Year end "Horror Story", what's yours?

[fotografz]

The broken lap-top story below reminded me how we've all contributed stories of our own trials and

tribulations in the past. In addition to some of them being entertaining, some are downright terrifying,

and act as a red flag caution to all of us engaged in this work.

 

Here's my worst one for 2006, it happened on our last wedding shoot. It illustrates what can happen

when you break an established routine.

 

Ed Richter and I had to drive to BFI for the ceremony, then from there to somewhere on Pluto for the

reception. These places have yet to learn about Edison's invention of the light-bulb, and you are

driving in pitch dark with ill marked streets.

 

Despite being armed with a stack of Map-Quest directions, I was still concerned. So, I asked my wife if

we could take her STS armed with GPS and On-Star. As usual when I borrow her car, the gas tank was

on empty, so we had to stop and fill it up.

 

Now to get the problem about to happen, you have to know that the Caddy has that high-tech key

system that recognizes who's driving, and it's all push button based on signals from the key fob.

 

We arrive at the church right on time with the help of the GPS (map-quest sucked, and was vague,

where the GPS was exact ). We get out and ...yep ... you guessed it ... no key! All the photo gear is in

the trunk with no way to open it. Can't start the car. It's a 2 ton paper weight.

 

I immediately assume I had dropped the key at the gas station, which would have been close enough to

start the car and drive away.

 

I'm now like a Ferret on Crack. We're suppose to be on the job in 5 minutes. What to do? Richter starts

hunting for the car's manual which isn't in the glove box. There has to be a way to manually over-ride

the system. I call my wife to get her to come with her key (she's an hour and a half away), and to give

me the number for On-Star. On Star can open the locks, but can't start the car remotely. Richter finds

the manual under one of the seats, and we manually open the trunk.

 

Yanking out the bags, I'm still faced with no car to drive to the reception. Big PITA. Then Richter says

"what's this hanging off one of the gear bags?" ... it's the freakin' key. Why I was able to start the car at

home and at the gas station, but not at the church is a mystery.

 

All the rest of that day we had nothing but tech issues. H2D suddenly stopped working, A flash went

haywire, even Richter's bullet proof 1DsMKII locked up. The Gremlins were all over the place at that

wedding.

 

Delivered the job yesterday, and the client LOVED it all. Never let them see you sweat : -)

 

Merry Christmas, and a Happy (nightmare free) New Year.

[kevin cook - stratford upo]

A True horror story especially the bit about Edison inventing the light bulb LOL.

This was invented by an Englishman Humphrey Davy 80 years before Edison improved on the design with a carbon element.

The first working electric light bulb was invented by Swan (an Englishman), again 20 years beforehand. :-) Sorry guys.

 

Edison tried to sue Swan for patent and lost settling to be a partner in the Swan Light Company.

 

Well it is Christmas.

[nancy s.]

A few years ago I also had a key recognition issue with a car at the wedding that would not start to get to the reception. A comdey of errors got me there.

 

When the car was "repaired" the VATS (Vehicle anti theft system) got bypassed much the same way you by pass it for remote starting. I bought this car used but I do not believe I will ever willingly buy another car with any sort of key or driver recognition system.

 

Just like my cameras, I prefer manual systems. The more electronic gizmos, the more that can go wrong and they are all most unreasonably expensive to repair.

[steve_levine]

Good luck seems to favor the prepared. Knowledge, experience and lots of extra gear can negate all nightmares.

 

That said. In my sojourn as wedding shooter, I have had several flash sync cord mishaps, a battery charger failure, a dropped and destroyed super VHS camera, a camera flash sync failure (that was luckily caught early on), and a dropped piece of gear, or two. But I have never lost any film, or badly exposed anything enough, that it couldn't be printed (knock wood).

[jmichaelc]

"Ferret on Crack"

 

Great illustration of a wedding photographer in a panic - i'm still laughing.

 

By the way, where is BFI? I'm usually driving in BFE.

