Ok, a little diversion for a moment here, a little bit a background then the real story, then a story I hope you will help me write. If you were looking for something on Night Photography, Sorry not this time.  I am hijacking Steven’s blog at the moment. Thanks Steven,  Eric 🙂

Last Sunday I was scouting locations south of Yosemite National Park along 140 and the Merced River.  If you know anything about the type of person I am I love back-roads, the places other casual photographers don’t go.  I spotted some interesting places to return to along opposite side the Merced River and conveniently enough I found a State Park Ranger, a back-road and a trail map.  I was set.  Off we go to explore driving along the Merced River was a treat.  With a recess from both the typical winter and the mega rain we had last year I was itching to get down to the river.  After a few miles of gravel there was a long parking area, and easy access to the shore.  Ambling down the to riverside you could see the river was low, rocks that were normal not exposed were.  Fishing line, bottles, cans and other detritus was stuck in the bushes and round river rocks.  However one thing caught my eye, IT was a camera!!  I kinda did a double take but yes, yes it was a camera.  What, a mess! It was caked with muck and clods of dirt hung to it.  There was water between the screen and the casing, the lens was fogged with dirt. No matter the dirt and slime this was a waterproof camera, a Canon PowerShot D10.  But how?? Why??  I quickly realized that this was a major river rafting spot and this might have gotten lost on one of those boating trips.  Scraping away the dirt from the doors, I cracked open the battery compartment and it was pristine!  I was excited.  The battery was dead, but clean, the SD card was clean and dry.  7 hours later, a trip to the hospital, and 5 stitches, a black eye and a CT scan later (My Girlfriend slipped on a rock and ended up in a waterfall, yes in, but that is another story), I questioned whether I should download the photos.  Well the owner will never get there camera back if I don’t, and the memories they might have stored on this would be worth it.  So after combing through the  >1000 photos and videos, I could not identify any information that would give me a solid lead on the owner.  I have bits and clips of them I have figured out who I believe is the owner, and their family but no solid names.  I believe they are from CA but not sure.  They love the water almost all the shots from the camera are in or around the water.  That is it I don’t have else much to go on. So now I am turning to the internet community and asking for help, do you know these people can you help me find them.

Please, help me write the rest of this story.   As a photographer I know how much it would mean to me to lose my camera but to lose the memories it contained is harder.  The following is some of the photos that I believe will be the most helpful.  I have spared you the ~200 underwater self portraits (I published the fun underwater portraits) and others that are uninformative (like the sky).   I have tried to preserve all of the meta data but there was not much there anyway.   If you recognize anything please leave a comment, if you know people in the photos please send them the link, please share this with your photographer friends.   And Please don’t bother “All Outdoors”, the rafting company too much.

Other Data:

Photo dates 5/8 to 7/22/2011  Merced River CA to

Photo locations are from Merced, Malibu, to Palm Springs.

Map of where I found the camera

http://maps.google.com/maps/ms?msid=202312884837720874010.0004b846567e4b7d77a63&msa=0&ll=37.60002,-119.976454&spn=0.04495,0.093641