Mistakes.
 

Took a few shots at the weekend and forgot to reset my ISO speed from 800 to a lower setting so lost quality which had me thinking of all the many mistakes I've made over the years from leaving lens caps on to opening the back of the camera to take the film out before rewinding the film. If there is a mistake I've probably had a go at it - anybody else learnt the hard way and would like to share?:o

Mike,twice I have accidentally turned down the exposure/compensation setting down to zero.It is usally kept at 0ne third of a stop down.My own fault as I never check histograms etc.All the images came out so dark.But I did manage to rescue several each time using Picasa.The last time it happened I had been photographing the local mink in the river.The first time I have actually seen them,I took over 100 shots.Not a mistake I will make again-hopefully not.

My biggest mistake was erasing all the images on the card and not just the one that was blurred, fortunately I realised what I had done and was able to get most of the images back with sandisks recovery software. I now double check as I delete any photo's in the camera that I haven't moved onto the all button.

My trick has been to leave the camera still set for indoor lighting and then do a whole days shooting outdoors before I notice. A few times gone for a walk around my local patch without a memory card or forget to check the battery level to see if freshly charged battery needs fitting.

About 10 years go I was photographing dragonflies and ran out of film. So I took out the exposed film, and walked away from the tripod. However the tripod was embedded in the silt of a stream, and my walking away through the squelchy sediment unbalanced the tripod, tipping the camera and lens into the stream. Goodbye camera (Nikon F90X) and hello big lens cleaning bill. On another occasion I dropped an exposed film into a bog. And there's a free like new Nikon DR3 right angle finder in the New Forest for anyone who can find it, after I put it down, and promptly lost it. I had a film lost in the post, and another turned out blue when the Kodak development machine broke. I sent my best two slides to a well known printer, who returned them by normal post (I had paid for recorded) and that was the last I saw of the slides and I never saw the prints. Touchwood, my recent antics have been less costly. Thus far.

I suppose I now count my mistakes as learning experiences and I try not to make the same mistake again e.g. inappropriate shutter speed or aperture, unstable support, wrong location, wrong time of day etc. If this lark was easy, it wouldn't be challenging and fun. Would it?

The most common mistake I make is to switch to (for example) aperture priority for a particular subject and forget to switch back to program/shutter priority/manual as needed for the next subject. I'll usually twig what I've done if the light changes and the readings don't move as I expect them to but not always.

Sometimes leave the exposure compensation dialled in to a particular figure and forget to move it back after I've finished with the subject that needed it.

Took a bunch of dragonfly shots yesterday before realizing that the compactflash card was back in the house.:o

I mainly shoot aviation so my camera remains setup more or less for that where little deviation is required. I normally clean lenses and pack a camera bag to evening before its needed and I set the camera to what I believe will be close to whats needed, shutter and aperture along with ISO.

Past mistakes:-

Going out forgetting a spare battery with only 10% remaining on the fitted battery - DOH!

Going out forgetting a CF card case leaving only CF card in camera - DOH!

At Southend openday, first real outing of this year and being used to shooting portraits and still life using flash I figured 1/60th was fast to I would be able to shoot moving objects 100m away at 1/60 - 1/125 using a focal length of upto 340mm - Nah!!

One of my howlers has been nudging the exposure compensation wheel whilst shooting air to air and not realising until I'd taken a further 20-30 shots. It gets pretty frantic in an open cockpit and it's easily done.

Not to mention tight confined space, fantastic opportunity you had there, was one of your photos used on the cover of Shuttleworth programme last weekend?

Let's see, how about doing tripod work using the mirror lockup equivalent (2 or 10 second delay), and forgetting to reset it, so that the next day when time is of the essence to capture the subject's pose at just the right moment so you can go and collect your Pulitzer, you press the shutter and realize you have 2 seconds to stare into a blackened viewfinder while your subject moves, grows old and dies. Or, forgetting to change the mode setting from continuous to single frame, and machine-gunning your last half-roll of Velvia through the camera?

I think you are the 'winner' so far Leif, losing your Nikon! Thank goodness I have not done anything that bad (yet!)

Confirmation that I am the most stupid. Not the best prize to win. :D

That's the one, I've had several others over the past couple of years. It certainly went down well, the programme sold out.

