All machinery, especially moving parts, have a finite life. Actually we all do but mortality, for most of us, is something that happens to the other guys. So here I am at Spa Francorchamps, shooting one of the practice sessions for the FIA GT1 World Championship round that will be run on Saturday. Just getting a few shots in the bag, testing the limits of skill and equipment, all running to plan.

Then I notice something weird in the screen when checking exposure on the histogram, maybe the lens strap had got tangled up…………pain in the ass. Ok re-shoot and now it looks like another rain storm is going to catch me out on track.

Another few frames, then something really is wrong, strange feel to the camera action and intermittent power failures. Then the Canon is completely dead, battery changes do nothing and of course the Spa rain comes. Nicely soaked I trudge back to the pressroom, as with everything in the Ardennes it involves mountain goat impersonations as all path are steep climbs.

I download the cards and the problem registers on the screen, something has blown up in the camera, the photographic equivalent of a piston breaking, it seems that I had turned into Peugeot at Le Mans. Even a cursory examination of the Canon showed that the shutter had failed big time scattering bits all over the sensor and all round the chamber, OK another trip to Fixation is on cards on Monday, this camera has run its race and will go no further without a rebuild.

The joy and pain of being professional photographer.

John Brooks