Since I got my camera back at the start of the year I have taken over 12,ooo photos with it. I’ve been a busy boy. Many of those 12,000 never made it off the camera, many never made it past a first look on the computer. Some have made it here, some have gotten printed and I hope to show them at some point in a small local exhibition.

The thing is, if you take 12,000 photos in a little over three months with a camera with a detachable lens, your camera is going to get dust in it.

I have been thinking for weeks that I really needed to get my camera cleaned. Friday I finally went and did so.

I took my camera to C&J Camera Shop in Hanson, MA. I was pleased to learn that my camera could be cleaned in a matter of hours. I explained that there seemed to be one particularly nasty foreign object on the mirror or sensor. This is what you see in the above photos. I took this photo just before dropping of my camera for cleaning. The original and then a crop to show what seemed to be a very small hair or something similar.

The woman at the store was very pleasant and I left my camera and went along my merry way.

When the call came my camera was done I picked it up and was excited to have a clean tool once more. I took a shot of the sky in the parking lot…

Reviewing the shot on the small screen on the camera I was pleased, the nasty bugger that had plagued my photos for weeks was gone. I decided there and then that the photo I took after getting my camera cleaned would be my “S”. I had a “S”queaky clean sensor.

That night when I transferred the photo to my computer I was stunned.

I am not sure if it’s the same hair (or whatever it is) or not, but something is still there. Whats more…

IT BROUGHT FRIENDS!

I am pretty sure that when you spend $40.00 to have your camera cleaned it should NOT come back dirtier than before.

I brought my camera back today and it seems that the sole individual that cleans cameras at C&J Camera Shop went on vacation and won’t be back for 10 days.

I will be taking my camera somewhere else this week and I will be expecting a full refund from C&J when the cleaning lady returns.

In C&J’s defense…

I shoot in RAW, an uncompressed file format. It provides greater flexibility and better quality. Problem is you need to install updates on your computer in order to view .NEF files (Nikon’s version of RAW is NEF).

Perhaps C&J, being a proper camera shop, should be able to view .NEF files on their computers and not be limited to checking their cleaning work only on the camera’s small screen. Perhaps C&J should have been sharp enough to change the settings temporarily from RAW to JPG.

No matter, I am giving them the benefit of the doubt that if they had been able to see the results of the ‘cleaning’ I would not have picked up my camera in the state it is in currently.

I will update as things unfold.

Oh, and for what it’s worth, this is my second time out doing skywatch Friday (I just got lazy and didn’t post it until Saturday).

We get some solid sunset views at my office this time of year. Knowing that today was “R” in my latest A-Z subset of my photo-a-day Project 365 I made sure to have my camera with me at work tonight.

The sunset fizzled. The sky was a hazy, foggy blue and the only red part of the sunset was the sun itself as it raced for the horizon.

Knew well ahead of time that I was going to use Q-Tip for Q. But somehow still waited until late at night to take the shot.

Oh, and don’t tell anyone but these aren’t Q-Tips. They are store brand cotton swabs. Not the real deal. Oh well, I am still calling them Q-Tips.

Was driving home from work last night and decided I would let the Federal Government provide the subject for the day’s “P” photo.

Rockland, MA 02370

Was stumped for an “O” photo until I saw that the oven light was on. I turned off all the room lights, cracked the oven door and done.

Was a busy Sunday and didn’t shoot too much. What’s more, all of my planned “N” shots were rubbish.

Lucky for me I caught this shot of a plane that was pulling a sign behind it. I didn’t realize it at first but apparently all US based aircraft registration numbers start with N. Registration N7685Z.

John had his first crack at mowing today. I originally green-lighted him to do the side yard only (small and flat), but he did such a good job and took it seriously enough that I let him carry on and he wound up doing the whole yard.

He’s already bugging us about the next time out.

Grolsch Lager to be precise.

Not my usual drink, but I  have read that the flip top Grolsch bottles are good to use for bottling home brew and I have a batch that I want to get brewed/bottled while I still have another batch in my normal bottles.

Now, I could have bought brown (preferred) flip top bottles. Would have run me about $30 for a case. The Grolsch is green and a bit more expensive, but I get to empty the bottles which is a plus.

Since I started my photo-a-day project 365 in February of 2008 I have done a self portrait on the 9th of each month.

This is the 18th such photo. Some months I get creative, others it’s pretty much a simple head shot. This month I am rubbing my fresh buzz cut.

Well, really it’s Wesley Stace. Performing under the name of John Wesley Harding though.

Wes played the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston tonight. A great show. Check Wes out. Clever, funny and solid musically. I’d see him every chance I could get if I could afford it.

All photos from the day/evening at the MFA here.