Around three weeks ago I was running a two day workshop with Joe Cornish at Paddy's Hole - a small, quaint yet run down fishing harbour at the mouth of the River Tees.

During the workshop one of the participant's batteries went flat and he didn't have a spare. I therefore offered to lend him my Panasonic Lumix G1 as we still had another couple of hours to go before last light. Delighted at this, we set it up on my tripod where we were located on the outer collar of the harbour, which is made up of sharp craggy rocks.

We decided to take a breather and whilst I was talking to Joe and another participant the wind got up and blew the camera and tripod over. The result of which was a shattered screen, torn rubber eyepiece and badly disjointed tripod socket. A total write off it seemed... or was it?

Upon further investigation at home, although the screen was damaged, the viewfinder still worked! A true testament to the ruggedness of these cameras.

Whilst waiting for my new digital kit to arrive i've been out and about with the G1, recently visiting North Sands in Hartlepool where I took this long exposure image of a sea groin with the intention of turning it into a black and white image. The camera looks a state but boy can its still make a good image!