Photography Nightmares

NSXTypeR

Through the years I've heard my fair share of tripods falling, lenses shattering, but have you ever had a photographic nightmare where everything is just working against you?

When I was hiking in Alishan in Taiwan, a member in my tour was a real big Sony fan and had an FF Alpha, probably a 850 or a 900. He also had a RX100 and that was his primary camera for that portion, as our footing wasn't great and a big bulk DSLR camera was just too cumbersome. (However, the D40x that I had was just perfect haha.) Even though the lighting was harsh and there were extremely bright and dark areas, you'd still want to capture some shots. Well, his camera bag zipper snagged, entombing his camera in the fuzzy warmth of his bag, probably for the rest of his vacation. As a photo enthusiast, that was one of the most disheartening things I've seen. It's not even a dead battery for crying out loud!

I would imagine that this tale is quite tame compared to what you guys have seen.

spraynpray

My nightmare was not noticing my camera was on bracketing for a few days on holiday. Don't ask me how it is possible to not notice, my only defence is that there was lots of light so the shutter speed always sounded the same...

@NSX: Isn't that what sharp objects were invented for?

JJ_SO

Was just about to ask the same. Guys without knives? And surviving in jungle? I'd open it with a knife and later send the bag to the manufacturer with some spicy lines about zipper qualities.

spraynpray

Exactly. +1

DJBee49

I once did a theatre photo-call shoot, with major liaison with the lighting designer, set designer, director and the cast of about 20. All went brilliantly until I realised at the end of the shoot.......I had no film in the camera. Brilliant!

Of course, I pretended that there had been a camera fault and we shot it all again.

NSXTypeR

My nightmare was not noticing my camera was on bracketing for a few days on holiday. Don't ask me how it is possible to not notice, my only defence is that there was lots of light so the shutter speed always sounded the same...

@NSX: Isn't that what sharp objects were invented for?

Wow, that sucks. It also sucks when you have the camera on manual ISO and forget to set it back down again.

Nah, it wasn't a camping trip, it was a guided tour (very rushed package bus tour) that happened to have some light hiking through Alishan forest.

It wasn't a backpacking trip and it was a 5 day thing so other than a nail clipper, there wouldn't be a reason for a knife at all. And it wasn't really a camera bag I think, it was more a re-purposed purse.

Was just about to ask the same. Guys without knives? And surviving in jungle? I'd open it with a knife and later send the bag to the manufacturer with some spicy lines about zipper qualities.

I never gave a thought about zippers before until I saw that happen. It makes sense- your car can have 600 hp, but you're not going anywhere if you can't transfer it properly to the ground.

I once did a theatre photo-call shoot, with major liaison with the lighting designer, set designer, director and the cast of about 20. All went brilliantly until I realised at the end of the shoot.......I had no film in the camera. Brilliant!

Of course, I pretended that there had been a camera fault and we shot it all again.

Haha, the beauty of analogue?

Msmoto

1960's, Canon 7, wedding, film did not advance in the camera..film tab had broken off Got a lot of exposures on that roll......

A couple nights ago...was doing some time lapse and camera was on manual focus. On way back...apartment fire...shot several shots with no focusing, then caught it and captured some shots. The fire had long been out...

mikep

my mistakes have usually turned out for the best. i guess i have been lucky so far

there was this time i lost a lens cap, but it turned up in my bag later that day. considering nikon charge like $10 for a new one i was relieved.


well, one time, when i had just bought the 70-200 ii, and it was delivered, i took it out of the box and went to screw on the protective clear filter i had also purchased. for some reason it wouldnt screw on, so i pushed harder ..... still nothing. i didnt understand and tried a few times more, it didnt seem right, and the sound was like metal on glass ...

then, suddenly i understood!

i had ordered the wrong size filter, 72mm instead of 77mm, and i WAS twisting it and scraping it on the glass of the brand new lens ( i dont know how, but no damage seemed to have been done, which goes to show that these lenses can take some wear and tear.

pretty dumb huh?!

ps i have a nikon 72mm nc filter for sale if anyone wants to buy one barely used

Correlli

In the mid-eighties I was travelling through europe by train together with a friend. In one station we had to leave the train quite fast (we almost missed that we were already in the train station). On the platform my friend gave me my camera bag with my trusty FM2. Looking at my face he knew immediately that I would have forgotten the bag on the train. This could have become a nightmare...

