Shooting debacles

[ellea]

<p>Hi all,<br>

My day was rendered pretty unfulfilling after an accident that occurred during a shoot I was doing. I'm doing an assignment at college in which I am required to use the college provided Mamiya RB 67 Pro S - which is great. However there are only 9 of these cameras available, and there are 60 students doing this assignment. This meant that I had to borrow the camera today between the hours of 4pm and 8pm (no other time slots available), go to an isolated park area (my own fault. I wanted to shoot there - it's a beautiful place), and shoot one roll of film - 10 exposures total.<br>

So there I was, snapping away, getting what I thought could turn out to be some beautiful shots of a lake and the bird life around it. I finally finish the roll of film and open up the camera back. Instead of seeing the nice coloured paper on the outside, I see black. Yes. I have wound the film in the wrong way and wasted my film.<br>

<br /> It was the first time I've used the camera and the first time I used medium format, but I still feel rather stupid.<br>

<br /> So, does anyone else have stories to tell about when a shoot went wrong? I'd love to hear them :)</p>

<p>Elle</p>

[luis_g]

<p> I had my share of halo moments just like yours, when I realized the counter on my Nikon was going into the 40's.</p>

<p> </p>

[William Kahn]

<p>Well, there was the day I was shooting an old corral near Flagstaff, AZ with my newly-acquired Olympus OM-1. The light was great, and I got some interesting angles and shadows. I finished the roll, packed up and went home. Later, when I rewound the roll, I noticed there was no tension in the film. Then, I opened the back and discovered that the film had never engaged the takeup spool and had never left the cannister. That's when I learned to watch the rewind knob when advancing the film to make sure it's turning, too.</p>

<p>To add insult to injury: When I finally made it back to the corral for another try, it had been torn down......</p>

[bobcossar]

<p>I once dropped a Hassy from the balcony of the Cathedral. During a wedding. And during a lens change.....:(</p>

<p>And I know a man who using an RB at a wedding was so excited that upon taking the film out of the magazine, he then reloaded it,(backwards), and ran it through a second time....Regards, Bob</p>

[lex_jenkins]

<p>More goofs than I care to recall, including two consecutive wasted rolls of Provia, several years ago. I had only recently switched from Canon FD to Nikon gear and had become spoiled by Canon's QL (Quick Load) doodad, which eased not only foolproof loading but encouraged squeezing an extra frame or two out of each roll. With my then-new-to-me Nikon F3HP I didn't wind completely to frame #1, ensuring the rewind knob was turning. Nope, not me, because I had more than 20 years of experience and wouldn't make a silly mistake like th...</p>

<p>...what the heck? Yup, the leader popped off the takeup spool. And I didn't notice. And because I was using the MD-4 set to automatically shut off at the 36th exposure, I didn't notice anything. Twice.</p>

<p>Yeh, I did it twice. On the same trip. The first lab charged me anyway, a tough lesson. The second, after I got back home and was suspicious about the results of my first roll, took pity on me and didn't charge for my goof.</p>

[luis_g]

<p>The first time I went photographing with my newly acquired M3, I was 3/4 of the way through my first roll, when a kid remarked "Mister, you have your lens cap on...." and he was right.</p>

<p> </p>

[conrad_hoffman]

<p>There is no more effective medicine than one of these goofs. Guaranteed you'll be cured forever. I had to shoot head and shoulder portraits of 50-75 people for a newspaper many years ago. I managed to underexpose every single one by about 2-3 stops. May have underdeveloped 'em as well. Agfa Brovira #5 paper gave me flat and just barely usable prints. They ran in a two-page spread, but you can be sure that exposure has ranked high on my list of things to worry about ever since.</p>

[matthew_newton]

<p>Unfortunately William, I know your pain. I've had 2 rolls do this in my OM-1. The first was the final roll on a trip to England (there goes the last day and a half in London) and the 2nd was at my brother's wedding...there went all my B&W shots. Thank goodness with the later I was shooting with my OM-1n with color film and my OM-1 with B&W, so I didn't lose everything. I almost thought I had done this on a roll on my honeymoon when the frame counter advanced past 36...37...38...39, and then done. How 39 exposures fit on the roll I have no earthly idea, the most I have ever seen was 37 and a bit extra...but somehow this roll was a but longer and had space for 39. The last 2 pictures on the roll were random pictures on the cruise ship since after picture 37 when it kept letting me wind I panicked and shot of 2 shots quick and then it ran out of film. My heart was beating like crazy I was so panicked for about a minute until I realized I had, in fact, not misloaded a roll of film on my honeymoon.<br>

It was after the 2nd time that I started watching the rewind knob and also taking up tension after advancing to the first frame to ensure the take up spool has a good grip.</p>

[bjscharp]

The `film not engaging take-up spool' is an old favourite of mine.

 

One of the reasons I admire my EOS 30: it's better at loading film than I am...

