What is the dumbest thing you've done in photography?

Open the paper box to count how many sheets are left. Then notice the lights are on...

1. Use an incident meter and forget to set the appropriate shutter

speed in addition to aperture. Happens often :-(

 

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2. Crank film wind lever, and fail to notice the film is not winding

until frame 40.

 

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3. Use the same, special purpose film (tungsten, high speed chrome)

twice, because I rewound it in the middle and forgot later it was

partially used.

 

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4. Forget to focus.

 

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All still happen occasionally with the Leica M6. And everytime I tell

myself maybe I should switch to a modern, DX coding, autoload, auto

everything SLR.

You made me remember Mani, I had this in my subconcient, I was hire

by a local museum to make some reproductions of a paint exposition

that was set; I took my 6x6 and bougth the few rolls of chrome and

color negative 120 film that I could find in town; my life as a

profesional photographer has come so down that I belived 160T was a

new kind of film, when I saw the blue slides, the exposition was a

thousand miles from town, so getting slides from the original

negatives cost as much as I was charging, after that I consider me an

amatheur.

I sold a Leica R4 to buy a Nikon F4 .BIGEST mistake I now have

a R6 and M6

Back in the mid-60's my friend Bob & I got interested in photography.

We didn't have a lot of money. We skimped on everything we could. In

those days all Kodak 35mm canisters were re-usable, so it made great

sense to buy bulk film and load our own. We saved our pennies and

bought a 100' roll of Tri-X.

 

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We didn't need a bulk loader (couldn't afford one anyway) We had a

light-tight darkroom with a work bench. We worked out a plan,

arranged the spools, canisters, caps, tape, scissors. We practiced

with old film. We had it down cold.

 

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First time thru we decided to load only four rolls then revisit the

plan, tweek what needed tweeking, then do the 20 or so remaining

rolls.

 

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The "dress rehersal" was easy. Everything went perfectly. Only

problem was we left one step out of the plan: PUT THE BULK ROLL BACK

IN ITS CAN BEFORE TURNING ON THE LIGHT.

 

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You've seen the movie "Dumb & Dumber"? Bob actually looks a little

like Jim Carey, now that I think about it.

 

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You'd be surprized how little light penetrates a tightly wound bulk

roll of Tri-X. We had to use that film, and pretty quickly we learned

to frame a little extra on the bottom/right so we could crop out the

fog.

 

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Bob went on the get an MFA and worked in the business ever since, far

as I know. Last time I shot film with him (maybe 15 years ago) we

both still had the urge to leave a little extra around the edges.

Drove over my camera bag. Crushed a lens shade and virtually powdered

two Leitz filters. Fortunately, the cameras themselves were not

damaged--I guess I backed off before it was too late.

 

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I have been in photography for 40 years and yet I still occasionally

forget to put film in the camera. I have had the top fall off a

developing tank, put film in the developer only to realize that I had

no fixer in the house, and once developed film in Dektol by mistake.

 

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I have learned the hard way not to brag about my work until AFTER I

see the negatives--and then only modestly.

 

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http://www.ravenvision.com/peterhughes.htm

I have done all of the above but this incident was kind of dumb. A few years ago I started to do wedding

photography with heavy emphasis on a photojournalistic style. This was to be my first wedding job ever

and needless to say I was scared. I must have visited the wedding location at least 6 times before the

actual wedding. Anyway everything went well. I was feeling high as a kite with my success. When I

developed the film I was pleased and relieved to see that all the exposures were good and I had captured

lots of nice moments. The only problem was that there were hardly any photographs of the groom! I was a

bit worried about the bride's reaction but she was very pleased with the results and just said that her

husband was not really in a picture taking mood that day! (of all days). Anyway I learned a valuable

lesson and somehow learning a lesson lessens the pain of stupidity!

 

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Gail

Trading an R4 for a Nikon may be bad but I traded an almost new M2

for an Ft. I've regretted it for decades. Funny thing is that not

one of the four Nikon F's that I eventually owned ever had a

viewfinder to match the Visoflex II that went with the M2.

 

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A brand new SL/2 eased the pain!

Using the a brand new M645 Autofocus camera on a shoot, was eating cookies at the sametime, the wrapper feel into the film back without me noticing. Shot a whole roll of cookie wrap.