God Rays and Jammed Tripod Heads

The weather forecast looked promising for god rays on Sunday morning, those shafts of light that pierce through the clouds like huge torch beams. It's difficult to predict when they will appear, although I always seem to see them when I'm in my car driving somewhere without the camera!
Early morning and early evening presents the best chance of getting them as the sun is low in the sky. Some broken mid-level cloud is also required to 'channel' the sunlight into thin beams, but you also need a dose of luck and to be in the right place at the right time!

I set the alarm for 5am (actually 6am with the clocks going back) although unknown to me the alarm on my mobile phone had corrected itself for daylight saving so when I stepped outside it was already getting light! First mistake of the day.



It's an hour's drive to the coast so by the time I got there the sun was already coming up. I wasn't too concerned as the cloud cover was quite thick so sunrise shots were out of the question anyway, so that left only god-ray shots to try for.
As I made my way between the slippery rocks onto the beach I could see shafts of light breaking through the clouds! My prediction was correct but I had to work quickly as the wind was picking up so the light would not stay that way for long.
I grabbed the camera and checked out a couple of possible compositions before setting up the tripod. Once happy I got the tripod into a rough position and then went to attached the camera to head. This is where mistake number two happened. The camera would not lock into the head. Now I don't use cheap camera gear, the head is a Manfrotto geared one which cost a lot of money, but for some reason the lever that locks the plate was stuck in the locked position. It wouldn't budge and was jammed solid as a rock. I looked up at the light and could see already the light was changing and the god rays were starting to disappear! I had to think quickly - waste time with the head or try balancing the camera on the tripod while hand holding it? I went for the latter.



I did manage to get a couple of shots, but due to the faffing about and low light and high winds many of the shots had obvious camera shake. I was very lucky to get any shots at all though. When I got home I dismantled the head and found that the spring under the lever had dirt and dried salt in it which had caused it to seize up completely. The moral of this story is that don't just check your camera, lenses and filters before you go out on a shoot, check your tripod and head too or you may miss the opportunity to get some amazing shots!