazing pier with a surreal, rusty crane, which looked like a decoration from Kevin Costner's "Water World". So I started shooting.
 

Fot.: Jacek Bonecki

I took a wide angle and walked under the concrete pier, where I was washed away by the waves. You should know that waves can be irregular in the Pacific. One of them ripped the camera from my hand and the Sony DSLR A900 landed on the sand covered in wet foam.  (I never use a camera strap ? it always gets in my way) I froze. I took the camera and, with tears in my eyes, I moved as far as I could from the water. The laborious cleaning and drying started. Half an hour later, I continued to shoot, this time staying away from the waves. The water, salt and sand did not get inside the camera and the lens.
 

Fot.: Jacek Bonecki