A completely different subject for today’s post. This is quite frankly a boring subject, but an important one for a professional photographer to be on top of.

Insurance.  Spare kit. Equipment redundancy. Backups. Contingency plans.

Why am I writing about this? Well recently I have two separate episodes of accidental damage, to two rather important bits of equipment. A professional photographer needs these things covered properly. Pun intended.

So what were they? What did I break?

Only my phone and my camera. 

I dropped my Canon EOS6D, with 24-105mm F4L lens attached, on some hard paving. The damage? 

Displaced sensor and lens that didn’t work. Nothing serious then. 

I have a backup camera. A Canon 5D. I have spare lenses, with my 17-40 and 70-200 covering the most used focal lengths of the 24-105 lens.

So not exactly a crisis, but something that needed sorting. I could operate without either bit of kit, but to a limited degree. Basic image capture would be fine. I have taken shots with my 6D and 5D and put them side by side and could I tell the difference? Well yes I could, but no-one else could or did. 

Focal lengths are covered. 

So It is some of the more advanced features of the 6D that I missed. Mainly Wi-Fi control of my camera, and auto-bracketing.

And the look of the shots that the Canon 6D produces. I just love the look and feel of images. 

I have separate camera insurance. Up to date and fully itemised.  

My insurance is with Photoshield. I have equipment insurance, and as a professional photographer I need public liability insurance too. And having sent my camera and lens to Lehman’s, one of the few Canon authorised repair shops, I got a quote, same day approval by Photoshield, and my camera and lens back before I knew it. 

Sorted. 

Then my iPhone 6 Plus.

I had a screensaver on it from the day I bought it. But I got something on it, which I think was stuck to the inside of the case. Getting fed up with the splodge on the dead centre of my screen I took the screen protector off, and was going to get a replacement.

And in the time between taking the screen protector off and getting a new one you guessed it. 

I dropped the phone. Face down. On tarmac. 

And smashed the face. 

I took out insurance when I bought the phone from Carphone Warehouse, so this was covered. I had to pay an excess, but got pretty quickly a brand new replacement phone. 

How did I manage with a broken screen? 

Badly. I struggled. Remote control of my 6D with the shattered screen was challenging but I managed.

But I got by till I could get down to Carphone Warehouse and get my new phone. They even sorted out moving all my rubbish from the old phone to the new phone. 

So all is back to where it was. 

Get insurance. Get good insurance. It really is worth it. 

And if you are working as a professional photographer you need a spare everything.

Thank for reading this post about one of the least interesting but most important aspects of professional photography.

I am a professional photographer in Dorset specialising in architectural photography, commercial photography and industrial photography.

www.rickmcevoyphotography.co.uk