Ooooh, I'm sooooo pi***d :(

<p >My family and I was driving my mother-in-law home this evening. After a short stop at her house, we decided to drive a little detour home. I always bring a camera with me, but since we supposedly should only drive her home, I just brought with me my Canon G10 and not my Nikon D300.</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Suddenly we spotted a full grown Norwegian elk just 5 meters from the road and with her two year old calves. I stopped at once and start firing with the G10, not paying too much attention to the settings. I get some nice shots of them, but suddenly they start to cross the road, and I can see myself selling images to the road safety organisations (colliding with an elk is actually quite dangerous). Many shots - and I can visualize the royalties.... ;)</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Can you imagine the anger when I get home, and ALL the road crossing images were unsharp. Not camera shake, which I thought at first, but plain and simple unsharpness. Any suggestions what went wrong?</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Do you have your stories, which made you sit up much of the night, unable to sleep in bare irritation?</p>

<p > </p>

<p >Post them here, and maybe we all can get some laughs tomorrow!</p><div></div>

<p>And, what we actually saw some minutes earlier!</p><div></div>

<p>This is obviously a rare form of camouflage developed by Norwegian Elk to help them cope with roadside dangers.</p>

<p>Were you photographing through the window of a car? I think the angle and form of the windshield does it, but I have never noticed it to this extent. Sometimes I've noticed distortion, especially through the windshield, when making photos from inside the car. The object at bottom left, though, looks like you had caught a portion of your car from the outside. At 1/15, are you sure this is not camera shake?</p>

<p>You may still be able to tell people this is a Norwegian Bigfoot <em>crawling</em> across the road!</p>

<p>Yesterday, I lost a roll of film to a bad decision; I knew better! You have my sympathies.</p>

<p>It didn't autofocus... or does that shot crop out some foreground object it might have AF'ed on? I can't stand the AF on P&S cameras since I started using DSLRs.</p>

<p>I screwed up some photos today. Was shooting with my XD11 and noticed after several shots my meter must be reading wrong - it was a sunny day and way off sunny 16 numbers. Last week I had got it wet so I tried replacing the batteries (the on-strap extra battery holder from the X-700 era is brilliant) to no avail, so I thought either I'd broken the electricals or my lens must be messed up and I was pretty pissed for the next hour. Until I saw the exposure compensation lever was at +2.</p>

<p>Interestingly enough when I was walking home couple of days ago an elk ran across the street just few meters from me, into the bushes and then to someone's home yard. It looked a bit lost to say at least. (I don't live in the country side...) Needless to say I had no camera at all with me. ;)</p>

<p>John, I opened the door and shot at the outside - I guess the windshield could have tricked the camera otherwise, and I wanted to get a clear shot as possible. After all, this was meant to generate lots of $$$$ ;) At first, I also thought it was camera shake, but I cannot find any consistent movements in the image that should indicate that.</p>

<p>Andrew, I think something went wrong with the autofocus. Luckily, I have an appointment to bring my G10 in to the repair shop tomorrow to have the latest G10 service notice fixed, so I guess I'll have to ask them to check focus.</p>

<p>Kari - The most interesting motives always happens when you are not bringing your camera....</p>

<p>Unintentional macro mode?</p>

<p>Focus mode set to manual?</p>

<p>Michael and Bueh, It could be, but it seems to function OK now, and apart from switching off and on, I have not touched anything.. I guess I have to test a bit more tomorrow morning.</p>

<p>I have a G10 and it auto-focuses quite well unless you try to use it in low light in which case it is completley useless.<br>

My guess would be that you hit the macro side of the dial or switched on manual focus.  I find the G10  small for my clumsy hands.   I often inadvertently adjust camera settings.</p>

 

With my Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 I sometimes hit the switch for auto-focus and turn it off because of where it is situated on the lens. I then proceed to shot several blurry frames before noticing, I've blown a few opportunities that way.