 

The worst thing that happened to me all year was leaving two 550EX speedlights at home (2.5 hours away) and having only one throughout the wedding. Thank God the one 550EX made it through without glitch and that i had begun to implement 1600WL strobes into my formal work. Other than that, pretty much without incident....except for everytime my 1DMII's rolls over 10,000 cycles and the folder structure forces you to address it. It happens so far and in-between that i forget what's happening and instantly think something is wrong with my card. Last time this happened right before the bride was to come down the isle.......i paniced and formatted 3-4G cards in a row and they all said 5 shots left. What???? After 5 beads of sweat popping out on my forehead, i realized my cycle was about to turn another 10,000 - do a quick burst fire, address it, and wo la- I have 300 shots left on card. Instant relief.

[laurenm]

Not a wedding, but a car related issue... was in Maine with my boss at a remote lighthouse. Opened my trunk to get out my camera and as the trunk was closing, I realized the keys were in it. I couldn't grab it fast enough. A friendly group of tourists from South Carolina pulled apart my backseat for me and I reached my arm throguh to get the keys. I have to think no New Englander would have been willing to pull my back seat apart!

[rayt]

I photographed, or was supposed to photograph a wedding in the spring. It was an outdoor wedding on a park by the lake. It was to be in the evening so that the sunset would be in background for the wedding pictures. Difficult lighting, but doable.

 

So comes time for the wedding. No bride. The sun is setting and we are going to loose the light. Still no bride. Everyone is wondering what is going on. I am standing around tapping my foot, sweating profusely, and looking impatient. Still no bride. By now the light was lost.

 

Someone gets a phone call. There are some tears, and everyone starts leaving. I figure that the bride backed out. No problem for me as I had their money and was going to keep the money. And I told the grooms family that was the way it was going to be.

 

Well, that was not quite the case. I wound up willingly, if not a little sheepishly, refunding all the money that had been paid. Why? Well the bride had been in a auto accident on the way to the park and she did not survive.

 

I felt like a real jerk and it was probably deserved.

[laurenm]

Raymond wins the horror story contest :(

[kari douma]

WOW. What a horrible story Raymond.

 

I guess my worst isn't so bad. I had one wedding where everyone was too laid back. We were doing all the formal pictures before the wedding. Bride was 15 min late, groom was 1/2 hour late. (Still doable.) I was not contracted to do the getting ready pictures, but since I had nothing else to do and they were not ready, I did some. Then, one of the bridesmaides was 1 hour and 15 minutes late! I was doing every imaginable image before she got there. I did a ton of pics of the groom and groomsmen. The funny thing was, no one seemed to care, not even the bride. She was also a sister (or in-law, can't quite remember) so we couldn't do the family pictures either. Well, she finally got there, and still had to get her dress on. She split the dress while putting it on, so we had to wait for someone to get a needle and thread to fix it. Of course, no one had one, and they had to go somewhere to get one. The bridesmaids and family had aboout 2 or 3 pics each, and that was all we could squeeze out. Everytime I think I schedule too long for formals, something like this happens and I think I am glad I do.

[catchlight]

Kari's story reminds me why we always carry a "bride repair kit", including sewing supplies, hair control products, and other items to do patchups on site in case of "wardrobe malfunctions", wind, and other disasters during the shoot.

[emmett_s]

Marc reminds me of the following Jeff Foxworthy line"...my wife does not seem to be aware that it IS legal for women to purchase gasoline in this state"

[shawn_mertz]

Early in the year I forgot my cards. Fortunately there was one in each camera. Called my

son at home he brought them, got lost first of course. One of the two cards failed after 3

pictures. Finally he got there, they kinda wondered why I made so many phone calls but

never knew. 10 inutes after my son left I was getting my tripod from the car and noticed a

puddle by a front tire. leaking brakes! Called him again and traded cars. If I hadn't seen

that puddle it would have been big trouble since after the wedding we went to the top of a

very steep hill.

 

Since then I doubled the cards I have and one set is in the bag never to be used, I hope. I

haven't figured out how to put a backup car in my camera yet.

[dave_powell2]

Mine wasn't photographic. My Suburu Outback was rear-ended last week by someone in a Jeep Grand Cherokee who "did not see" me and the other cars stopped in the road in front of her. So she hit at full ramming speed. Fortunately, my car took the brunt of it; I squeeked through whiplashed, but unbent...despite my 58 years.