The exposure compensation blunder was on an earlier trip with the two Magisters, it was more of a fun trip with a camera than anything serious. On that trip I learnt a few lessons:

1. don't use a neckstrap (it catches the slipstream and strangles you)
2. check all your settings every few shots.
3. plan where the sun's going to be and plan your shots well during the briefing (the pleasure trip didn't go into that level of detail)
4. vary your shutter speeds in blocks so that if the buffeting and vibration is too much for a slow shutter at least you have something to show for a very expensive sortie.
5. have fun - that's what it's all about.
6. don't forget to thank everyone involved for giving you the opportunity.

I had 4 minutes of contact time with the Pup with a gale howling through the open canopy - everything's frantic under those conditions and the possibility of coming down without anything decent to show for it doesn't bear thinking about.

I hope you secure the camera somehow if the strap is not round your neck in case you drop the camera over the side, it would not do anyone it hit much good! ;)

I've got handstraps on both my cameras. They're perfectly secure.

A neckstrap in an open cockpit isn't a very good idea unless you find some way of securing the back of the strap so that it doesn't catch the wind.

Thanks for the explanation.

Whilst climbing in Cwm Idwal I carefully placed my camera into its pouch on the left side of my harness, only to realise as it bounced down 300 ft of rockface that the pouch was on the right - on the left was the open pocket of my cag!
I now secure my camera to a long piece of cord permenantly clipped on to the harness - at least then if gravity takes over, it should survive with mininal dammage.

Other mishaps include flooding my rucksac, with the camera inside it, by carelessly leaving the top open in the rain, freezing the shutter shut leaving the camera outside my tent overnight and destroying the focus mechanism of my bigma with windblown sand.

Leif has competition! :D The best time to do this sort of thing is when you have to persuade your ever loving that you really do need that new camera/lens etc but it will only work once!:D

Forgetting to turn my iso down.
Not charging cammera battery.
Forgetting my portable storage unit for a weekend of airshows.
Shooting with a film wound back.

Picking up 20D, 1.4 Canon TC and 500 f/4 in my left hand out of the back of the car, camera bag with another 20D and assorted lenses in the other hand, then seeing a $2.50 bag of oranges about to roll out and fall to the ground ... and dropping the camera and 500mm lens to catch the oranges. I think that qualifies as a mistake!

Definately. Hope nothing was broken.

The camera was fine, Mike. But the teleconverter was NWR (not worth repairing, I had to buy another one) and the 500mm lens had to take a trip to Canon's repair centre in Sydney. I only got it back a couple of weeks ago and it's evey bit as wonderful a lens as it was before I dropped it. Total cost, about $700, $500 of that for the new TC. I was amazed at less than $200 to repair the 500mm f/4 - I'd expected four figures. Top marks to Canon!

And no more oranges!

Yesterday was just one of those days. I was headed out to a Christmas Bird Count. This particular count always has a pot-luck lunch at noon. Just a chanc to eat and up-date each other on what has been seen in the morning.
I was halfway there when a i realized that my food contribution was back home in the kitchen.:eek:
During the count and immature Blad Eagle drifted right over us at low level. I grabbed the camera and bailed out of the van. It wouldn't focus or expose. That's when I realized that the battery was dead. Changed batteries but naturally by then the eagle was long gone. I shut off the camera and put it a way without making any exposures. A little later, I spotted a breautiful dog fox by the road. Went to take some pictures, no memory card.:rolleyes:

LOL - Dan

Just when you think things can't get worse they do !!

Right on! there was nothing left to do but laugh at myself (the gang of birders with me also got a good chuckle).

Ouch Dan, that's a double whammy!

Mistake
 

Walked out on the beach to take low angle view. Changed to angle finder. Put eyepiece on bag. Took photo. picked up bag and walked on. 10min later missed eyepiece. went back tide was in!! Last week in Lake district took loads of landscape tripod shots on 1600iso:mad:

Thats when my wife would say just be glad you saw the bald eagle/dog fox! She has a good point but not conducive to lowering blood pressure at the time!

Your wife is right but.......
Actually it was an eagle sort of day. Our group saw 7 including one that was in hot pursuit of a gull. Another group doing the count saw 23 Bald Eagles, probably a record for the Christmas Count in that area.

The second from last roll of film I shot ended up with a sequence of photos of a Great Crested Grebe carrying its chicks on its back. I finished the roll, got a new roll out of the bag, opened the camera, DOH!

Actually most of them survived the experience.

My usual trick though was to switch the camera shutter speed from automatic to bulb or 'close when I release it'.