On this very rainy day, I was out shooting industrial landscapes. It was in a gravel pit shooting Burtynsky style photos when I slipped and landed in a pile of loose gravel. Camera First.
I got up and brushed the gravel off my camera. I tried using it...the grating and grinding noise it made as I tried to spin the rear dial was gut wrenching. The lens did not sound much better and the shutter button was stuck.
I immediately took out the batteries and raced home. It took two days of slowly blowing the sand out with a air gun and a vacuum cleaner to stop the grating noise. On day two I replaced the batteries.
I am happy to report that the camera sprang back to life and to this day it has not given me any trouble.
I now avoid gravel pits in the rain.