[DickArnold]

<p>It was my last wedding after seven years ih the business without a major disaster. We were in this lovely Maine Coast sanctuary after the ceremony and I was doing formals with a Bronica ETRSi. I decideded to change lenses. I forgot to change the aperture on the new lens and overexposed a roll of fifteen pictures before I figured out what was wrong. So on the way out while fumbling with my Bronica I stepped on the bride's ten foot train. Thank God it didn't rip. So while apologizing to the bride for jerking her head back I had to admit that I had spoiled a roll of group pictures. This lovely young woman forgave me in this hallowed place and, herself, got the wedding party back together and I took three or four rolls of 120 in the church garden. On the way out of the church as she was boarding the limo to meet me on a beach cliff for portraits of her and her unripped train I dropped my EF 70-200 2.8 on the cement walk leading away from the church. It hit on the lens hood, which I always use, and bounced about a foot in the air. Well the two of us made it to the cliff where I did capture some lovely photographs of her tall, slender figure with the train in its full glory. My lens survived. She called me a couple of weeks later and wanted a lot of pictures. I have never given up negatives before, but she had been so decent in excusing my clearly non-professional conduct that I sent them to her without charge and gave her the rights. I had been quite successful at the business and felt good about her and about how it turned out. What is says, in my humble opinion, that if you and your customers develop empathy it makes for better more emotional pictures and avoids conflict. So endeth my career as a wedding photographer on a very nice note considering I did my best to screw it up.</p>

 

[leicaglow]

<p>My biggest problem is making sure the camera strap doesn't cover the lens when shooting a rangefinder.</p>

[alex_lofquist]

<p>"Shooting debacles."</p>

<p>I tried shooting a couple of debacles, but they wandered out of the frame before I could get a shot off.</p>

[thomas_hardy1]

<p> In my profession we have a check list to reduce debacles. I'd like to know what checklist the conscientious photographer goes through.</p>

[William Kahn]

<p>Alex, I was wondering when someone was going to do that (and the temptation was strong!) :-))</p>

[oskar_ojala]

<p>It happens...once I forgot to wind the film after shooting the last frame on a Hasselblad and took it out, immediately realising my error. Fortunately ruined only the latest frame...</p>

[DickArnold]

<p>Let's see. On my checklist, which I would pull out in the middle of shooting formals would be "change the fstop stupid". I would add "don't fool with the camera when following the bride or you might step on her train"; and then, of course, "don't carry three bodies and an extra lens and try to change one of them while trying to get departure photos" you may drop a three pound lens. Well, I think checklists are ok and I spent a lot of time preparing and had triple redundancy for everything. Having said all that and been solo at all my weddings, some of them very large, it is hard to fumble with a checklist and get all the pictures you need. I was an aviation professional for many years. We used checklists to make sure every item was checked but the primary item on emergency checklists was first and foremost--fly the airplane. The same holds true with photography. There are times when you have to know what the hell you are doing. And as in aviation, it is helplful to admit your bonehead mistakes and share them as it may keep someone else from repeating your mistakes in the future. </p>

[nickjeftic]

<p>Some years back I spent 3 days hiking on Kilimanjaro snapping away my mothers "Idiot Camera" (film) before I realized it was actually empty. Unfortunately at that time they still hadn't invented the "Imbecile Camera" which would have been more appropriate for someone as ignorant to photography as myself.</p>

[john_elder1]

<p>A good friend of mine who has a BFA in photography from RIT was asked by his close friend to shoot a wedding a few states away, all expenses paid ( plane ticket etc) My friend hadn't shot a Hassy in a decade and didn't shoot the rented hassy before the wedding. He shot the entire wedding loading the film backwards and got ZERO pictures of the wedding. Now thats a mistake you don't forget.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>When I was in high school doing all of the group photos for the yearbook - we shot all of the photos on 3 cameras - 1 old roli 2 1/4 and 2 35 mm as backup</p>

<p>As luck would have it - we decided to develop all of the film in the same batch of developer. </p>

<p>The only problem was that the person who mixed the chemicals used the wrong bottle and mistakenly put fixer in the developer bottle.</p>

<p>We had to go back to the school administration, explain what happened and beg for them to allow us to re-take the photos all with-in about 2 days. We then mixed fresh chemicals and did each roll separately to ensure that we had everything right.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[chelsea]

<p>My latest bad habit that results in exposure debacles is playing around with the exposure compensation dial, and then forgetting to reset it. The other one I can blame on winter gloves, when I shut off the camera (Canon Rebel XT), the thumb of the glove catches on the dial and twitches it from AV to manual. Manual is usually set on bulb for night shots, so...next shot, hit shutter...and realize it's not clicking.</p>

[johnny_anderson]

<p>My first 2 1/4 camera was a Bronica SQ A(if I remember correctly) and I also loaded the film with the backing facing the shutter. Felt like a real idiot and I had used an Ansco 120 camera for years and new better! Luckily all I ruined was a roll of film that I was practicing with, nothing special.</p>

[www.philwinterphotography.]

<p>It's not just film. I recently purchased a 4gb CF card so that THIS TIME, I would have enough memory to shoot all RAW images and not have back up on other media and erase cards. We arrived at our hotel, checked in, then went out for a walk to photograph the sights. When I "took" the first image, the camera behaved oddly. I chimped the LCD only to see "No CF Card!" Then it hit me. The 4gb CD card I purchased was a brand I had not used before. So, like a good photographer, I tested it before I left home. I shot several images, then made sure I could download them with my card reader. Yep, the new, 4gb CF card was 2000 miles away, still in the card reader! </p>

<p>I got by by shooting a lot of JPEGS and a few RAWs on several 1gb cards that I brought along for backup. Next time, I'll have a check list.</p>