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DPChallenge Forums >> Photography Discussion >> The worst day of your photographic life
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10/02/2005 12:33:32 PM · #1
Can you remember the worst day of your photographic life :o(
If there any shall you like to share that moment with us? :o)

With love,
Rudra
10/02/2005 12:40:10 PM · #2
i Think Neuferland has me hands down for worse day of phhotographic lift.
Mine just includes falling off a wheely chair and messing my knee up for a couple of weeks
10/02/2005 12:42:44 PM · #3
well i dont know if I've had any day shooting that was that horrible, but the first time I shot in the studio with a hasselblad awhile back, I ran two rolls of film through it backwards exposing the paper! Needless to say the people I shot were about as unhappy as I was. I feel like with those cameras, you're bound to screw something up when you first learn to use them.
10/02/2005 12:45:08 PM · #4
Every day for me. I just suck.

Actually, I've got one from a friend of mine who bought a rather expensive Nikon 8700 just a little while ago, then went on a 2 month whirlwind trip through USA, visiting old friends in LA, Chicago, Detroit, Florida, New York, and ended up taking this really sumptuous two-week Caribbean cruise/feast.

He noticed after he got back to Taiwan (returning here directly after finishing the cruise) that his camera was not in his bag. He feels he left it on a benchseat somewhere on the outer decks of the ship.

He didn't bring his computer on the trip, so every one of his pictures is gone. He can afford a new camera though, I'm sure.

He was near tears (he's a pretty emotional latino) yesterday.

Most of my worst photographic moments actually begin really well....
... and end when I wake up :(
10/02/2005 12:51:59 PM · #5
Originally posted by mesmeraj:

i Think Neuferland has me hands down for worse day of phhotographic lift.
Mine just includes falling off a wheely chair and messing my knee up for a couple of weeks


You got that right!

Ask me how stupid I feel......

The camera now turns on and OFF, sometimes.

Deannda
Thank goodness for back up cameras
10/02/2005 12:59:52 PM · #6
nothing really bad... my worst was shooting about 40-50 shots not realizing the lens was in manual focus. Luckily the shots werent too important, landscape type shots and stationary objects near where i live. So i ended up just retracing my footsteps and taking the shots over again.
10/02/2005 01:06:38 PM · #7
This happened years ago but I lost a roll of wedding film somewhere between the church and the place I was having them printed. What really sucked was it was the posed shot taken after the wedding of the grandparents, parents, etc. I was sick for weeks over this. The only good thing was they only stayed married for about a year so most of them would have been cut in half anyway. :)
10/02/2005 01:12:00 PM · #8
Back in college i was on the school newspaper. I had my first good camera, a Rolleiflex 35mm SLR. It was in my duffle/book bag and was on a shelf in the restroom and the whole back fell to the floor. the camera's rewind lever was damaged. It took anthe fall a few months later that killed it (well, cost of repair exceeded value of the camera). That was back in 1985. Just this past January have I been able to get anotehr SLR.
So that drop puched back my photographic 'development' by 20 years.
10/02/2005 01:15:55 PM · #9
*knock on wood* I've never had anything seriously disastrous. I do have an extrordinary ability to go out for the day with my camera and only enough battery power for 4-5 shots. Then pbbbbbtt. Happens to me more than I care to admit. And it's always the days I see great photos everywhere I look, with my useless camera back in my bag. :P
10/02/2005 01:21:07 PM · #10
Took the Nikon D70 to New Orleans for a college visit to Tulane. After day 1/4, battery dies. Didn't own a spare at the time. Now, I do.

Coincidentally, day 1 was cloudy and overcast, days 2-4 were bright and sunny.
10/02/2005 01:47:26 PM · #11
I have had many misadventures with an old Konica film camera, film not advancing, forgetting to put the film, leaving the lens cover on but the best one that happened at my house was when I bought a new box of film & ink cartridges for my printer & left them on my desk. I came home later that day to find a torn kodak box in the back yard & canisters of film with bite marks in them & a chewed up printer cartridge. The dog obviously felt that she had been neglected by my new hobby and was seeking revenge...good thing the camera was put away! I was able to use one of the chewed rolls of film & kept another one just as a reminder of what not to do! I put all my camera stuff away & out of site now ;-)
10/02/2005 02:02:06 PM · #12
When I was working for an established pro, he sent me on an assignment to shoot a portrait of a local travel agency exectutive. It wasn't supposed to a be printed very large, so I planned to shoot it in 35mm. This guy was very busy and only had about 30 minutes after I got set up. I had 2 Nikon F3 bodies in my bag. When I got there, I set everything up and took a few test shots and for some reason the camera jammed. I got out my backup, it was dead too.

The only thing that saved me was the ancient 4x5 press camera I had borrowed to play around with. Luckily, I had it in my trunk. I had 10 film holders loaded with B&W film and that's what I used to shoot this guy. The guy made several comments about the camera being old, and cool looking. The people at the magazine ran my shot of this guy full page and asked if we could do shots like this all the time. My boss hated using the press camera, so I got to shoot them.

It all ended well, but there were several moments of terror, wondering how I would explain how it was that I had shown up and set up all kinds of lighting, only to come away with nothing.
10/02/2005 02:24:04 PM · #13
My worst day happened this spring. I was in the garden and heard some rustling in one of the shrubs, then a baby Blue Tit flapped out onto a dead branch right beside me. I dashed indoors, grabbed the camera, switched it on as I hurried back outside. The little bird was still sitting there and I took 20-25 shots of it.

