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Those missed photo opportunities


Jill Morgan

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At a dog show this past Easter Weekend (where else) and while sitting in my booth I notice walking past me a big burly biker guy with black studded leather vest, full tattooed arms, mohawk haircut, chain belt with leather pants and (you may guess where this is going) at the end of his leash is a little Chinese Crested dog in her pink fleece jammies.

 

And I didn't have my camera handy.

 

Jill

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I went to my local pub the other day with my dog in tow as usual. For some unknown reason I had decided NOT to take my camera with me! I usually take it everywhere!

 

In walked a woman whom none of us had ever seen before. She was like the pigeon woman on Home Alone 2! A large(ish) build wearing about four overcoats that were worn and tattered through time, a long canvassy type skirt with jeans underneath and pit workers boots on her feet. Probably three different scarfs were slung around her neck and a lovely wide brimmed hat with holes in and what probably used to be acrylic flowers attached to its brim, now unrecognizable. Her face was worn through time with straggled locks of grey hair poking out of the bottom of her hat and white whiskers adorned her chin. She ordered a Gin and Tonic, sat down alone and proceeded to have a conversation with herself!

 

What a character! What a great image that would've made! Alas! NO CAMERA!!!!!!! I doubt if she will ever surface again so that image has gone forever.

 

Davey

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This is what I like about Stockimo.. I might not have my camera with me but I nearly always have my phone...

 

 

That's exactly what I was thinking.

 

 

 

I did take some other images for Stockimo, but my phone at the time was buried in the bottom of my purse under a table. He would have been gone before I had a chance to take a shot. I did dig it out later.

 

Jill

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The best camera is the one you have it with you...

But, seriously, I am always photographing with my eyes, if I see something nice, I might try to go back and take it in another day.

But, so many magical moments are lost...

I used to work in a building by the river, many times when driving back home, the sunset light would fall on the modern buildings along the river, as I said, magic moments.

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A few months ago I was wandering along the South Bank in London, in sunshine and lovely late afternoon light. There were crowds of people of course, and then suddenly a large clearing opened up in the midst of the crowds in front of me, in the middle of which, walking towards me were two little girls, hand in hand, each holding candy floss which was glowing in the sunlight. It was the perfect picture so I quickly raised my new 5D3 to take the shot... and the camera froze. It was one of numerous occasions when it completely failed to operate, and its replacement had exactly the same fault. Neither Canon nor the retailer were able to explain why two bodies should suffer the same fault so it went back for a refund. Shame - it was a lovely camera in all other respects.

 

Alan

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At least with digital you can't put a film through the camera twice :(

Only did it a couple of times and then adopted a strict rule of rewinding exposed film completelyt back into the cassette. Even if it did make it a bit more difficult to get the film out for processing and usually made the cassettes unusable for loading one's own.

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Having recently gave up on a full time career and living a life of relaxation ;) I've been annoyed at missing plenty of opportunities in the city because there was no prior warning of the event. First you hear about it is later in the day once it's on local news items. Maybe not exactly what the OP meant but frustrating none the less.

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At least with digital you can't put a film through the camera twice :(

 

Only did it a couple of times and then adopted a strict rule of rewinding exposed film completelyt back into the cassette. Even if it did make it a bit more difficult to get the film out for processing and usually made the cassettes unusable for loading one's own.

I just tore off the narrow bit with my teeth.

Of course you could always open an Ilford cassette with a good stout whack on the table top.

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At least with digital you can't put a film through the camera twice :(

 

Only did it a couple of times and then adopted a strict rule of rewinding exposed film completelyt back into the cassette. Even if it did make it a bit more difficult to get the film out for processing and usually made the cassettes unusable for loading one's own.

I just tore off the narrow bit with my teeth.

Of course you could always open an Ilford cassette with a good stout whack on the table top.

 

 

I reloaded my own cassetes so didn't bother with the narrow bit. But I did the same when I used preloaded cassetes. Of course eventually I used the cassetes designed for reloading.

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  • 1 year later...

Walked around to my allotment this morning through falling snow. A fellow gardener had got there before me and lit a fire in the communal hut so smoke was rising above the snow covered roof, while in the background tall trees had a covering of snow. The snow had obliterated all footprints. Looking through the gently falling flakes it looked an idyllic scene, BUT no camera. I went back later but it was no longer snowing and most of that on the trees had gone. Opportunity missed 😣

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20 hours ago, Bryan said:

Walked around to my allotment this morning through falling snow. A fellow gardener had got there before me and lit a fire in the communal hut so smoke was rising above the snow covered roof, while in the background tall trees had a covering of snow. The snow had obliterated all footprints. Looking through the gently falling flakes it looked an idyllic scene, BUT no camera. I went back later but it was no longer snowing and most of that on the trees had gone. Opportunity missed 😣

That's kept you off the front page of no end of papers. They'll just have to use one of Keith's murmurations again.

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18 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

That's kept you off the front page of no end of papers. They'll just have to use one of Keith's murmurations again.

 

Aye it could have been a world beater Mark, but fear not, I got in 12 barrow loads of well rotted horse muck, probably worth more than even all of those lost sales!

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Each morning as I approach work I pass a view of Llandaff Cathedral across school playing fields. It often looks pleasant in the morning sun, but one particular morning about eighteen months ago it looked so astonishing I nearly drove into the car in front of me. The sky was a deep storm grey behind it, but a brilliant orange light from the sun broke through clouds on the horizon and lit it up. It looked the same colour as The Grand Canyon. Since that day I've often taken my camera to work if there's even a slim chance of a repeat, but nothing has ever come close. I'm trying to keep the faith, but what are the chances...

