Your biggest "D'oh!" moment?

<p>What was your biggest Homer Simpson-style "D'oh!" moment in photography? I'll kick off with a few:</p>

<p>(1) Leaving my camera in manual focus mode before handing it to my wife to shoot for a while.</p>

<p>(2) Not realizing my camera was set to 12-bit raw instead of 14-bit, for months and months.</p>

<p>(3) Buying a new lens and a protective filter at the same time, so the lens would never ever ever get damaged. I managed to cross-thread the filter onto the lens threads and it popped right off, clattering across the entire front element. (Luckily, the lens looks ok.)</p>

<p>Accidentally puting several rolls of film in my checked luggage. </p>

<p>Shooting a roll of film and at the end of the day discovering the film sockets had stripped out and no shots had been taken.</p>

<p>Maybe my worst was shooting for a good stretch at Karnak before realizing that the ISO was still set to ISO 3200 from the previous evening's shoot of the spotlit Luxor temple.</p>

<p>Actually, I did get terrific depth of field. Diffraction and noise, maybe not so good.....</p>

<p> My worst one came years ago, on the day I first shook off the tunnel-visioned tyranny of the SLR by taking my then- new M3 and collapsible 50 out to a festival. I was in the middle of a crowd almost done with my first roll, when an 8 yr old boy LOUDLY yelled: "Hey, Mister!" I was too busy framing..."HEEEEY Mister!", annoyed at this intrusion into my Leica-Bliss, I looked up, "Mister, you have your lens cap on". Several people laughed out loud. Humbled, I removed the cap...</p>

<p> </p>

<p>Forgetting I didn't have film in the camera--shooting some great pictures and well...no pictures because there was no film in the camera!</p>

<p>Carefully spot-metering a white barn and then CLOSING DOWN two stops.</p>

<p>Koni-Omega Rapid. Wedding. Lens cap. Say no more... (Only about five frames, reshootable, but still...)</p>

<p>1. Leaving the camera at home because "there's probably nothing too interesting" (that was years back, and I've learnt my lesson).<br>

2. Leaving the ISO on high and then shooting outside in bright sunlight. Duh!</p>

Shooting a bunch of photos on my OM-2 with the switch set in the "Off" position. I was sure it was a waste, but it turned out that the camera is actually effectively in AE mode when you press the shutter release in that situation. So it turned out to be a non-Doh! after all, but I didn't realize it for a week until the film came back!

<p>marta, I'm with you. Years ago with a manual slr shooting action shots at a BMX race, no film in camera. Problem is that after shooting 50 or so frames I still didn't realize it. No shots that day.</p>

<b><i>Marge: HOMER! This is the worst thing you've ever done! <br>

Homer: Oh...you say that so often it's lost all meaning! </b></i>

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1. Not setting the multi exposure lever back after a double exposure, and shooting God knows how many shots on one

frame. Wow, it sure seems like I've been shooting this roll of 120 for a long time!

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2. Leaving my ISO on 400 and shooting a roll of 50 speed film.

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3. Forgetting I was in aperture mode on my digital, and setting my exposure comp to +however far it would go, thinking I

was changing the aperture in manual mode.

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4. Most of the photos in my "?" portfolio. ;)

<br><br>

TMC

<p>Misloading a roll of film the last full day in England on my first trip with my, then Fiance. The 2nd worst was misloading a roll of B&W film at my brother's wedding. I say 2nd worst only because I was shooting with 2 cameras and about 50% of the B&W shots were just repeats of the color shots.</p>

<p>A tie, both many years ago. 1) discovering I had shot a roll of 120 in my Mamiya Press with the dark slide still in the back (luckily, I was able to re-shoot) and 2) learning the hard way to tension 35mm when loading and watch the rewind as I did the two blank frames.</p>

<p>Asent mindedly trying to put the Canon 17-85 on my 5D. Trust me: don't try this, it will dislodge the front element of the focussing screen.</p>

<p>On more than one occasion leaving to take a photo and forgetting that I had removed the CF card(s) to tansfer the photos onto the computer - realizing too late (after I left) that I had forgotten to put the CF card(s) back into the camera(s).</p>

<p>Luckily last time I just happen to have a spare in my camera bag.</p>

<p>Oops!<br>

Having my Graflex flash fire a flaming bulb at Miss Something-or-Other during her coronation (whilst working for the University photo lab) and watching the crowd run for cover!<br>

(But I got the shot!)</p>

Not carrying a camera with me everywhere I go. I have missed some of the best shots.

<p>The time I got some great shots of a Peregrine Falcon with a pigeon, Great light, great position. If only I had put the compact flash card back in the camera the photos would have been priceless.</p>

<p>Something I will always regret, from a long time ago. I had already quite a few paid weddings under my belt, and was doing a labour of love shooting my cousin's (in my mother tongue there's no distinction for a cousin, he was my "elder brother" and he was/is just as close) wedding. Every roll of film came out completely blank, the shutter was firing but only at a real fast speed, had to get it repaired. I will never forget my cousin's, the families and my disappointment. To this day the only pics from that wedding are a set of 12 prints from B&W 120 film shot in a fixed focus Agfa Click III by someone.</p>

<p>Learning (repeatedly!) that with a rangefinder you can still see the scene with the lens cap on.</p>

<p>I was in the center of a stream (shooting a waterfall in NY's Catskill Mts.) as group of schoolkids walked past me (and my 4x5 Cambo camera on a tripod). I turned my back for a moment and the wind blew the whole thing over into the drink. A girl about 10 years old asked "Mister, did you mean to do that"? The camera dried out eventually, the Rodenstock lens spent 8 costly weeks being "repaired".</p>

<p> Then there was the time while shooting a video of a (quiet) church wedding. My Bogen tripod's quick release, "quicked released". The $1500 video camera fell 7 feet onto the concrete floor with a rather loud shattering sound.</p>

<p>Bighorn ram at a parking pull off in Glacier NP, HUGE horns, at least 150% curve, dusk, three cameras on the seat beside me, and I grabbed the one set for timer/mirror lockup, Velvia 50 and 1/20 sec.<br>

By the time my brain started working (what's wrong with this camera? oh, yeah....) he was gone</p>

<p>(1)Jumping into a swimming pool with a roll of exposed Velvia in my swimming suit pocket. (The shots came out fine.)</p>

<p>(2)Thinking the film in my A2E had just rewound back into the cassette, I opened the back of the camera. Guess what? It had not rewound.</p>

<p>(3)Buying a new 4gig CF card so I could shoot RAW on a week long trip to the Las Vegas area and not have to copy cards and erase them. Since the card was a brand I was not familiar with, I tested it at home before we left. So we get to Vegas, check in, and go out on the street to look around and shoot some photos. Hmmm... camera is behaving oddly. No CF Card! The new CF card was in my card reader, back home, 2000 miles away.</p>

<p>not having the cf card in the camera when shooting the perfect sunset. leaving the camera on manual focus and using auto focus lens at an important work event :(</p>

<p>yesterday when i ran out of batterie in BOTH my camera,,having forget to ;</p>

<p>1_charge them during the night</p>

<p>2_having forget to take the 2 spare that i left on the charger!</p>

<p>30$US worth of taxi to go get them and go back to my original site...</p>