JJ_SO

Coming back from Oslo with some really nice pictures of a friend who died of cancer half year later, I lost my wallet or got it stolen on Zurich airport. With the memory cards in it, because a photobag could get stolen... X_X

I think I fell into depression afterwards.

Two weeks later a friend called me. She was called by a lady who found my wallet in a train in Zurich. Cash was gone, but credit card and memory cards were still in it. Ever since I use an iPod or IPad as backup...

Golf007sd

My contribution. Last year while doing some HDR at Cabrillo National Monument and using my new Promote Control System (resulting photo), I got so excited about the view and the sun setting that I got in my car (real quick) and drove up about 1/4 mile...total time of departure was about 45 minutes. On my way back I just happened to drive back the same way I had gone up and low and behold there is my RRS tripod and ball head looking right at me. Words cannot express how pleased I was. $1100 worth of gear out in the open for the taking...doooop 8-} 8-} 8-}

mikep

Ever since I use an iPod or IPad as backup...

how do you use this to backup ?

JJ_SO

With the camera connector set I can transfer the images via USB cable or SD card to the iPod. It saves RAW as well but of course you see only their previews.

Of course, only while travelling.when at home, I've other,backup solutions.

itsnotmeyouknow

My nightmare is a Benro Travel light carbon fibre tripod - the one that costs over £400 (roughly $650) that was attached to my outdoor rucksack on a trip in the lake district. The light had been good enough all day to not need the tripod, so it stayed on my pack the whole day.....

....or so I thought.

I lifted my rucsac off to get the tripod off to take an evening sunset, knowing that I would probably need a HDR to get he tones right. No tripod. It was so light that I hadn't notice it fall off my pack. i retraced my steps but didn't find the tripod. I now have the alu version of the same tripod that costs half the amount, but its heavy enough for me to notice it's there or not. An expensive mistake.

bland

My nightmare is going to shoot an event and there's drunk Harley riding women there, there's nothing worse, absolutely nothing. I'd rather run into a pack of starved pitbulls then deal with them gals. The only thing I can figure is God put them on earth so we could all feel better about ourselves, nothing else makes sense.

spraynpray

OK, time for my biggie:

I used to not roll the ends of my film back into the canister so they didn't have to press the canister apart (can't think why I did that now). One day I got my film mixed up in the heat of the moment and double exposed some rolls. Trouble was that I was shooting my second ever wedding! The brides mum asked why there were no shots of her....

I crawled inside myself for a few weeks after that and eagerly wound the ends of the film into the cassette from then on.

Photophun

So there i was driving in between Kelowna and Merrit all by my self and saw a sweet spot with no light pollution. So I pulled over before a bridge to take some photos and was using my 50mm 1.4 for a while. I thought it would be nice to do a wide shot so I switched it out with my wide angle lens and put the 50mm on top of the car.

A few shots later I suddenly heard some geese getting a little rowdy and making a splash in what I thought was to get away from something. I panicked, grabbed my camera/tripod and just threw it in the back of my car and closed the door to ensure my safety. Thought, well thats that, and drove off down the highway at 110kms and heard a noise from the top of my car. I had visions of my prime lens scattered across the highway but was lucky enough to find it still resting on top of my car minus the lens cap.

My first and hopefully but not likely last encounter with making an expensive gear mistake.

Gitzo

In about May or June of 1952, I was going to a Navy service school in Norfolk, VA. While I was going to the school, I traded my 49 Ford to another guy for his almost brand new Harley Davidson; as we weren't allowed to wear "civvies" on base, I kept my levis, MC jacket and boots in my saddle bags, with my MC parked just outside the main gate. Every day, the minute school let out, I would run out the gate, jump on the Harley, and drive to a Shell station, where I used their rest room around back, to change out of my uniform into my civies; one day after I had just changed, I rode downtown, maybe 8 or 10 miles away; all of a sudden I though about my wallet, checked in my uniform pants in the saddle bags, no wallet ! ( Every cent I had ! )......then it dawned on me.....( Golf's experience just made me think of this ); I realized I had left my wallet on the window sill in the rest room when I changed clothes ! Back to the service station, (new speed record), run around to the rest room, my wallet ( with $200 ) is STILL laying right where I left it ! ) My theory is.......you only get that lucky one time.........so from 1952 to 2013.......I've kept a VERY close tabs on my wallet, and have never left it laying or lost it again since !

