Flew back from Baltimore Tuesday night and for the first time in my life, one of my luggage didn't show up ! You know that sinking feeling that hits you when you realized most of the passengers on your flight got their bags and left and you're the only left watching an unclaimed bag make the trip around the belt again ? Yup, take that and times by two because this luggage happen to be a Profoto Softlight Reflector (or commonly called a beauty dish). And it was a rental.... *sigh*
There was a stopover in Milwaukee so there's a chance that it got off there by mistake.
One of the things I learn from this experience was documenting your luggage. You see, before I left Baltimore, I took a photo of my three cases at the BWi airport for future blog usage. And it came in handy when the baggage claim guy asked me to describe it and what was inside.
Uh...yes... it is a Profoto Softlight Reflector with a grid attached to the front.
Luckily I had photos on my snap-point-and-shoot and could easily show him the case and the beauty dish. Just in case he couldn't recall, on the claims form, I drew pictures of the case and the dish - lol !
There is a happy ending as me and my rental gear were reunited (and it feels so good !) and I was saved from paying $300 for replacing that dish.
So my lesson is to really take photos of everything I'm checking in so I have photographic reference. Another lesson I learn that night is to have contacts to your friend's parents for just in case emergency. You see, my friend was to pick me up and he didn't show. Earlier that day, around 4:30 pm, his car flipped on the 101 and he ended up in the hospital. Luckily he is alright and he'll be out in a day but I realized I didn't even had his parent's contact info.
So I've decided to email my emergency contact info to all my closest friends. Parent's number + address, sister's number + address, everything they need in case of emergency. I've even put emergency phone numbers on my iPhone's wallpaper with "In case of emergency" on it along with my name.
Plan for the future !
