Last Friday night we had a water pipe break in our main studio room – actually it was the inlet valve to the toilet in the studio bathroom. Although we were home, we didn’t notice the leak until after the water made its was under the studio door, traveled down the hall and into the living room. By that time the water was several inches deep in parts of the studio. We spent the next several hours doing our best to remove some of the water and get all our equipment and model wardrobe up away from the water. Most of the studio, both storage closets, and the bathroom itself were soaked. First thing in the morning, the insurance company sent an emergency clean up crew to remove water, dry as much as possible and assess the damage. For the next 4 days we had a dozen air blowers and 2 huge dehumidifiers running in the studio. All the noise really freaked the cats out! But it was funny watching the clean up crew move around all our equipment (we hadn’t had a chance to remove it by the time they arrived – we were too busy removing water!). I think they got a kick out of seeing some of the stuff like the arms binders, metal cuffs, hoods, and all the cool clothing. Surprisingly, they only asked one or two questions, and those were about general photography. The room is now dried and the insurance adjuster is coming tomorrow to discuss repairs.
So what does all this mean? Well, it doesn’t look like we will be able to shoot in our studio for a few weeks. So we are on a sort of forced vacation as far as shooting goes!
Glad to hear you’re getting through this okay! 🙂 That’s funny that the cat’s weren’t phased at all (my cat as a kid would have freaked out)! Also glad to hear that you have plenty of material to keep you (and you subscribers) busy. I should have never doubted you 😉
Thank you for your thoughts – but we have no intention of missing any updates. As we mentioned above, we have nearly 2 years worth of unseen material, so updates will not be affected in any way. We do not have to shoot to do new photo updates. Hell, we could stop shooting for the next year or more and not miss an update, so not shooting for 3 or 4 weeks is nothing. If we didn’t have to deal with the clean up – it would be a nice break!.
The water didn’t bother the cats at all as it was almost entirely limited to the studio, which they do not normally have access to anyway. We didn’t even notice the water until it had flooded the studio and came under the door. While we were cleaning it up, the one cat was actually running through the shallow part. He got his feet nice and wet and then left paw prints throughout the rest of the house. Now if they had been dogs, they could of at least helped by drinking some of it up!
WOW! Sorry to hear about your troubles! 🙁 This might be the first time in history Imago doesn’t make the weekly upgrade (not to worry, many -ahem!- “lesser” sites leave their subscribers hanging on a regular basis)!
I have to admit to cracking a smile about your description of the cat’s reactions to all the workman in the house, how did they react to the water? Not favorably I’d imagine. Hope you enjoy the “vacation” for what it’s worth, and I wouldn’t worry I’m confident both models AND subscribers will be ready for when you’re back on your feet (no offense intended Howie – just my two cents)! 🙂
Thank you for your thoughts.
The adjuster was a decent guy, but with the flooring and drywall damage, it is going to take a bit of time to get cleaned up.
Don’t worry about us running out of photos, we have been shooting so frequently for so long that we have about 2 years worth of unseen material available to use.
Hi Dianne, hi Ray,
very sorry reading this. As a past co-victim of flooded living-rooms, I can guess how you were feeling detecting the damage. Hope the insurance adjuster will be fair enough to evaluate the damage in a just way.
Anyway hope you won´t run out of pics until yur studio will be ready to be used again, and I hope your models will stay until you can resume shooting…
Good luck and – nice “forced” vacation – anyway 😉
Howie