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On 4/8/2016 at 03:38, Inchiquin said:

A few months ago I was wandering along the South Bank in London, in sunshine and lovely late afternoon light. There were crowds of people of course, and then suddenly a large clearing opened up in the midst of the crowds in front of me, in the middle of which, walking towards me were two little girls, hand in hand, each holding candy floss which was glowing in the sunlight. It was the perfect picture so I quickly raised my new 5D3 to take the shot... and the camera froze. It was one of numerous occasions when it completely failed to operate, and its replacement had exactly the same fault. Neither Canon nor the retailer were able to explain why two bodies should suffer the same fault so it went back for a refund. Shame - it was a lovely camera in all other respects.

 

Alan

AAARRRGGGH! 

It’s one thing to miss a golden opportunity because you don’t have your camera with you, but another thing when you have your head screwed on straight but your camera doesn’t! 

Good restraint not spiking it like an American football.

Betty

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It does worry me a little that cameras are increasingly becoming computers. Ten years ago my D700 was state of the art (or so it seemed to me) whereas now it looks like a mechanical brick compared to the mirrorless wonders Sony are designing. But the D700 is ready to go the instant I turn it on. I've never questioned it. One bad experience like Alan's would worry me deeply.

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On 08/04/2016 at 09:38, Inchiquin said:

A few months ago I was wandering along the South Bank in London, in sunshine and lovely late afternoon light. There were crowds of people of course, and then suddenly a large clearing opened up in the midst of the crowds in front of me, in the middle of which, walking towards me were two little girls, hand in hand, each holding candy floss which was glowing in the sunlight. It was the perfect picture so I quickly raised my new 5D3 to take the shot... and the camera froze. It was one of numerous occasions when it completely failed to operate, and its replacement had exactly the same fault. Neither Canon nor the retailer were able to explain why two bodies should suffer the same fault so it went back for a refund. Shame - it was a lovely camera in all other respects.

 

Alan

 

Maybe mysterious forces at work and you where never meant to photograph those two girls as it could have landed you in a whole heap of trouble.<_<

 

Similar things happen to me, not necessarily in photography, and I find out later that if I had done what I wanted it would have been an embarrassment in some way.

 

Allan

 

 

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On 2/9/2018 at 19:38, British Gent said:

It does worry me a little that cameras are increasingly becoming computers. Ten years ago my D700 was state of the art (or so it seemed to me) whereas now it looks like a mechanical brick compared to the mirrorless wonders Sony are designing. But the D700 is ready to go the instant I turn it on. I've never questioned it. One bad experience like Alan's would worry me deeply.

 

The D700 is still a fantastic camera - I use it all the time, along with my other two bodies.

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A false, impractical anxiety, this.

 

Unless you do nothing but be at the ready to shoot images 24 hours a day, everyday, you will miss pictures. And even if we were able to do that, what are we missing on the next street, the next town, across the world? 

 

What I am frustrated with sometimes is missing a capture on subjects that I'm shooting due to ham-fisted mistakes and things that are beyond my control. 

 

Edo

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19 minutes ago, Ed Rooney said:

A false, impractical anxiety, this.

 

Unless you do nothing but be at the ready to shoot images 24 hours a day, everyday, you will miss pictures. And even if we were able to do that, what are we missing on the next street, the next town, across the world? 

 

 

Alas, I am prey to this anxiety also! Being in full-time work means I regularly find myself gazing wistfully out of the window as the light becomes really interesting and wondering how good some of my favourite locations must be looking....

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So many but a couple that stand out from my "pre-photographer" days - I can still picture both scenes in my mind's eye:

 

The first, back in the 1980's early on in my NYC lawyer days, I was headed along Park Avenue one early morning toward my office and in the window of a fancy restaurant stood a chef in full hat, etc. while just below on the ground outside was a homeless woman sleeping in her layers of clothing, meagre possessions beside her. Poignant and so perfectly composed. I hadn't used my camera much in ages at that point, being single and working 60-80 hour weeks, and on the spot decided it was time to get it out again and signed up for a class at ICP. 

 

Around that same timeframe, on a trip to Mexico while visiting a friend in San Diego, I had my camera when, at the end of the day on our way back to California, we drove through the desert. It was my first ever trip to the desert, and after taking a few photos of the cacti, it unexpectedly began to snow and of course my friend David and I were both out of film. My husband and I visited the Anza-Borrega Desert a few years ago, the American side of that desert, on a trip to San Diego. Our car was the only one in sight as it got dark. Really dark for miles. Looking through the sunroof the stars were amazing, so we stopped and just laid on the hood stargazing. I had my D700 along and plenty of CF cards but decided to enjoy the romance of the moment rather than fiddling with my camera. I knew whatever photos I took wouldn't do it justice. 

 

 

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On 10/02/2018 at 09:50, Allan Bell said:

 

Maybe mysterious forces at work and you where never meant to photograph those two girls as it could have landed you in a whole heap of trouble.<_<

 

 

Not something I'm particularly bothered about. As far as I recall, I've only ever been challeneged once when taking photos (by an irate shopkeeper who demanded I stop photographing the front of his shop from a public street - my response was Alamy image  E3RM9N). I've often photographed children in public places and I will defend my right to do so if challenged.

 

Alan

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