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Stupid senior moment.


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Hello Ladies & Gentlemen,

 

For some time I have been using my Sony cameras and lenses and in the meantime my Nikon D750 and lenses have languished in a cupboard.

 

This morning I decided to take my Nikon with 200-500mm lens and try for some wildlife shots in the local park so dismantled the body from the copy setup and installed the 200-500 lens, put in a fresh battery and set off.

 

Thought I would try a quick shot or two outside the back gate just to test the setup as I usually do. Strange I thought when part pressing the shutter button the lens was not focussing. Thinking it was because I had changed a menu setting for the copy setup I spent 10 minutes in an effort to resolve the problem without success. As I was wasting my walking time I came back in, dumped the camera and lens on my desk for further investigation when I had more time and set off again with one of the Sony"s.

 

When I returned home 1 hour later I set to on the computer to do some work on the images I had taken with the Sony. Some time later I had another look at the Nikon menu but could not see where the autofocus problem lay. Changed to another lens to see if that was the problem and hey presto, it was exactly the same, no autofocus. Grrr!

 

Then I remembered that some time ago I had changed focusing to the back button. Sure enough on pressing the AF/AE button the lens snapped into focus.

 

It is amazing how quickly I can forget how to operate the finer points of a camera system. :(

 

What was your stupid/senior moment, if you have ever had one with your cameras/lenses?

 

Allan

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Too many to mention, but the worst stand out as...

 

Set on Spot focus

Set on ISO 6400 in belting sunshine
Left battery in charger x 2
Left holiday cottage in Brecon Beacons, drove 30 miles to local beauty spot. Camera bag still in holiday cottage. Took 1 shot with wife's Lumix. Gave up in disgust.

 

I'll probably do an edit on this on Sunday as I'm taking the gear into London tomorrow...

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Oh yeah. I have done that exact back button thing. I have a hard time getting used to it and I'm trying again to train my fingers and mind in order to use the back button on a trip coming up. I completely missed some shots in Brazil because I had forgotten.

 

Paulette

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Arrived at a Thailand hill tribe venue (well into the jungle) after a 1/2 day trek only to discover no cf card in the camera !

 

You can't buy them up there either.

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I've also forgotten that I'd set a body to back-button focus (I was using it all the time with the latest body, but had gotten used to using the old one with the default double press.) And I've also forgotten to dial down the ISO after emerging from a forest. Then there was the time I cleared the camera settings and forgot that that also turned off focus micro adjustment. 

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"What was your stupid/senior moment, if you have ever had one with your cameras/lenses/films?"

What happened :
I got to shoot an Indian Rock Python fairly early one winter morning. The python was quite lazy ... was still soaking up some warmth from the morning sun. I took advantage of its laziness and shot a lot. The last I remember I was clicking its head with a 200mm macro lens - having taken enough care to see that there wasn't any obstruction behind me in case I had to step back in a jiffy in case the snake got alerted enough. After about 10 minutes, the snake had apparently warmed up enough and it started moving towards it nearby hole. I of course followed it with my camera on. Within seconds it entered the hole, and I as wanted to shoot that entry too, my Ektachrome 200 got over ... had squeezed almost 37 frames. As the snake got to the bottom of the pit it coiled up as usual. I had gotten some nice stills, but just missed the snake's entrance in its hole.. I sure was excited. In that moment of excitement I was standing literally at the top of python hole as I attempted to change the film. I fumbled, and the exposed film dropped right into the hole and got itself seated dead in the middle of python's body coils !!  :o
  :o  :o 

Recovering the exposed film :
I of course had a brain fade for about half a minute. Just didn't know how to get my film back. I pulled myself back under a tree. Thought a bit. There were plenty of twigs around, But how to pull my film up with just a twig. Opened my camera bag. As I was emptying one of the pockets I hit a scotch tape roll. That was the moment of flash  :lol:
 !!! Got a reasonably big twig lying nearby. Made a REVERSE loop of scotch tape (sticky side outwards), pressed it gently onto the tip of the twig, lowered the twig onto the film canister. Pressed very gently, and pulled it back successfully. The snake remained blissfully asleep all through  :) 

There are some other interesting accounts too ... almost bordering on being metaphysical in some sense... fit probably for an altogether separate thread/post.

Cheers,
Kumar, India

 

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Thank you for the comforting replies. It is nice to know that I am not the only one suffering setbacks.

 

Allan

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I've just done a bunch of scans at 3200ISO. Fortunately the A58 is forgiving and HP5 isn't particularly, so it hardly shows. I remember leaving my A350 on 800 six or seven years ago and it made shots nearly unusable. Not any more.

But forgetting which button is which is getting worse. My excuse is that there are a lot more buttons nowadays. At least it doesn't cost real money.

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I have spotted something exciting to shoot like a bird, that requires at least a shutter speed of 1/250, and in my excitement, forgot to check the settings, including ISO. Nothing like getting a blurry, noisy image of something I may never get another opportunity to shoot again in my lifetime.

This happened in Oregon when, after breaking camp and driving out, we came upon a family of hawks, mature and immatures, catching voles in a field and bringing them to a dead tree to eat.