 

Her insurance agent even appologized by phone this morning.

 

And a Merry, Merry to Everyone!

 

Sincerely,

 

Dave

[robbie_caswell]

Lauren,

South Carolinians love tearing apart the back seats of cars! Half of us were concieved in the back seat of a car...

 

My first outing with the 5D, I lost all my images... Still don't know what happened. Luckily it was just a walk about having fun at a Christmas tree lighting. Had some nice images of a Chambers of Commerce big wig and and child I wanted to pass along. Had some Nikon RAW Nefs files on the card.

 

For the life of me I either stashed them some BFE folder, or they are gone.

[ben_rubinstein___mancheste1664880652]

I've had a wedding where my 5D started having a hanging up shutter and my backup 20D was only working intermitedly, at that wedding, where I was getiing the most I'd ever charged for a wedding with a huge package, the bride couldn't smile and looked in the wrong direction in almost every formal as well as the hem of her dress coming down and being covered in really bad mud. I smashed a 580ex at that wedding on top of it all. They love the pictures which turned out to be a nice set in the end but I suppose being professional means coping with adversity when no excuses are acceptable for a one time occasion especially when you're being paid serious money!

[picturesque]

Hmmm...don't have any recent ones. The most recent was last year, when the groom didn't show up for the wedding.

[jon jacobson]

No seriously bad horror stories, but I did have a few panic moments:

<p>

- 20d shutter locked during the processional. Fortunately, I had a 5d at the ready. Quick swap of lens and flash for Bride and FOB. Either way, Bride wasn't happy about the missed processional.<br>

- I'm not sure how it happened, but over half of the rechargable AAs for the strobes were dead. Fortunately, we made it with the few that were charged.<br>

- An interesting moment was while we were doing a "location" shoot between ceremony and reception, the groom received a phone call saying the guests had already emptied the bar. This is while we were all huddled under a gazebo during the pouring rain. But the true disaster here, is that we were under a tornado warning and unaware of it. No sirens. Nothing. It touched down only a few miles away, and I'm certain we missed a killer photo op!<br>

- My wife hit a deer on her way to a wedding. Fortunately, we drive separately (for this reason) to local gigs. In the end, the car was still drivable.<br>

- And for the ultimate deer-in-headlights moment (unrelated to the previous deer), a groomsman in one wedding approached me about his picture I posted on P/net from HIS wedding a few months prior. At least I hope I didn't show panic. Turned out he was flattered by it. :)

<p>

- Jon

[conraderb]

I love hearing horror stories - they are fascinating.

 

My only big goof up this year was when I had a client who was required to pay somewhere in the high hundreds of dollars for a 'stagehand' to plug in my lights at a venue that is run by a union (I support unions generally, but in this case I felt like they were taking advantage of my client....

 

in this case, the venue was basically a huge greenhouse - nothing to bounce any flash off of, and darn it if I would shoot direct flash all night!

 

I arrive at the venue, set up the lights w/ umbrellas and realized that I had forgotten the power cords for my lights! after about 10 seconds of panic, I remembered that they are the same type of power cord as for a computer, and so I had the stagehand find me two cords. I sent my assistant out for power cords at a staples nearby as well...

 

problem solved. client never knew a thing, and the rest of the wedding went smoothly. client was delighted, I had my adrenalin trip and everyone lived happily ever after.

[sam_ellis]

I posted about this before, but it was my worst wedding story of the year. On my way to the wedding, some idi0t crashed into my car. Thankfully it wasn't too serious and I had given myself ample time to spare, but still nerveracking. I also had to deal with a jerk cop who seemed to take longer when I expressed the urgency of my situation. "The more you talk the longer this is going to take." Power tripper.

 

This was back in August and my insurance company is still trying to get things taken care of. They are claiming it wasn't his fault. Hmmm, he tried to make a left turn onto a one way street, realized he couldn't go that way, and swerved into my lane hitting me. Nope, couldn't possibly be his fault. Jersey drivers! LOL!!! Sorry, I couldn't resist.