Went back indoors and up to the PC, opened the door to remove the CF card...only there wasn't one in there. Needless to say, by the time I got back outside, with a CF card in camera, the bird had gone.

Steve

Message edited by author 2005-10-02 14:24:29.
10/02/2005 02:41:41 PM · #14
Thankfully, nothing too traumatic has happened yet. The worst day I had was right after I got my Digital Rebel and was testing out all the controls and trying all the features. Then I went out shooting for an entire bright sunny afternoon in Tokyo with the ISO left on 1600. Boy, do I wish the ISO showed up in the viewfinder or on the rear display somewhere -- I hate that you have to press a button to see it. Needless to say, I didn't get too many good shots that day.
10/02/2005 02:52:12 PM · #15
I also own a 300d and had this happen a couple of times...I usually have my setting stuck on AV so a high shutter speed is often a giveaway for a high ISO setting...
10/02/2005 08:02:25 PM · #16
Spent several weeks hiking the AT thru black wilderness of Maine to meet friends in Baxter state park. The night before I got to the end at Mt. Katadyn I witnessed the most brilliant aurora borealis. On this trip I shot over 60 rolls of the then very new & expensive velvia.

I later found out that the shutter of my Pentax had broken, but gave me no feedback that it wasn't working. I still think that those images could have been some of the best photographs I've ever taken, but all I had to show for it is clear film. Nothing against Pentax, I'm sure they make wonderful cameras, but I switched to Nikon soon after & never looked back.
10/02/2005 08:10:21 PM · #17
ummm it was labour day weekend when someone broke into my car and stole my km 5600 flash and my sigma lens...
and my little hp photo printer..
10/02/2005 08:16:51 PM · #18
Mine has to be doing a shoot for a charity - so I wasn't even getting paid, and at towards the end of the evening I slipped and fell. I kept hold of my camera, but my elbow hit the ground so hard it jarred right up my arm and destroyed the whole of the camera's insides.

I was absolutely fine...except that I had just written off a week-old PowershotPro1. :(
10/02/2005 08:26:28 PM · #19
Originally posted by turquoise919:

*knock on wood* I've never had anything seriously disastrous. I do have an extrordinary ability to go out for the day with my camera and only enough battery power for 4-5 shots. Then pbbbbbtt. Happens to me more than I care to admit. And it's always the days I see great photos everywhere I look, with my useless camera back in my bag. :P


I used to have a terrible time with batteries until I got my Panasonic. I just couldn't get NiMH AA batteries to hold a charge at all and even with 4 sets at my disposal, I never managed to get much out of them. Two days ago I took over 100 photos with my FZ5 and still had plenty battery power left without even having to think about using my spare. And the battery had been charged about a week earlier, maybe more.
10/02/2005 08:31:41 PM · #20
Mine was when I was on a trip in Germany. I found out after the trip and getting the film developed that I had somehow put one roll of film in my camera twice. So when printed I had a great set of double exposures.
10/02/2005 08:33:56 PM · #21
Oh so many nightmares. Lots of small stuff that just comes with the territory but the largest being the second wedding I shot by myself. It was in a theatre and I mentioned beforehand the more light they used the better. Anyway, they used two spotlights so essentially the place was pitch black. Hence, dark photos. But they were cool none the less and good for the conditions I had to work with. HOWEVER, things got messy when someone (actually not me) deleted an entire card of pictures that were ALL the family shots, wedding party shots (fun stuff outdoors), and a lot of the couple shots.

They basically told me later I all but ruined their day. They told me I'm talented but proceeded to accuse me of things out of this world. Even complained about me being late, when i was actually 1/2 hour early.

C'est la vie.
10/02/2005 08:40:33 PM · #22
Worst Day: Reluctantly agreed to shoot my brother's wedding. The church had a restriction against using a flash. Had just gotten the camera and didn't have a clue about ISO or any of the settings. They were depending on me for all the pictures, which came out so dark and grainy that they were a complete loss!

2nd Worst Day: When I was engaged to my husband we went on vacation. When we got back I rounded up all the old rolls of film I had laying around and took them in with the vacation pics to get developed at the local Eckerd's. An hour later I discovered that one of the rolls had some X-rated shots that my loser ex had insisted on taking a couple of years prior. I thought those pics had all been destroyed and was very flustered when I discovered them at the processing counter. My fiance was in another part of the store (whew!), but I'm sure the kids behind the counter had a great laugh.
10/02/2005 09:06:25 PM · #23
When the riot cops in this shot charged...



Did i mention those shields really HURT? That was not a very fun moment to be a photographer.
10/02/2005 09:15:35 PM · #24
My "moment" happened when I was in Italy. I was at the top flight of some steps. Thinking my camera strap was around my neck, I let the camera go. Oops. Naturally, as it bounced down it hit each and every step, coming to a stop at my friends feet. I cried as I watched it tumble. I actually finished the trip with that camera, still taking pictures. It is a Pentax P30t. I still have it and it still works.
10/02/2005 09:44:39 PM · #25
No day where I shoot photos is a bad day. The one where I hiked out about 5 miles to shoot some photos and realized my CF card was at home in the reader was slightly disappointing.
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