Who needs 'protection' filters?

Work has been getting in the way of 'serious' photography of late. Well, work and fishing have. The fishing has seen more messing around with fill and balanced flash. Some results better than others. Also some playing with ideas for future adverts which has resulted in one shot that, when flipped, makes a nice background image to fit my existing text layout. This was taken handheld, manually focused with my 150mm macro lens. I find the lens pretty useful in non-macro mode when fishing - so it serves two purposes. Angling atmosphere shots are all fine and dandy, but I could do with catching some fish to shoot their portraits and get some abstracty texture pictures of scales and eyes and things.

Other than that my photographic opportunities have been thin. The 'studio' still not being ready and my trips to town scant I've been pretty much restricted to taking shots from home. So the theme has been 'modern landscape'. I find it quite rewarding to make pictures without leaving the confines of my property. And surprising that there is a variety of pictures to be made.

The topic of filters for protection hasn't been aired on Talk Photography for a while. I might bring it to the fore for a chuckle after today's event. How I managed to drop my D90 onto my slate fireplace, albeit from a less than two feet, I really don't know. It just slipped from my grasp and landed with a horrible crunching and cracking sound. I fully expected it to be dead. All that appears to have happened is that the filter ring got a severe denting and the filter glass cracked.

There's a slight chip in the plastic of the lens barrel, but very superficial. There were a few small shards between filter and front element, but no damage to the element itself. That seems to be it. The camera appears to function normally and the lens autofocuses. It took a bit of effort, and some cycle inner tube to provide extra grip, but the filter came off okay and a replacement has been bought and fitted.

I can't say for sure what would have happened had the filter not been in place, but the threaded part of the lens barrel would certainly have taken the brunt of the fall and suffered far more damage than it has done. They seem to build  Nikon's tough. For all the plastic construction this one has already survived sliding off the passenger seat of my car when I braked suddenly, and mysteriously rolling itself off the sofa. I'm sure I'll manage to kill it eventually!