In mid-June, I purchased a new camera, the Casio EX-F1 that shoots 60 fps bursts and takes 1200 fps slow-motion movies, among other things. I settled on the Casio because I didn't want to carry and switch lenses on a DSLR, and I figured that 12x zoom and 6Mp was probably adequate for my purposes.

So I headed off to Arizona to shoot something, and on my very first long walk of the vacation, I saw my first wild rattlesnake.

It was a relatively young Western Diamondback. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture, since autofocus decided the cactus above the snake was much more interesting, and I didn't have time to figure out all the relevant camera settings; when the snake headed back toward the trail (and me), I moved briskly along the path.

A few hundred yards further, I was balancing between a terraced cliff face to my left, and a four-foot drop onto irregular boulders to my right. Perhaps I was more sensitized due to my recent snake sighting, but when there was a rather loud, sudden, rattle, originating no more than a couple of feet from my left ear, I jumped.

Sideways.

Off a cliff.

I've been told in the past when I sprained an ankle that I might have been better off if I'd broken it. I can now state with some authority that this is not the case. Being unable to stand without passing out, I was eventually rescued by a very nice team of emergency medical guys, who wheeled me out of the wilderness on a one-ATV-wheel stretcher. (See? Cell phones do have their uses.)

I spent much of the next six weeks, while not in a hospital getting some nice titanium screws inserted into my leg or crutching to and from a bathroom, laying on a couch and taking occasional pictures of my foot, the wall, and the ceiling. I will not share any of those pictures with you at this time. No thanks are necessary.

And after nearly three months of physical therapy, I'm almost back to normal walking/hiking. Almost.

At this point I've figured out most of the new camera's features, and some of the time-travel things are pretty cool for capturing action shots. Not that I've taken many action shots yet, but it's there if I want it. It took me a few minutes to realize that turning on the facial recognition feature made it impossible to switch to macro, infinite, or manual focus -- at first I thought the switch was defective -- but once I guessed it right, it sort of made sense.

One thing about using a more complex camera, even if it's still technically a point-and-shoot, is that you really need to have some foreknowledge of what it is you plan to photograph. In order to arrange for the right settings, you need to know, in advance, the lighting, focal distance, and timing. Otherwise, you tend to get less than optimal results.

If you plan it right in advance, though, things look pretty darn good.

One thing that virtually everyone said after the accident. If you have to choose between a rattlesnake bite and breaking your ankle, go with the ankle.

I only wish those had not been the only two options. Couldn't I just have had a nice, painful sprain?