<p>you need a coffee</p>

<p>Under photoshop, you should try unsharp mask the first picture.</p>

<p>hehehehehe...</p>

<p>Okay maybe I should offer more constructive respond.<br /> You can still sell the picture to the road safety organisation like you mentioned. I photoshopped the elk for you so that it appears that the elk is crossing the road. If they ask you why the rest of the picture is so blurry, tell them it's depth of field.</p>

<p>If for some reason they are smart enough to notice that the feet are not completely there, tell them it's motion blur.</p>

<p>If they start questioning about the authenticity of the picture, start talking about signal to noise ratio and dynamic range to confuse them and prevent them to ask any further.</p><div></div>

<p>Actually, that pic doesn't cut it. It's obvious that the feet are not there and not because of motion blur. Here, I made it more believable for you.<br /> Oh, and if they decided to buy your picture, don't forget to give me my share. :)</p><div></div>

<p>I'll post a similar screwup of mine. At least I know what went wrong: autofocus was turned off. (Looked fine on the screen.)</p>

<p>Sigh.</p>

<p>Scot</p><div></div>

<p>Good ol' P&S cameras: Pray & Sh!t!</p>

<p>BTW, that is some mighty fine brokeh. Fauxteauxshoppe fixes everything. But you forgot the HDR.</p><div></div>

<p>It didn't focus. The blur is uniform, so it's not motion blur.</p>

<p>I think we call them Moose over here on the other side of the pond. Our Elk don't look like that!</p>

<p>Well if the road&safety organisation (whatever it is called) didn't want to buy the picture that I gave you, you can always try your luck and make large prints of Lex Jenkins' version and sell it as Monet's latest impressionist painting.</p>

<p>I have to comment -- This made my day!</p>

<p>Mark</p>

<p>Things like this happen. In fact just today; I was on the highway when 3 deer tried to cross the road. I stopped - fortunately there were no cars immediately behind me. The deer sniffed a bit, then turned back to where they came from. When I was in Louisiana last month, driving meant stopping every now and then to help a turtle cross the road -- and be careful, they pee on you. ;) There were crushed turtles and alligators - rather hard to look at. So I totally understand it when Florida proposes to use some stimulus money to build a tunnel for turtles and alligators to cross the road. This helps highway safety as well.</p>

I'm going to guess that the out of focus critter was an elk or else a very tall skinny moose. Lex's money shot is a moose no matter what side of the pond you're on.

<p>I got lucky with a couple of roadside shots this past week.<br>

<br /> <img src="http://www.iantaylor.ca/roadtrip/slides/IMG_7353.jpg" alt="" /><br>

<br /> <img src="http://www.iantaylor.ca/roadtrip/slides/IMG_7367.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Scot, if using a DSLR, adjust your diopter, you have a mismatch. That is a common issue when manual focusing. Every time I take my 40D out of the bag, I check and adjust the diopter setting - I shoot manual and occasionally use FD lenses.</p>

Per-Christian,

 

I hope you feel better now. I'm sure that Job had such comforters. "Hey, maybe we can paint some happy faces on them boils!"

<p><strong>Gordon</strong>, your comment was the last before I went to bed. I hate to say it, but it is a relief that someone else has done this blunder….<br>

<strong>Albert</strong>, thanx for your comment and pictures. I saw your posts and "amendments" when I started the computer at work today. Thank God that I have my own office - I still have tears in my eyes from laughing.<br>

<strong>Lex</strong>. Nice bokeh and halo. Thank you. :)<br>

<strong>Bob,</strong> In another forum I once called this creature a moose - I nearly got flamed for that by some "specialists"…<br>

<strong>Mark</strong>, always a pleasure! ;)<br>

<strong>Mary</strong>, in Norway, we now build special open land tunnels on new highways. The cars drive in the tunnels, and the elk/moose or whatever creature you like, can pass overhead. it actually works!<br>

<strong>Ian</strong>, lucky you.<br>

<strong>James,</strong> thank you, I feel much better now. I have had some coffee, I have tested and retested the G10, I have had lots of laughs from the excellent posts from you guys, and I have decided to patrol the area this evening to get that son of a ***** on the memory card - this time with a dSLR.</p>

<p>I have this morning tried to simulate the problem again, and I think you guys are right. I have in the heat of the battle managed to press the macro-button. Thank you for all comfort! :) :)</p>