[laurenm]

Lol Robbie! My boss and I just figured most New Englanders first, wouldn't even pause to say hello or make eye contact and even if they did, I can imagine most would be in too much of a hurry or afraid of getting sued to tear my backseat out. The wives of the guys who did help said "they do this all the time" and I think they meant it. I only wish I had gotten their names or address or license plate number to thank them. I think I was in disbelief that they helped.

 

(sorry to any fellow NE's, I know we're not all THAT bad)

[conraderb]

oh yes - I also ripped the foot of a 580EX flash apart when my tripod fell over this summer. June 10 it was.

 

luckily I didnt' hurt anyone - but it fell very close to the head of a good friend! she took the whole thing very well. I'm glad it didn't knock her out!

[ned1]

Some weddings seem like a conspiracy against you. I showed up a bit early at one and was supposed to start with the bride's prep. I got there, found the door closed, and the mother guarding it.

 

"sorry, but you can't go in there"

 

No problem. I sit down in a chair and take a few shots of the bridesmaids darting in and out. Then I notice what looks like a photographer come out, two Canons hanging off her and some nice looking lenses. I knew things were bad when I saw she was avoiding my eyes.

 

"Who's she?" I asked the mother.

 

"Oh, that's the photographer from the local society column. It was so nice of her to come and do this for us."

 

Gasp number one.

 

I tried to pin the interloper down but she kept rushing past me. I finally caught her by making a motion to grab her.

 

"I don't mind if you're here" I said (big mistake?) "but we have to coordinate things between us."

 

"Don't worry, I'm just going to hang around in the background and keep out of your way."

 

Comes time for the march down the isle. I'm doing my usual crouch, shoot, step backwards thing. The second time I step backwards there she is, crouching right behind me, and I go flying.

 

Gasp number two.

 

OK, I do my best to recover from that and remind myself that there were 100 witnesses who could verify my story if I ever got sued. Things go well from there up until the bouquet toss.

 

I had never worked with the DJ before. During dinner he told me that he did mostly parties. Mistake number two: if you ever work with an unfamiliar DJ who is not a veteran, walk through EVERYTHING with him.

 

'Cause here's what happened and I'm curious if this has ever happened to you.

 

First, I always shoot the toss with two lights, which means I have to know where the bridesmaids will line up. I told him where I wanted them to go, he nodded, and I thought everything was good. Of course, even though he was making the announcements he never told them where to stand and of course the stood diagonally to where the second lights was. So a made a mad dash, moved the light, jumped back to my spot and right away he started the countdown. One - Two - Three - OH my GOD he suddenly stepped right in front of me. I leaped to the side a literally took the shot in mid-air. It actually came out fine.

 

So I pointed out to him that he almost ruined the toss. His response:

 

"You just have to move faster".

 

Gasp.

[fotografz]

Homicide come to mind there Edward : -)

 

Nothing equals losing a bride. My heart goes out to that poor family and the fellow who's

love was snuffed out on what should have been the best day of his life. Poor dear girl.

 

We should all stop and count our blessings.

[kelvinphoto - arlington, t]

2 of my flash's shoe broke during wedding event and force me to shoot with my 20D with a popup flash. Those popup come in handy sometime.

[marcsaint]

Hmmm, nightmares, eh...?

 

Just to show the Canon folk that other cameras break down as well, my trusty D100 went belly-up mid-wedding forcing me to finish the job with the backup D70 which didn't play well with the SB80 strobe I was using. No, that wasn't too bad -- ending up buying a D200 for a replacement.

 

There was the outdoor wedding where the first 10 minutes had absolutely perfect weather until horrendous storm clouds and lightning move directly over the wedding site. Everyone made it to the limo just as the skies opened up. The reception site had NOWHERE to take formals that didn't have undraped (i.e. reflective) windows. One of the bridesmaids did a pole dance. Okay, so that wasn't too bad...

 

Alright, my only nightmare was another outdoor tent wedding where the rain came down in buckets and there was no Plan B indoor site. The tent was located in a field out in the middle of nowheres which rapidly turned into a sea of mud. You needed waders to go to the Sanican toilets. The bride's dress had a 6 inch ring of brown muck on the hem. The tent leaked. Everywhere.

 

Okay, not that bad a nightmare but it's the only one I've got. Thank God.