All the action shots were blurry, and I only got a few static noisy shots. Darn it!!!

Betty

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I once went to Toronto armed with cameras to discover I forgot my SD Cards.  I had taken them out to reformat and refresh them and had left them sitting in the office.  Had to go buy a mediocre 4GB one while I was downtown.  Now I am sure to double check I have the cards before I leave home.

 

Jill

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In about 2005, I once drove off leaving my camera bag at the side of the house....

Put them down to re-arrange the boot, didn't load them. Got to the assignment, opened the boot and thought "Oh s&%t".
Fortunately I always keep an ageing body/lens/flash hidden in the boot, so I did what I could with a 10D + 50mm whilst my hastily telephoned wife drove over with the bag she'd retrieved from behind our house.

Senior moments, they just keep on coming ...

:wacko:

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I once went to Toronto armed with cameras to discover I forgot my SD Cards. I had taken them out to reformat and refresh them and had left them sitting in the office. Had to go buy a mediocre 4GB one while I was downtown. Now I am sure to double check I have the cards before I leave home.

 

Jill

This type of thing has happened to me several times -- i.e. I've left the house with either no battery or no memory card in my camera and found myself walking around with a useless, shiny brick slung over my shoulder.

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These are not senior moments.  They're adult learning experiences.  The day you stop learning is the day you die, mentally, if not physically.   :)

 

Having said that: guilty of all the above except back button focus and python photography.  I can't get on with back button focus so never use it and there aren't many wild pythons in Plymouth.

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Paid good money to stay in a bird hide in the plains of Extremadura in Spain to photograph Great Bustards.

Had to arrive before dawn and could only leave once it's dark again not to be spotted by birds who would never return to the area and ruin the guy's business.

 

Hand in my second camera to my other half who walks through the field in the dark to his own hide.

Comes the end of the day. Me: 'good day?'. Get daggers in return: 'No memory card'...

 

Gen

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Paid good money to stay in a bird hide in the plains of Extremadura in Spain to photograph Great Bustards.

Had to arrive before dawn and could only leave once it's dark again not to be spotted by birds who would never return to the area and ruin the guy's business.

Hand in my second camera to my other half who walks through the field in the dark to his own hide.

Comes the end of the day. Me: 'good day?'. Get daggers in return: 'No memory card'...

Gen

That's the worst, yet. Something that can be held over your head for life. Yikes! <shudder>
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Paid good money to stay in a bird hide in the plains of Extremadura in Spain to photograph Great Bustards.

Had to arrive before dawn and could only leave once it's dark again not to be spotted by birds who would never return to the area and ruin the guy's business.

Hand in my second camera to my other half who walks through the field in the dark to his own hide.

Comes the end of the day. Me: 'good day?'. Get daggers in return: 'No memory card'...

Gen

That's the worst, yet. Something that can be held over your head for life. Yikes! <shudder>

 

 

Nah. He's a real sweetie. He's not a photographer but loves animals, so was merely accompanying me.

We've put it down to our long list of 'misadventures'.

 

In the end it was all worth it, I licensed the below.

 

BJXKGM.jpg

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Paid good money to stay in a bird hide in the plains of Extremadura in Spain to photograph Great Bustards.

Had to arrive before dawn and could only leave once it's dark again not to be spotted by birds who would never return to the area and ruin the guy's business.

Hand in my second camera to my other half who walks through the field in the dark to his own hide.

Comes the end of the day. Me: 'good day?'. Get daggers in return: 'No memory card'...

Gen

 

That's the worst, yet. Something that can be held over your head for life. Yikes! <shudder>

 

Nah. He's a real sweetie. He's not a photographer but loves animals, so was merely accompanying me.

We've put it down to our long list of 'misadventures'.

 

In the end it was all worth it, I licensed the below.

 

BJXKGM.jpg

Great image. That bird is really strutting it's stuff.

Glad he enjoyed watching them. My hubby would still be holding the sword over my head.

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I put my Sony camera in the dishwasher last week, forgetting that it isn't weatherproof.

 

 

I put a pair of trousers into the washing machine with an SD card in the pocket. The card still worked perfectly and has continued to do so.

 

Alan

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I'm a Belgian. Belgians don't have senior moments.

......................

...............

...........

..... except perhaps for that one time when I opened the fridge, gazed at the contents for a few moments ....... until I realized i was actually looking for my slippers  :wacko:

 

Cheers,

Philippe  -_-

 

 

I think I will have to come and live in Belgium if, as Phillipe intimates, Belgians do not age. ;)

 

Allan

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To make the work I did on Cader Idris, (see my avatar pic on this post and my website), I was using a 7"x 5" camera that has the capability to be used as a 5"x4" with a different back. Cader Idris is just under 3,000 feet high by the way. I climbed all morning carrying the camera, tripod, lenses, spot meter, ten 7"x 5" loaded film holders, lunch, flask etc. etc. Didn't want to take anything until I was almost at the top, set up the tripod, screwed the camera on and what was staring at me? The 5"x4' camera back. So, unscrew camera, pack everything up, sit on summit, eat lunch, trek all the way down again. 

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