the saddest day in recent memory *queue playing of the taps..

the saddest day in recent memory *queue playing of the taps*. Back story: this March once the pandemic started and I realized my job was moving 100% online and no longer in-person for the foreseeable future, I quickly had to adapt to the industry shift (and the 70% pay cut) and realized to have any amount of success at this media subscription game, I needed to invest in buying my first real camera to shoot OnlyFans content. Once I had bought my new camera I realized it’s almost useless without all the other equipment and editing software. Fast forward a few months into my online SW career and self-shooting is about the most difficult thing over ever learned how to do in my life. No joke. I know now why all of my professionally photographers charge thousands per shoot. The learning curve is steep, but I’ve been getting the hang of it. This morning content inspiration struck! So I woke up early and spent the hours prepping; doing hair/makeup and setting the scene, dragging all my equipment downstairs, setting the light boxes and gathering my props and was finally ready to start shooting for a few hours (if you haven’t yet, read first pinned post on my page about the time/cost of making content). My Lumix LX100 camera was screwed into tripod, turned on, lens zoomed out. I took a few test shots, checked them, adjusted shutter and ISO, couple more test shots, checked those, another adjustment, checked those too...realized I needed to move the furniture in room a bit to accommodate the shot composition then it would be perfect! This is when It all went sideways. literally. I was bent over adjusting the living room rug when it caught the leg of the camera tripod and before I could leap up to catch it, my whole setup (camera turned on, lens fully extended) tipped over smashing into a concrete tree planter. Have you ever had a moment where everything happens in a blink, but you witness it in slow motion? That’s what this morning was. Watching you sole form of income literally come crashing to the ground, will make your heart stop. As I suspected this thing is badly damaged *kicks dirt and grumbles*. I spent the last hour on phone with repair shops across the Southeast and with a Panasonic camera specialist explaining what happened and explaining the new “error message” and how the lens will no longer retract into barrel or extend anymore. I have two options: ship it to repair center for 3-6 weeks to see if it can be repaired paying about half cost of entire camera (if it even can be saved) or buy a whole new camera and have it delivered within the week. This situation is an insult to my emotional intelligence 🙃 I looked on Adorama website and there is a refurbished model I can get for $475. Any contributions made towards that effort will be rewarded visually in the DM’s. thank you 😗