Poncho

Once at a photo store while visiting Toronto (great city) I took my open camera backpack to my back and there goes flying to the wooden floor my nikon f100 with 24-85 on it. The filter took the impact and was broken.

The salesman was kind enough to give me for free a used filter. The camera and lens are still ok.

Greetings

Alfonso

Pierre

On a long driving trip through northern Europe, on the third day while being busy swapping my 14-24 and 24-70 back and forth using the Nikon lense bag as a third hand, I heard a plock. My beloved 24-70 felt about 2 feet and half on the ashphalt. Picked it up, nothing appears broken but was just a bit stiff zooming in and out. It is only after looking at the pictures I realized the damage extent. Only the 1/3 center was sharp, the rest rapidely blurred and at the edge, I could barely recognize things. The off-center is not out of focus but just blurred.

I found having only the 14-24 to shoot with not to be an option so I rushed to Vienna and bought a second 24-70 at premium price.

The trip is not over yet so I am crossing my fingers.

Will take the lense to repair and see what they say. If not too expensive, I may repair it and sell one of them.

proudgeek

This past winter I was changing lenses and forgot to close my bag. My 17-35 fell out and hit the concrete. So bummed. Fortunately, it hit at EXACTLY the right angle and the UV filter took the entire brunt of the impact and there was no physical or optical damage. The threads bent a little and I eventually replaced the filter so that I could get CPL or ND filters onto it. $100 lesson learned.

DJBee49

OK. Not really photographic but....
I was in France several years ago, camping, on my own on a motorbike with hard panniers (saddlebags). When touring in mainland Europe, I always have a bum-bag (fanny-pack) over my leathers around my waist. Useful for autoroute tolls, passport, money, documents etc. and if you park up, all the important stuff is secure, on your body
I packed up from an overnight camp en route, jumped on the bike and sped off into the mountains. After much fun looning around hairpins at crazy angles through the Alps for about 60 miles or so, I made an involuntary check on the presence of the bum-bag. No bum-bag. Panic! Everything of any importance was in it (except my Nikon in the pannier).
I stopped, jumped off the bike in a cold sweat wondering what on earth I could do when, standing by the side of the bike, I spied the 'missing' bum-bag innocently perched on top of the right-handpannier where I had (apparently) placed it while preparing for my departure 60 odd miles ago. How it had not fallen off I cannot imagine.
I am a life long atheist but even I muttered a thank you to whoever it is who really runs things down here!

Msmoto: I was taking pictures on the way, just to justify the story. Honest!

NSXTypeR

Wow, so many dropped lenses! Nightmare for sure!

And DJBee49, consider it just great luck! Reminds me of people leaving drinks on the roof or trunk of the car and driving off with it.

FlowtographyBerlin

I don't believe ANY except for @Golf007sd 's and @NSXTypeR 's story! All those things on top of car roofs! No way! LOL

Man, how I litterally feel with all those thinks sitting on top of the car/motorcycle/whatever for 100+ miles. And, I litterally feel that moment between realizing you dropped your lens and the lens hitting that concrete floor. It's very brief, but in the situation it feels like a couple of seconds...

kyoshinikon

surprisingly Ive never had a dropped lens nightmare (even tho Ive dropped many lenses). My worst Plunk happened at an art museum where I got to sit in with an exclusive lunch between a mayor and a Chinese diplomat. My 14-24mm fell out of the holster onto the wood floor. It bounced like a ping pong ball (literally, 7 hops;The first 2 at 2ft the 3rd at a foot and the rest under that) too and of course the 20 people present all stopped to stare at the flying lens... It worked after that although the zoom was stiff. Ive shot a whole session where a memory card failed on me....

A true nightmare is the infamous canon mount fail. Ive witnessed that 3 times.

spraynpray

Funny that Canon thing - it is canon's D600 sensor problem but instead of ignoring it they flat-out deny it and are so hard-nosed that they didn't even change it for the mk3 in spite of being asked to by prominent customers. Said customers criticize it vociferously and publicly every time it happens to them.